The second week of January 2009

This week has been so rewarding at the FHC. One of my daughters-in-law reminded me that one of the gifts of the Spirit is Knowledge, another one is being able to teach others that knowledge. I had to become a missionary at the FHC to realize that I have these gifts. I have taught Primary, Jr. Sunday School, Beehives in Young Women’s and Relief Society. I have had good success in all of these but I never tho’t of it as having those Gifts of the Spirit. But there at the FHC it is so obvious that I am so blessed. I have been able to retain most of the things I have been taught and am able to teach it to others in such a way that they can understand it. It is such a wonderful experience to be able to do this. Since the first of the year I have been so busy that the time has just flown by. Busy with teaching and helping both new missionaries and patrons to learn new things and help them find the information they are looking for. Elder Killian, the director at FHC told us that we have cleared more than 225,000 ordinances last year. The first two days we were open, January 2nd and 3rd, we cleared more than 2,000 names. They add up the numbers at the end of each month. It will be interesting to see how many we do this month. Elder Killian told me last Wednesday that when he first started there at the center as a missionary 14 years ago, that they only cleared 20,000 ordinances all year long and they were probably the majority of them duplicates. And of those over 225,000 ordinances this past year that over 200,000 were probably not duplicates. I think that is so exciting.

Last Saturday I had such a special experience. I had spent the morning helping two new missionaries (this was only their second day there at the center) get a acquainted with their PAF program and clean it up, get rid of duplicates, etc. I also helped quite a few patrons as well. As I was going back in the big room after eating lunch one sister waved me over to where she had just seated a man and a woman at at computer. She introduced me that Bill and Adrian were there and Bill was not a member and had a name to put thro’ temple ready. I asked them if they had brought their information. They hadn’t brought anything with them. However, Bill could remember all of the pertinent information. I showed them how to bring up a new PAF program (you need to use PAF to put a name thro’ temple ready) and had Adrian type in her name, address, etc. I told her to type in her husbands name first. That’s when I found out that they weren’t married. Since the Sister hadn’t told me the last names I just assumed… Anyway, Bill typed in the name of a young woman and her birth date and place. When he was typing in the death date, he got quite emotional and left for a few minutes. I said to Adrian, “you say he isn’t a member?” and she said, “That’s right.” I then asked her how it came to the point that he wanted his wife’s work done. (I had told them he obviously was very close to this young woman and Adrian told me she was his wife.) Adrian also told me that she and Bill had “been keeping company” for 17 months and that his wife had appeared to her and had asked her to get her work done for her. She said that she finally was able to approach him on it and he was agreeable to have her work done. After we put the name thro’ temple ready and got the submission disk completed, Adrian asked us the purpose of the FHC and other questions about it. I let the other sister take over and went back to helping others. But while Bill was in the other room trying to compose himself, I told Adrian that when my sons went on missions, they didn’t have to fill out the four generation family group sheets and send them in with their application like they do today. I said that this showed me why they do that now; that I can see how family history can be a very powerful missionary tool.

This morning my husband and I went into the first new missionary class of the year to teach the “computer, basic skills class”. My husband ran the computer and I did the teaching telling them different things about the computer and how we use them there at the center. We have 19 new missionaries. I found out half of them were retired educators. I found that very interesting. About 2/3 of them felt comfortable with the computer. The other third didn’t know much about them. I taught in the new computer lab for the first time. It is great. As I told them about something, my husband would show them on the main computer with the overhead projector on the wall then they were able to do the same thing on their individual computers. I also had a worksheet for them to find certain things on the computer. Sister Hendricks had allowed me a full two hours but we were all thro’ in a hour and a half. By doing this I get to meet the new missionaries that work on other days besides Wednesday and Saturday when I work. The class went well and I think almost everyone learned something new. Even those who know computers because we do a few things differently there. One of the sisters had arranged for four of the missionaries to be in there to help them if they had difficulty with the assignment. It was a rewarding experience.

On the way home we stopped at Office Max and got a new 8 GB USB drive for $20! The first one I got for me less than two years ago was a 2 GB that was selling for $80 and was on sale for $30. With everything going up technology is definitely one thing that the price is going down. It is sooo nice. I’m going to use that new USB drive for my backup for everything. My 2 GB USB drive is almost ¾ full. I have over 600 pictures on it of people and documents. It holds much more than I tho’t it would.