The Week of December 2

It has been a busy week. We still don’t have our Christmas tree up yet. I was going to do it two different days last week then other things took precedent. We should be able to do it tomorrow. I’m starting in with another cold again!! Yes I am taking Zicam. I hope it prevents it from getting too bad. It hasn’t been three weeks since my last one and it had only been four or five weeks since the one before. I sick and tired of colds! Of course I guess it could be something worse.

I have been able to index over 1200 names so far. It is actually fun. I can do a few here and a few there two or three times a day. Yesterday I did indexing of the Southeast Idaho Death records that have been digilized and after they are indexed they will be put on DVD’s and sent to SLFHC where they will eventually be put on FamilySearch.org. I also helped a man yesterday update his records….it took at least 2 ½ hours. We put his over 200 names thro’ PAF Insight then temple ready and by time we got thro’ he had only 25 ordinances that needed to be done…for only seven or eight individuals. I told him that that is why we up date and check. Because altho’ it took time to do it, it didn’t take nearly as long as duplicating all of the ordinances of all of those people. He agreed.
I was tired when I got home but it was a good kind of tired. Karl also did the indexing of the death records. We both finished the cemeteries we were working on. He was working on Challis and I was working on Driggs. He is doing very well there at the center and everyone is so kind to help us whenever we have a question about something. It is sooo good to have someone there who knows more about things that we do.

Monday I spent the day making two batches of pumpkin orange bread, one batch of fruit cake and one batch of Christmas bread. I got it all done in good time but was surely tired when I got thro’. I found out that my back does still bother me if I’m on my feet all day long. Tuesday I went for a message. My scoliosis has disappeared. I remember Shelley telling me when I first started with the massages four years ago, that my shoulders were going one way and my hips the other and my spine was shaped like an S. My spine is straight up and down now. I was as much as three inches forward four years ago. I was still an inch forward but she was able to correct that. I’m so thankful for her talent of being able to help me this way. And it feels good too! That evening we went to the family Christmas party with the children. We usually don’t go but Greg Hulet called and asked me to play the piano while the congregation sang Christmas Carols. So we went. I am glad we did. It was fun. Each of the auxiliaries did a part on the program. It was great fun. And I have found out that since I’ve had this calling as a missionary, I can play anything out of the hymn book even tho’ I haven’t practiced it that day. I did practice the songs that Greg gave me but, the young men sang one of them so instead of duplicating we changed it and I was able to play it just fine. I am so thankful for the blessings the Lord has blessed me with.

Wednesday we went to APPLE Athletic Club for my water aerobics class and Karl exercised up stairs. That afternoon and evening we were at the FHC. I found out that a film I had ordered was already there so I looked at for awhile. I was able to find my people, the Bernhards and Meiers in Switzerland. My Grandma Wendel’s mother was a Bernhard and her mother was a Meier if I remember right. I hope to be able to find many more families on there, especially siblings of my people. I did find another daughter in the first family I found. At first I found another son too but the Spirit let me know that he was in another family.

Thursday we went to the Silver Sneakers Christmas Party at APPLE that was held after class. It was fun. And that night I went to enrichment at Verna Rae John’s home where we played games and learned how to dip bite sized cheese cakes. It was much fun too.

Friday we went to APPLE again, me for my water aerobics class and Karl to exercise upstairs. That evening we went to the FHC’s Christmas Party/zone meeting. It was $9 a plate which did seem kind of steep but since we only eat one dinner between us anyway that all we ordered and we each had plenty to eat. It was very nice.

I already told you about yesterday. Today, two of the three Christmas carols we sang in sacrament meeting I had been practicing all week to do for RS. So we wouldn’t duplicate we changed our songs. I love Christmas carols but I don’t enjoy singing the same ones twice in one day. I know the Lord blesses me. If I practice I have done all I can do and when it is changed at the spur of the moment He does the rest for the ones I haven’t practiced so that I can play as if I had practiced them. Isn’t that wonderful? He does that with all of our inadequacies and shortcomings. I am so thankful to Him for that as well as the many others things He has done for me. I love this time of year and the love that is felt all around. Too bad it doesn’t last the whole year thro’.