26 March 2017

26 March 2017

This was one of those weeks where we had a lot of activities scheduled that were really fun and interesting. We will have to send pictures in a few emails but I think you will enjoy them.

On our P-day, the temple missionaries invited us to attend the Natural History Museum with them.  

Manhattan Temple Missionaries-(l to r) Sr. Grimley, Elder Richards, Elder & Sr. Huntington, Sr. Mumford, Pres. & Sister Bench, Sr. Nabors, Sr. Richards, Elder & Sr. Holloway, Elder & Sr. Adams, Sr. and Pres. Bean, Elder & Sr. Young, and Elder Mumford  

We spent the day there, viewing the 3D Imax Theatre production of "Humpback Whales" and the planetarium show "Dark Universe."

Outside the Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History

We visited the new exhibit "Mummies" that just opened and showed various mummies and preservation techniques in Egypt and Peru.  One of the more interesting exhibits was how they were able to use 3D Printing in conjunction with x-ray to build up the facial features from skeletons to show what a teenager and young woman may have looked like from the mummies cranial skeleton.

Before we grabbed a bite to eat in the Natural History Museum Cafeteria, we were favored with a person tour by Elder Rick Huntington, one of the CES-YSA Missionaries who is a gemologist in Las Vegas, Nevada.  He is also a docent in the minerals exhibit area of the museum.  He told of different ways gemstones have been made more valuable and how gemstones are much different from a gemologist point of view than from a geologist's point of view, but it was interesting to note that Mohs scale of hardness is one of the physical properties important in both fields of study.

One of the gems exhibits at the Museum of Natural History, NYC.

We really enjoyed the exhibit on Butterflies.  Going into a warm room where several butterfly types were flying around, or "eating" from oranges, we got some close-up views as butterflies landed on Elder Adams' head and phone as we stood watching their activity.

Butterfly loves smartphones, too!

Butterfly on Golden's head - Nat. Hist. Museum

I have been reading scriptures quite a bit while serving and have had some wonderful experiences. This week I went for a walk through Central Park and I put on my headphones and turned on the Book of Mormon to listen to 2nd Nephi. As I was listening to Lehi talk to each of his children and giving them counsel before he died, I realized in a real way that he was giving counsel to me as though I was one of his children. It put so much more meaning into his counsel and I thought of my parents and what they might have said to me before they died and it created an incredible experience for me. I remember when all my father could do was give me a hug and my mother was able to touch my hair and rub my face. I told her that it was Diane and then I just enjoyed my time alone with each of them just before they passed away.

Over the last year I have had a sister, Jeanette Cherry, that comes into the family history center and just wants to talk. She loves to talk real estate or budgeting with me and she shares all of her dreams of working with attorneys for finder fees or working real estate. I learned that she was homeless and just wanted to get warm and have a friend to talk to. This last week was pretty cold when she came in and she stayed for almost three hours. I was able to work with her in her family history for a while and found a marriage and a death record to help verify her line. It is small but she just wants a family. It has made me so grateful for my family and the love and unity that we have. I hope and pray that we will always be able to give strength to each other. It is what life is all about, strengthening our families and bringing our Savior into our home and everyday activities.

On Thursday, our friends and temple missionaries Brother and Sister Holloway, invited us to Carnegie Hall for a concert that was being put on by students from the Crescenta Valley High School  performing Orchestra and Band groups from California. They had a jazz group perform first and their music was not our favorite but they had amazing music skills. The Orchestra and band groups, when they performed, did an outstanding job and we really enjoyed their performance.

Crescenta Valley High School Band from La Crescenta, California 

2017 Directors Award - Crescenta Valley High School Symphony Orechestra

On Saturday, we took a walking tour of of New York City and how the church became established in this area over the last 150 years. They started off at 9 West and 57th Street where the church planned to create a chapel and a broadcasting facility, but it never worked out.

