An Eventful Three Weeks

It has been three weeks since I wrote. In that time our beloved prophet Gordon B. Hinckley died. We were able to watch his funeral while at the FHC....not one single patron came in during that time. We have a new prophet, Thomas S. Monson with Henry B.Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorph as his counselors. I have expected President Monson to be our prophet since I can remember the day he was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve at age 36 44 years ago. I can very well remember that day. He was my brother-in-law’s mission president in Canada and he married my sister and her husband in the Salt Lake Temple. My husband and I weren’t able to attend because we forgot our temple recommends. We were picked up by my aunt and uncle and had our two babies along because we had just moved to Roy, Utah and didn’t know anyone to baby sit. We were able to see the bride and groom and everyone else who attended except we didn’t get to meet Elder Monson. That was really sad. Two days later we attended the same temple (my aunt watched the two little ones for us) when my husband’s brother was married by Elder Spenser W. Kimball. As I showed my recommend, I tho’t of a popular song that was being sung at that time, Happiness Is…. Happiness is having your temple recommend with you when you need it. I felt so much more secure that day. It was terrible before to not have it with me and know I was worthy to be there but didn’t have the proof.

Last Sunday was the dedication of the Rexburg temple. There were four different dedicatory services held that day. Ours was the last one at 4:30 pm. We got to the church about 3 :45 and the chapel was all but full. A woman was saving a place for her husband but moved down and there was room for all three of us. It was very special. At first I was very disappointed and surprised that President Monson wasn’t there. Elder Russell M. Nelson conducted and gave the dedicatory prayer. Also Elder David R Bednar and he wife, Susan were there and they both spoke. Elder Bednar was president of Ricks/BYUI when the transition from the one to the other was made. They both gave very good talks. Elder Eyring was supposed to have been there (he also was a former President of Ricks) but he had broken his ankle and since he is 72 years old, his doctors told him to stay home. The first counselor in the temple presidency and his wife both spoke. And they called on three others who were involved in the temple planning. They were all good speakers. There was also a choir there too of 18 people. There wasn’t room for a larger choir. Elder Bednar explained and led the Hosanna shout. I’m so glad I was able to attend. We were home before 6:00. It is so wonderful that they could “pipe” thro’ satellite those proceedings to the area chapels so everyone who wanted to could witness the proceedings.

We have been busy at the FHC. The last few times I’ve been so busy helping people I haven’t gotten much done on the obituary indexing. My husband has spent all of his time doing them, however. Wednesday, I helped a woman with temple ready. She wanted to seal two husbands to each wife of the people she was doing the work for. So there were six people involved. I had to really think to get all of the names on the same file. But the Spirit helped me and I was able to do it. A new missionary was sitting there close by and after we got thro’ with it she said, “I know who I want to help me when I’m ready” while looking at me. I told her I would be glad to help her anytime.

Then yesterday, this other woman came in. She wanted to find out more on David Smith Park, one of her ancestors. As we got to looking around in the IGI and Ancestral File, we found a David Smith Park but the same information was on a David Alfred Park. The same parents, spouse and birth ate and death date. He was born in Provo. So someone suggested that we look at the old ward records that we have there on microfilm. So I looked for the film online at the Family History Catalog. We found the film number. We got it out and hooked it up. It was stake records and not what we wanted at all. It was supposed to have been from 1842 to 1890. It didn’t even start until 1907. So we went back to the drawer and were looking at the films that were by the other one. I said, why don’t we try this one and picked the one just below the other one. We hooked it up and it only took five minutes or so and we found that whole family. His father, mother and all of their children. And his name is David Alfred. I asked where she got the Smith from. She said that it was from an aunt who was a descendant of his. His mother’s maiden name was Smith so it did make sense. Anyway, she said she wanted a copy of it. So we marked the spot and took it over to the digital copier. (I’m sooo glad that I’ve used it enough that I knew what I was doing!) But it wouldn’t turn on. It turned out that the plug was loose or the power strip was turned off. (The patron is the one who checked that out so I not sure which). And it turned out that the computer hadn’t even been booted up. And just as we were finding that out they announced that the library would be closing in 12 minutes! We were finally able to get her copies. It was a wonderful feeling. Just as I was thinking about how we actually found it, I told the patron,”I think we were led to this.” And she agreed. We were a few minutes late leaving, but no one seemed to mind and realized that what we were getting was very important. It was a good day!