31 July 2016

This week has been pretty much the same. There was not a lot of activity this week at the center and the temple is closed until after this week. We had a drunk patron (an ex-member of the Church) come in challenging the leadership of the church and wanting us to get in touch with a family member of John Huntsman who had baptized him, but Golden kindly walked out of the FHC and he followed him. We left some things for him to pick up in the event he remembered what he asked us to do. So far he has never showed up.

This week however, I (Diane) had the opportunity of work with a deaf sister. She was a member from the deaf branch in our stake and had never been in to a FHC. At first I thought I could not train her on the note papers that she was use to. I told her on the note that I would prefer to type the conversation and instruction and that I thought it would work best.

I split my computer screen and put Open Office on the bottom and them I would point to the place that I would talk about and he would do it. When we got her account open, it was so exciting! She turned to me and just squealed because she was so happy. Everyone heard her and asked what she had found. Everyone enjoyed her moment.

I spent the next couple of hours just typing instructions and then pointing to FamilyTree and letting her try it. She was picking it up really fast. It was close to closing time so we all left and she said that she would be back. 

She came back a couple of days later, so I sat with her and let her fill in her FamilyTree that she had written out on a pedigree. This time I did not have to teach so much; just guide so I could do notes. When she finally got all her information in, I thought I would show her the fan chart of her pedigree. Once again, she let out a big holler. She patted her chest to indicate that she loved the colors and could not believe what she was seeing.

I printed both the fan chart and the traditional pedigree for her to take with her. She was then ready to start research and trying to extend her family. It was time for us to leave and the FHC was full to capacity, so I turned her over to Aurea the relief volunteer for the center. Aurea was happy because she is good at research but is not a member and does not know familytree so it worked out good for both of us.

Diane left about an hour after the shift change, but I (Golden) had been working with Carol Jones, a black patron who had come in to try to trace her family tree for a family reunion.  Her family was from North Carolina and I spent about 2-3 hours working with her.  After Aurea and Zaida came in to relieve us, I continued to work with her for over an hour more.  Diane left to go home about an hour before I did.  Carol was military and was going to stay on the base during the time of the reunion.  She (as others who we have worked with) said that if she had known it was going to take this long, she would have come in weeks earlier.  Liz Hanson had worked with her before we came on this Wednesday.  She had hoped to get 4 generations in, but once she started on listing her cousins and aunts and uncles, we only got a couple of generations done and she was going to get more information at the reunion and come back later to add the rest of the information.

Subway during Rush Hour 

Most of the time, the subway ride is much like this.  We grab seats whenever we can and it may take three or four stops before we get a seat, unless someone offers theirs.  It is very hot and sometimes we get a car that where the air conditioning is not working so it gets muggy even though it is underground.  (We saw our first rat while waiting for the subway at 66th Street-Lincoln Center to go home as it scurried across the platform and down where the tracks were. At that point there are four sets of tracks with the two center ones being express and the outside ones each way are local.  The 35 minute subway ride each way is our "bonding time."

DampRid (dehumidifier bag)

When we get back to the apartment, it is always nice to get inside.  The air conditioners have been running all day (three window type) and the DampRid bag keeps the humidity down.  This is almost a month's worth of water in the bottom bag and it is one of four in the rooms and one in a closet.  Needless to say, there is a lot of water around Manhattan Island.

This coming week, the non-member volunteers are going to start their vacation time so they won't be coming in until after Labor Day.  We will be serving longer hours to make up for that.  Both Diane and I have been able to get quite a bit of our own Dutch and Norwegian work done.  With the temple closed for another week, there will be more to do on our families when it reopens.

We are waiting to hear about a Hebrew class that is supposed to start tomorrow night and go on Monday evenings and, depending on the cost, etc. we may give it a try.  The teacher is a professor of Hebrew and supposed to be very good.  We may as well add another language into the mix, what with all the diversity we have here in New York City.

25 July 2016

Well another week has come and gone and we have had some pretty good experiences. Monday we decided to go down to Ground Zero and go through the tour they have of the attack on the World Trade Center Towers back in 2001. I remember that attack well and was afraid that it was going to put us into war and thought "What would happen to my boys." I have always been afraid of them having to go to war because is messes them up so much.

We took a 1 hour tour of the 9/11 Museum and it was one of the most moving experiences that I have had. To see the miracles of lives saved and the bravery and sacrifices of so many really made me stop and think of what a wonderful country we have. With all of the political garbage that we see and the criticism that we are so quick to place, it is still the best place on earth.  Even though we lost over 2,000 people, they were able to evacuate over 40,000 people  from the towers. In any given day there were about 50,000 people in the towers.