We then went to Steinway Hall on 109 West and 57th Street where LDS meetings were held in the 1920's. It was not the best situation as when they would hold church services, other individuals would walk through the back of the room that were going to work on dance or art classes and made it difficult for Sunday Services.

Steinway Hall is being replaced with an 87 story building; Pres. Gonzalez Chief Construction Engineer

The old Carnegie Hall was our next stop at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. The church was not liked very much at this time in New York but the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performed there at several events and helped to break the ice with the Mormons.  In the early 1900s, Church meetings were held here and the music practice rooms were used as classrooms for the Church on Sundays, like they were later at the Music (Carnegie) Hall.

The Music Hall - Andrew Carnegie; Later named Carnegie Hall

The next location that the Church tried hold services in was at the Stillman's Gym that was used mostly for boxing. This is where the first stake (New York Stake) was created in New York City in 1934 and covered several states.

Our last location was in front of Lincoln Center looking across the street to the temple. This area use to be a rough area with a lot of drug problems. Before Lincoln Center was built and the people had been moved out of the slums here, the movie "West Side Story" was filmed here using the buildings as the exterior set.

President Harold B Lee was assigned to come out and try and find a good place for the church location. After taking him all over at some of the more impressive areas of Manhattan East Side, he asked if there were any other sites. He was taken to the Manhattan west side.  He left the group and went off to be alone, walking the site.. He went over to the corner of the property and stood there in meditation for awhile. When he came back he announced that this was the place that the Lord wanted the church to be built.

The first chapel site in Manhattan.  The temple is a retrofit.

At the beginning, the Church made a co-op agreement with a developer and they built the church with the apartment building attached. There was a breeze way in the middle of the project that was declared public land so in order to make things work, the Church has leased it to the American Folk Art Museum for $1.00 a month for twenty years. The chapel existed for several years before President Hinckley came out to find a place to build a temple. The place they originally wanted in Westchester County, further north, received so much contention, that they backed out of the deal. This brought them back to the building they had purchased on 125 Columbus Avenue where they decided to modify the building to facilitate the temple. Because it was a temple, the building had to be totally owned by the Church so the church bought out the developer after much negotiation and in 2006 after putting the Angel Moroni on the temple, the building was dedicated with no major obstacles.  The normal construction problems with permits with NYC that the Church expected never materialized and work commence very smoothly, presumably since the City Commission considered it just another city remodel project.  

We went to church today at Manhattan YSA Ward and during our testimony meeting we had three individuals get up and talk about how they had been touched by the activity that has been going on in their ward regarding family history and the power of prayer. Our hearts were so full because we could see the Find, Take, and Teach program starting to spread like a stone rolling down the mountain. People are beginning to ask for their FH experience and the lead consultant is overwhelmed with the excitement right now. I hope that we can keep it going. It is so exciting!  Since only one of the TFHCs was present, we were asked to teach the Temple and Family History Class in Sunday School today.

The Mid-Singles at Lincoln Square building were all out of town, but we had a great group of LSq YSA consultants today.  Aya Watanabe, the lead TFHC, gave two "Helping Others to Love Family History" experiences in the YSA Relief Society Meeting prior to Women's General Conference last night.  She and one of the consultants who had the experience were very excited about how it went, and their ward sisters are excited to be looking forward to their own experience provided by Sister Watanabe's group. It was fun to work with her in helping her prepare her first two lesson plans prior to the presentation yesterday.

We have been asked to work with some of the TFHCs of Manhattan 2nd and 3rd Wards on Tuesday at the 87th Street Building with a FamilySearch.org orientation prior to the training Susy Yamada will be providing for them in the Find, Take, and Teach process..

19 March 2017

19 March 2017

The "Find, Take, & Teach" program for family history is really picking up in the Manhattan YSA Ward in the stake center on 87th Street. We have been able to provide each of the consultants with a family history experience and they have all been really excited about the outcome.

I worked with Jocelyn Shaver and Golden worked with Bruce Pack. Jocelyn's line when we started in FamilyTree was very small. Her father's line only went back about 3 or 4 generations and there was nothing on her mother's line. She had added herself and a few people but she felt pretty down with what she had. Her desire was to find her family.

When I went into FamilyTree, I noticed that her grandfather showed up double in the family view. One was with a wife and the other had no wife but her father was attached to him as a child. Her father was also attached to her grandfather and grand mother. By having her move her father from her grandfather that did not have a wife to the one that had a wife, it broke her line wide open and added several generations to her Tree. She was amazed and excited. I then had her remove her father from the one that had no wife and it cleaned up the line.

We had time, so I moved her into the second lesson that I had prepared and helped her look for sources to prove the family and add family members that she found in the census records. She was able to add three children and a wife from the first 1880 Census; Nelson, Ida, and Charles and his wife Adaline,

When she found the 1892 Census it gave her three more children that she could add to the family.  I had her clear and reserve the wife and three children but told her to hold the temple work until we completed searching for more records in the family. After checking the 1900 Census, she was able to find one remaining daughter on the family, giving Andrew and Adaline Shaver seven children. When she adds the children and the documents, she will be able to to the baptism for the family and have her parents do the rest of the temple work.

I had Jocelyn go into Find A Grave Index to see if we could find the death of Adaline as one of the census records indicated that Andrew was widowed.  We found the burial record for Adeline Burnside verifying that she was indeed the wife of Andrew Burnside, so we knew that we had the right family.

One of the records led us to believe that we could find a marriage record, so I showed her where we went and she was able to look at the marriage record of Nina Viola Burnside. I pointed out to her that the mother of Nina Viola Burnside was Adaline Park. (She had found the maiden name of Adaline and was able to add it to the record for Adaline.) Jocelyn was excited and wanted to go through the images of the records that I had for her and go through the other lesson plans so she could assimilate all that she had learned. She was really excited.

My next experience was with Brandon Price and he requested that I try and break the line back into Sweden. I did some research but could not go far because I did not have enough information and I could not get into the Swedish website without paying for it. I later found that he had gone to the family history center and had Liz Hanson work with him and she was really good, as she is from Denmark and is good with research in that area of the world. I told him that he could stay with her as it was a good match. I was able to find one name for him to take to the temple and one that he could take if he would do a little work on it.

This "Find, Take, & Teach" Program is powerful and can have a major impact on the wards and stake if they implement and support it. It changes hearts and moves people to conversion and that is what it is all about. We love working this program and hope to able to reach as many consultants as we can to train them and get them comfortable to prepare experiences for members in their wards.

In all, we were involved in four training sessions today; Manhattan YSA, Manhattan 2nd and 3rd Wards combined, Lincoln Square Mid-Singles Branch, and Lincoln Squre YSA Ward.  Coming back from the first two, we noticed from the bus that trucks were being loaded with snow to be transported out of NYC.  On our way to Church the same thing was happening.

Snow is removed from the NYC streets on Sunday morning to transport out of the City.

The "Helping Others to Love Family History" experience for Bruce was done before Diane did Jocelyn's experience.  Bruce had to go to the airport so he allowed about 15 minutes as soon as Sacrament Meeting was done.  Jocelyn and Hailey watched as Bruce found that Thomas West, the son of ancestor Thomas West in St. Sepulchre, England had been missed and his temple ordinances never done.  Thomas Jr's oldest sister, Eliza had joined the Church in 1884 and immigrated to Logan, Utah where she did her endowment.  She was married a couple of years before Thomas Jr. died in 1848 as a 15 year-old even though a census record source on the father Thomas' record in FamilySearch listed him.  The temple ordinances have never been completed for Thomas Jr. in the 169 years since his death!

This was the lesson prepared this week for Bruce.  He will be going to Utah this week and with General Conference the last week of this month and Stake Conference the following one, it will be Easter Sunday before he will be back.  It will be interesting to hear if he mentions it to his mother who has been very involved in family history for a number of years.