There were many people who were willing to share some of their most sacred and last recorded moments with their loved ones as they faced death. We heard the challenge of the plane that the passengers who forced the plane down before it could kill any more people. I stood looking up at a actual video they had when the towers collapsed and it looked as though it was falling on me.  The cameraman lost his life while filming as the cloud of smoke from the falling towers filled the air and overtook him.  The sensation was incredible and made me feel as if I were there experiencing it.

The story that hit me the hardest was one of a dog named Siri and his commander and friend. Siri was trained to find explosives and would go through all of the vehicles before they were allowed to enter near the tower. His owner was responsible for keeping all explosives away from the building so when he felt the explosion and looked up, he thought that he had failed his job. He told Siri that he would leave him there while he ran up to the top of the tower to assess what had happened and to try and get as many people out as possible.

As the elevators were gone, this man ran up 94 flights of stairs twice getting people out. On his third attempt he collapsed and later woke up in an ambulance. He told the medics that he had to go back to his dog but they would not let him. After he had been checked out at the hospital, he went back to the site where he had left his dog Siri, but the buildings that once stood were a seven foot high pile of hot metal. Siri did not make it, but his owner said that he hoped that his dog would know that he had kept his promise to return to get him.  This is what he returned to.

When Siri's remains were found, he was awarded  the medal of honor and full military services for his burial. The owner of Siri donated his leash, his medal, and his own hard hat for the museum with a picture of him and Siri. All I could do was cry because of the love that I have for the unconditional love of a dog. It made me miss Cricket but I was so glad that I have such a good memory of my love for her.

Ladder 3 Engine was the first one that arrived at the twin towers before dispatching others after they realized the severity of the situation. One very humbling comment that was made in one of the recordings was when some of the fire fighters were coming out and the medical teams were waiting for victims, they asked them, "Where are the people needing help?" Their answer was "There are none!"

This blue wall is the memorial to all of those that did not make it out of the towers, Behind it is an active coroner office where they are still trying to identify the remains. The most recent victim identified was in 2015. The families of the victims have asked they not remove the remains until  they have been identified through DNA testing. About 40% of the victims remain unidentified.   In the meantime, this will remain as their memorial.

One of the experiences that I had in my family history calling happened last Thursday. I had about eight members of my descendant ancestors that I needed to do their temple work. I went prepared to do their initiatory ordinances and then I was going to take one for the endowment. Marte Olsdatter had a son waiting to be sealed to her and his father, but I had to wait until her other work was done. Before going to the temple, my prayer was that I would be able to share in the joy that they were experiencing on the other side of the veil.

As I entered the initiatory room, they already had three patrons and two waiting. I could not wait that long so I asked if I could have someone do them for me. I also asked if they would watch for Marte as I wanted to do her endowment afterwards. They were short on temple workers and asked if I would sub until someone else came, so I became an ordinance worker for about 15 minutes. The second name that came for me to perform the ordinance was for Marte Olsdatter. As I looked in the eyes of the patron, I saw her look at me with tears in her eyes and I knew that we were both seeing  and feeling that Marte was there. Tears filled my eyes as I performed the ordinance and my heart was full of gratitude for sharing the joy that Marte was feeling. It was great.

During this same time, Golden was involved in what our mission president, David L. Smith, called another mission miracle.

The morning of July 23, 2016 we planned to attend the Manhattan Temple to perform
initiatory and sealing ordinances and endowments for several of our family file relatives
before serving at the Family History Center that afternoon.

No sooner had I (Elder Adams) changed into my temple “whites” and came out of the
dressing room about 8:00 a.m., that Sister Roberts, temple assistant matron, informed me
that a brother and his escorts were in the office hoping to perform the temple work for
his son and father. He had received his own endowment the previous week. Because
he did not have family ordinance cards, they informed him that they were not able to
help him.

I met Jose Manuel Araujo Holguin (from Dominican Republic) accompanied by Eduardo
and Matilde Cariello from New Jersey. Jose did not speak English but Eduardo said he
could translate for us. I told them I would get my key to the Family History Center and
we could see if we could prepare the necessary ordinance cards. With a prayer in my
heart that we would be able to clear his son and father for their temple work (knowing
that Family Search may require filling in the permission form since they were born within
the last 110 years), we proceeded.

We set up Jose’s FamilySearch.org account, and with Eduardo’s help, we were able to
enter the data for his parents and son, and his son’s mother who had died when the
child was two years old. The mother required the permission form (which Salt Lake
would need to approve prior to ordinances being completed—2-4 days away), but we
were able to produce the necessary paperwork for Jose’s father and son.

As we returned to the temple, there was a large group of young people readying
themselves for baptisms and I left the three there to begin the process of completing
their desired goal.