As we serve in the NYC Family History Center here on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan, Liz Hanson, who was born in Denmark, has placed a framed picture there.  It shows the "Host Arrayed in White" and a hymn copy has been displayed alongside it.  That is shown below.  I think she purchased it from one of the Second-Hand stores here in Manhattan.  This pretty much sums up what we are about here.

"Behold, A Host Arrayed in White"

It is so fantastic to see how the Spirit works in leading us to persons in the members' Family Trees in just a few minutes whether partial trees or full trees.  Much of the time, they are not even in FamilySearch Family Tree, but need to be discovered through records and added to the Tree.  We have found that the key to all of this is prayer on the part of the member, as well as on our part, and the experiences do "Help Others to Love Family History."

12 March 2017

12 March 2017

Golden:  Last Sunday, we experienced a full Sabbath as we have been invited by the New York Stake to work with training new Temple and Family History Consultants in the new Find, Take, Teach paradigm released at RootsTech2017 a couple of weeks ago.

A couple of weeks ago, we started working with three new consultants in the Manhattan YSA ward at the invitation of Susy Yamada, the Temple and Family History Consultant lead FHC director.  Then after the Find-Take-Teach Seminar the stake did, our Family History Center lead TFHC invited two of the units here at the Lincoln Square Building to have us work with their TFHCs in training; LSq YSA ward and LSq Mid-Singles branch.  The Morningside family ward has also asked but we will be doing them later.

So last Sunday, we met with Manhattan YSA at 87th Street (the Stake Center) for Sacrament Meeting and then Sunday School (where we met with the TFHCs) at 9 am; back to our apartment and then to Mid-Single Adults at 2:20 pm; and LSq YSA at 3:45 pm.  The Stake Find-Take-Teach Seminar for the two Spanish wards was at 7 pm and we presented there.

Diane bore her testimony of the new program and how the Spirit directed her with Sister Martinez, and one of our former volunteers at the FHC, Lulu from the Harlem Spanish Ward, translated for her. She told Liz, one of our FH Missionaries, this week that she felt inspired to come back as a volunteer to our center so she will be working Saturday mornings when the Spanish Temple Sessions bring quite a few Spanish speaking members to print temple family file names.

Harlem also had members who immediately started to ask for help the first of the week, so hopefully the work will hasten throughout the stake.

Introducing the online Family Booklet in FamilySearch.org for new members and those with few people in their trees, several of the members, including the new High Councilor over Temple and Family History, Norm Merritt, were excited to add their photo and memories for their first 4 generation families.  Few people knew it was even there in FamilySearch.

This week, we also finished the sorting of microfilm and sent those that we identified as being  browsable and online were sent back to Salt Lake. Some of these microfilm are only accessible to LDS members at a Family History Center). A total of seven boxes of about 70 films each were sent back to Salt Lake.

Elder Martinez, our medical doctor assigned to our Area, found the death record he was seeking for on one of his aunts and it cleared up a family tradition which he said would make him the hero in the family.  As a result, he has been searching for a grandfather who abandoned being a Catholic Priest and changing his identity.  This really makes problems for tracking him through records but we are determined to see what we are led to.

Wednesday and Friday, Diane and I have physical therapy for her back and my hip and this week she made a breakthrough with Julie Erlich, our DPT who is Jewish and very interested in finding her grandfather.  Julie started talking about how she does research on a regular basis looking for her family that spent most of their lives in New York. She mentioned that she wanted to come into the center to see if she could get some help.

I mentioned to Julie my experience I had with Sister Martinez and finding her great grandfather in Ireland and she really seemed to feel the spirit and the miracle of what had happened. I told her to give us a name of one of her ancestors that she was having problems with and we would see if we could do some research for her before she comes in. She seemed to get really excited about the idea so we will start praying for her and for us so that we can help create a life changing experience for her.

I was able to file our federal and state income tax return this week, and that is a major fete. Thank goodness for online statements and federal forms, with the help of Chantel getting some of the documents scanned and shared with us.