Sister Adams was able help provide initiatory ordinances for her people, and a family
from Gilbert Arizona visiting the temple for a sealing session,with President Roberts,
assisted in the sealing ordinances I had prepared. We attended the 11:00 am
endowment session while the sealings were completed. So our goal was also
accomplished.

Often, as we are willing to serve without prior knowledge on our parts, the Lord directs
us to fulfill His purposes and provides us His tender mercies. We just need to be in tune
to recognize His hand in our daily activities as He uses us as tools to accomplish His
purpose in the lives of His children.

The next experience started out in the Family History Center. A sister from Russia came in that could not speak any English. Our missionary friend, Liz Hanson, happened to be there and she began trying to work with her but was having quite a problem with communications. I had been playing around with Google Translate, the audio version, and had had some success working with Spanish. I showed her what I had done, so she pulled out her cell phone and selected Russian. Although it was not perfect, they were both able to complete 4 days of putting together her family in Family Ttree and getting several of her family members ready for the temple.

Friday morning she came back to the center to see if I could help her find her cards. I took her up to the recorders and they were all aware that we were trying to get this temple work done before she left for Russia on Sunday. They were able to get all of the baptisms done and the names were in initiatory waiting for those ordinances.

 I took her up to the temple office and explained the situation to the temple worker up there and asked her to stay with her to keep the names moving.

I went down to the dressing room and got dressed to go through the endowment session with Sister Hanson (the missionary who worked with her) and our little Russian friend. I would try and write her name but I cannot as it was in Cyrillic Russian. The three of us were able to go through the session together and then I went back down to the FHC to help Golden. Sister Hanson and our little Russian friend were able to go through a sealing session in a way that she had never experienced and it was really a choice experience. The miracle of communication and gift of tongues through technology is real. We could not have done anything with her without that gift.

Our friend from Russia could not have anyone of her family know that she was a member of the Church as she had been Islamic before her conversion and she would be totally disowned by her family. When she goes back to Russia, she will live in silence when it comes to the gospel and her family. I am not sure how she does it, but she said that she was able to attend church with a few members in Russia. When we heard her story, we were all so grateful to be here and free to enjoy the gospel with family. What a great blessing that is.

 I hope that my family will always take time to enjoy the gospel and the blessings that we take for granted. The ordinances that bind us together forever and sanctify us in preparation to meet our Savior are some of the most wonderful gifts we can enjoy.

It is Pioneer day today in Utah. Although I am not in Utah right now, my thoughts have been those of gratitude for the sacrifices my ancestors made to travel over 2,000 miles to Utah in wagons for the purpose to strengthen Zion and put roots down where the gospel could grow and scatter throughout the earth. What a great witness of how powerful and sure the Lord's promises are.  I hope I can continue to grow stronger in the gospel and endure well to the end.

17 July 2016

This last couple of weeks we are starting to fall into a daily routine and life if getting pretty good. We are still trying to work out some of the bumps, but we are both enjoying our mission here and have met some wonderful people.

We serve once a week at the Manhattan temple from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. I could not figure out why they kept scheduling me up to 9:30 a.m and then I would be wandering the temple trying to find things to do for the next hour and a half. Golden seemed to be kept quite busy but I was starting to feel like they did not need help of Thursday mornings as they don't start a session until 11:00 a.m. In conversation with the temple recorder and finally Golden saying something, I figured out what was wrong and I have been able to solve the problem and work until my shift is over. I did not realize that we were serving in two different shifts so the first coordinator would only schedule me to the end of hers and then I was suppose to meet up with the 2nd shift coordinator to complete my rounds at the temple. Once that connection took place, it has been pleasant working at the temple.

The FHC for the most part is one of the busiest centers I have worked in. It is rarely that we have any time for ourselves and most of who we would with speak very limited English. Some how, it always seems to work out and most everyone leaves with a good experience. Here is one experience that will always be a memorable one. In the afternoon a family of three came in with a friend of theirs and wanted to find family. The family was from Guatamala and their friend was from Peru. Golden worked with the father and I took the mother, her daughter and son, and their friend. I was able to register both the mother and her friend and then proceeded to teach them how to work in familytree.

When I started to try and find records, it was evident that there were very few records in familytree from Peru. and the mother was not having much success with her line in Guatalama. To try and help them feel some success and that there were things they could do, I began to talk about how they could save the present for the unknown grandchildren and great grandchildren yet to be born. The mother turned and asked me "Why are you doing this for free?" I began to tell her that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints believed that the family was the most important unit in society and that it was an eternal unit. I told her that if we could strengthen families, we could strengthen a nation. The lady from Peru turned to her friend and said with such  conviction pointing to me "What she says is true." The Spirit became so strong between the three of us that it was quite amazing. The mother then began to share how her mother was once a member of the church but left it. The one thing that she remember as a child though was that they held family home evening every week. These two ladies began bearing testimony to each other about the value of families and I was just amazed.