Sometimes, FamilySearch accounts are in such a mess that it takes some major manipulation of data to clean up the account.  One such occurrence happened on Friday with a couple from New Jersey who were serving in the Manhattan Temple. This project kept Liz Hanson and me busy after the Jacobs had gone back home.  It is amazing how the system allows people to not only mix things up, but also to correct such accounts.

On Saturday, I also worked with Diane Aytch (pronounced "H") again with her family.  A grandmother had several children, all with her maiden name although we did find one marriage but Sr. Aytch wasn't sure if any of them had the same father.  We were able to add multiple records and it will clear up some things, but added lots more questions, and she said she would be back.  It is amazing how sometimes things don't make sense, but following promptings clarification comes.

Diane: This week, I met with a sister from Trinidad that was relatively new in the church. There are no temples in Trinidad but she indicated that coming here to New York was not that hard. (Trinidad is a direct 5 1/2 hour flight from beyond Puerto Rico to JFK Airiport here in NYC.) Her one year anniversary will be in June, but she was looking forward to going to the temple to do baptisms before she left to go home. So after helping her print the cards, I took her over to the temple and introduced her to the temple worker at the front desk. I indicated that this was her first time to the temple so that they would give her a wonderful experience. I was so excited for her and wished that I could have been there to witness her first baptism experience with her ancestors in the temple.

We must say, that after all is said and done, this has been a good productive week. The mission is wonderful and we are meeting many people from all over the world and are having amazing experiences.

5 March 2017

5 March 2017

I think that the Stake has just found Golden and what family history skills he has. A couple of weeks ago, the stake met with Maya Kite and others from our Inwood Ward to discuss what they were doing to have their percentages go up so drastically in family history work. In that conversation Maya mentioned that she felt that it was due to the training that we were providing for them. As a result of that meeting, a member of the high council contacted us and asked us to present the program at a Stake Training for all consultants in the stake and then repeat the training for the Spanish Ward a week later which is tonight. After that meeting, we are now assigned to train in three different wards and start training another ward in a few weeks. 

The program has us take someone, talk with them to find out what goal they would like to accomplish in family history and a name that they are drawn to. We are to ask them to pray for us and for themselves along with our prayers so that we will be able to be directed to the person in the tree that has been prepared on the other side of the veil and is waiting for their temple work. After that, we are to work in their tree on that line and find a name that they will be able to take to the temple. It is like stocking a pond with fish and then asking them to fish. We are making their first experience a life changing event so that they can feel the Spirit of Elijah in their life. After they have their experience, we will work with them on further training until they are ready to find the person that they will provide an experience for and we will help them. It is the "Pay It Forward" concept. Serving others is the best way for us to connect to our Heavenly Father and to be able to remember our relationship to Him.

In our Find-Take-Teach Seminar last Sunday evening, we did a the breakout session after the Inwood High Priest Group Leader and lead Temple and Family History Consultant reported what has occurred this past 8 months with our training and helping their consultants work with members since the key indicators increased by about 200% while most of the rest of the stake has remained static. [Wow! that's a long sentence].

Golden worked with Hailey Roark, one of the newly called consultants in the Manhattan YSA Ward in a demonstration of the new "Helping Others to Love Family History" experience.  After she and we had prayed much of the week seeking for who was ready to receive the temple ordinances in her tree, we were led to her gg grandfather who had immigrated from Germany.  

His wife wasn't listed, and we prepared a census and a find-a-grave record for her to discover that her 3rd gg mother was Elenore, aka Lena.  Through the demonstration which we presented in front of about 25 consultants and priesthood leaders, they were amazed when Hailey found the census and recognized that it was the right family because she recognized the name of her grandfather's sister.  She burst into tears and it was a really neat experience to see and participate first-handed how the Spirit of Elijah testifies.  

Hailey Roark - Manhattan YSA Temple & Family History Consultant

Haley said later that she went home that evening afterwards and found a duplicate for her grandmother on another line and it connected to Family Tree, taking her line back to 646 AD!  She was totally blown away!  Two experiences in one day.  It was amazing to see how the Lord honors our fasting and prayer and desires to bless others as we participate in this work.

If we can get the consultants hooked on this program, it will have a major spiritual impact on the stake and it's members. I am really excited to watch and see what happens.

We have also been going through all of the microfilm identifying which ones have been digitized by Salt Lake. Then we have pulled all of the boxes and checked to make sure the right film is in the right box and that we labeled it  correctly before we ship them back to Salt Lake. We have gone through 55 drawers of microfilm and hopefully we will be done with this project this week.

Microfilm Room Cabinets - Lincoln Square Building

We have to move the equipment from the nursery room so they can use it on Sunday and then put it back up so that we can use it during the week. By sending back the microfilm that has been digitized, they will be able to turn this room into a reading room for the microfilm readers and we won't have to move all of the equipment.

Equipment stored in the Microfilm Room for the weekend

Our friends, the Holloways, invited us to the NY Philharmonic Orchestra again. The first presentation was an original about dreams that was interesting and very different. The second half was more interesting and I really enjoyed it. I have attached some pictures of our microfilm project and the symphony from another viewpoint.

New York Philharmonic Orchestra - Lincoln Center, Manhattan, NYC

Our next adventure was Zone Conference with Elder Gong, one of the members of the seven presidents of the 70's quorum. We really enjoyed listening to him as he taught the missionaries how to be a more effective missionary by improving their communication skills. He said to look them in the eyes and then acknowledge to them what they have said and how they are feeling. He said learn all you can so that the Holy Ghost will help you recall your information when you need it. The Holy Ghost cannot recall what is not there. It gives hope to those of us on the senior side of life. He and his wife were very friendly.

On Saturday, March 4th, the New York Stake annual Gala, themed this year as "Candyland" is the single fundraiser for the youth camps was held at the Lincoln Square Building.  The youth have worked for the past few months in planning the silent auction, dance, and refreshments followed by a regular auction on some large items, like a week's vacation at Mesa, Arizona and other lodges as time share donations by members of the stake.

Candyland suggestion donation was $15.00 per person for the evening.

Youth and leaders were responsible for decorating the cultural hall for the gala.

A service auction was also included in the silent auction offered by youth and stake members, such as babysitting for temple sessions, dog walking, dance lessons, voice lessons, computer tutoring, etc.

Silent auction of services donated by members; bidding was done via text messages for the first time.

Books from authors residing in the stake, paintings from Walter Rain, baked goods, computer hardware, and other items were part of the silent auction.

This year, about 50% more was raised over last year making it about $37,000 for this year's youth acitvities.  This amount would send about 150 youth to camp this summer.

L-R: Elder & Sr Honeycutt, Elder & Sr. Dransfield, Elder & S. Larsen, Elder & Sr. Adams, Sr. & Elder Gong, Pres. & Sr Smith (Front Center) Back Brittany, Savannah and William Smith; Elder & Sr. Martinez, Elder & Sr. Hanson, Elder &Sr. Richards, and Elder & Sr Huntington

New York New York North Mission - Pres. & Sr. Smith with Elder and Sister Gong (Front Center)

26 February 2017

26 February 2017

I had an amazing experience on 21 February 2017 that was a turning point in my life that I was prompted to share with you. I woke up around 4:30 in the morning and was pondering what had happened to me that day and the thought came that I should share this experience with each of my children. With that in mind, would you please read this as a family at one of your family home evenings and pray that you will feel the spirit that I have within me 2000 miles away, for I know the Spirit has no limit to distance.

Last week, we were asked to help teach all of the ward consultants and high priest group leaders in the stake on February 26th about the “Find Take and Teach“ program that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints has been pushing in each ward in an attempt to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers and the heart of the fathers to their children. We know through scripture that if this does not happen, the purpose of the whole creation of the earth would be wasted. The importance of this challenge has rested upon me to try and teach my family and to invoke the protective blessings that are there for my children and generations yet to come.