They left to go for a walk with their son and came back about 30 minutes later. The mother asked me if she could have a Book Of Mormon and I said sure. They then went out and down the hall where we have a beautiful art exhibit of original art work from Walter Rain showing different scenes from the stories in the Book of Mormon. They were standing by the one that portrayed the Savior encircling the little children with fire and having angels teach them. They wanted their picture taken with it, so I let all three of them stand while I took their picture.  I told my two friend patrons that that was one of  my favorite stories in the Book of Mormon and that they should read it in 3 Nephi. Then the lady from Peru asked if she could have a Book of Mormon also. It was a wonderful experience and one that I will cherish.

We have taught the first two lessons in the LDS.org site under Consultants--training for my calling with consultants that have been without instruction and newly called consultants in preparation to kick off the Inwood 1st Ward Family History program beginning in September.  We were just asked by Bishop Larsen with the High Priest Group Leader, Jeff Belnap, to provide 5th Sunday training in two weeks.  We hope to energize the ward to feel the Spirit of Elijah and plan to outline the ward program, how the indexing program and FamilySearch Family tree are related, and the importance of standardizing the member's Family Tree to optimize  and facilitate record hints so the searching of information is done by FamilySearch.  We will also probably highlight the role of the family history consultant to help the members find a relative who is ready to receive the temple ordinances and help them prepare the family ordinance card to take to the temple.

We will be teaching a family history fireside the second week in August to demonstrate how to clean up the family tree, standardize dates and places, and check for duplicates. This will help them prepare  for a monthly workshop (4 people at a time) during Sunday School for the consultants to work with them one-on-one, and we will shadow for a time.

We hope to get a similar program developed in the Inwood 2nd Spanish ward that shares the building here in Upper Manhattan now that we are reactivating the Inwood Family History Center as part of the New York New York North Stake.  So far, things have gone quite well.

4 July 2016

This last week has been one of interesting and challenging experiences. We have been sending our thanks and gratitude to Google Translate for it was and is going to be our best friend. So far in our mission, we have been working with people from Russia, Dominican Republic, France, Italy, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Romania and many others. The majority of these people come in speaking and understanding very little English.

Last week Golden happen to be working with a lady from Russia who spoke no English and I was trying to work with three others in getting them on FamilyTree and teaching them how to use it. I was finding that I could not work with three people at the same time so I asked Golden if he would work with two and I would work with two, but he couldn't because he was trying to do sign language of sort to communicate with this sister from Russia. Luckily, one of our regular patrons saw the problem and she started working with one of my patrons and I could focus on the two sitting together.

The next day was going pretty slow and then another Russian lady came in wanting help but spoke no English. Golden and I were struggling trying to figure out how to communicate. Finally, I remembered that the night before I was playing around with an audio version of Google Translate on my phone. I was hoping to get something to help with my Spanish and it worked quite well. I had left my phone home so I told Golden to try and do the best he could until I could get the program onto his phone. When I got it downloaded, I tried it in Russian and to my surprise it worked wonderfully well.

I handed the phone to Golden and said, "Start talking in it." As he was talking to me trying to learn, everything he said was being translated into Russian to our patron. She could not figure out what was going on at first and then realized that the phone was repeating everything Golden was say to me to her in Russian. She started laughing and so did we. With the phone she and Golden were able to understand each other quite well.

He had been trying to help her with FamilyTree. With the phone, Golden was able to ask if there was anything that we could do to help her and she understood. It was then that we found out that all she really came in for was to find out when the wards were meeting on Sunday. She said that she was a member and left with a good feeling of friendship. I think that it was quite a relief to have a way to speak and get help.

The next morning, we showed the translation app to our relief missionaries, Elder and Sister Hanson, and they were so excited. Sr. Hanson loaded the app onto her phone and started playing with it in Spanish, as we have a lot of Spanish speakers coming in and it worked great. She tried it out on the security guard outside the center and then the security guard loaded the app onto her phone so that we could all handle the many languages that come in. It was a wonderful experience and one that we will never forget.

It is starting to get warm and muggy here now. When we came home from serving at the FHC, we found all of the kids and families playing in the water from the fire hydrant by our apartment entrance. This was something that Diane did as a little girl in Provo expect the water marshal would give them all taffy as they played.

 We were shopping at Bed Bath and Beyond looking for a meat tenderizer hammer and came across this really cute breadboard. It shows us where we live and where we serve at the current time. We are at the top in Inwood where the red arrow is pointing and we work at Lincoln Square in Manhattan, the lower arrow. It takes us 30 minutes to get there on the subway 1 Train.