Your grandfather and I were trying to find someone that would be willing to participate in this training session for the stake to create an experience that would turn their heart to their fathers and allow them to feel the power that is found in getting to know their ancestors. I was talking to one of our volunteers, Linda Martinez, who works with us in the family history center and was prompted to ask her if she would be willing to be a participant to help me learn the process so that we could teach it at this meeting. Since she works in the family history center and has been a consultant, she agreed and wanted to learn the process herself.   

Sister Linda Martinez FHC Volunteer 2-2017

I asked Linda if she was ever afraid when people would come in from countries all over the world for help when it was impossible to know how to research everywhere. She made a very important comment to me that I had forgotten about and that was she would use the WIKI in Family Search to get familiar with the country so she could help them the best she could.

So, step one of the process of “Find Take and Teach” is to prayerfully ask the question “What goal would you like to achieve in working with your ancestors?” When I asked her this question her answer was “I would like to have an original or primary document of some kind that would give proof that my great grandfather was from Ireland.” She had been looking for years and could not find anything. My heart sunk because I knew that I did not have the ability to do research of that magnitude. My research abilities were very limited and I have little analytical skills to pursue this request. Also, I had no idea how to do research in Ireland. I figured that those excuses were enough reason to change her request.

I quickly responded back to Linda that the “Find Take and Teach”  program was written to help patrons find an ancestor that they would be able to take to the temple and participate in an experience that could provide an opportunity for experiencing  the full blessings that can be found in temple. It was not for research projects. With the comment, Linda gave me another name that she needed help with that I was much more comfortable doing.

The problem I had was that her first request weighed heavily upon me in a way that became a driving force. I knew that the “Find Take and Teach” program was to turn hearts in any way we could and give them a spiritual experience.  Ireland is one of the hardest countries to find records because much of the records have been destroyed, but I knew that for some reason I needed to pursue her first request of proving that her line did go into Ireland. I was terrified of working this problem, and a few times during this period of time I almost decided not to offer to work on it but decided I would be lacking faith if I did.

Your grandfather and I went to a ward temple session on Saturday, and I prayed fervently for the help that I would need if I were to continue on with Sister Martinez’s request. I told both your grandfather, Golden, and Linda that If this project was successful it would only be through the power of prayer and that they would see a miracle and the divine guidance of my Savior in action.

As I sat in sacrament meeting on Sunday, I continued to pray for guidance in finding the information I needed from Ireland.  After church, I went back to my apartment and decided to see what I could do.

I met with Sister Martinez to get as much information as I could that would help me. On a torn envelope she wrote down the name of Patrick Barry born 25 December 1836 somewhere in Ireland. She had heard that he could have been in Queenstown, Cork or Skibbereen, or Cover (Cobh) but she did not know for sure of anything and that she thought he was Catholic.

I sat down in front of my computer and thought “Where do I begin?” The thought came to search in WIKI in Family Search. So I opened the WIKI and typed in Ireland. It showed several options that I could choose so I decided to try and find his baptism. I clicked on a few places not knowing what I was doing and within about 15 or 20 minutes there on the screen was Patrick Barry’s baptism. I took a deep breath and said the words, “Oh!! Look what I have found.” Your grandfather looked at me in surprise and came over to check it out and he confirmed that I had found Patrick’s baptism record. I knew without a doubt that my prayers had been answered. I called Sister Martinez and told her that I had found her great grandfather’s baptism record and she was stunned. She came down to see it and verify that what I had matched her family records. All of us knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we had been a part of a miracle.  When your grandpa and Sister Martinez asked me to show them how I found the record, I could not repeat the steps that took me there so quickly. I have no doubt that when I ask righteously for direct guidance, He will be there and answer prayers if I can continue to show unwavering faith.

I have almost completed reading the Doctrine & Covenants for the first time and my eyes have been opened to so much knowledge and the promises of obedience to our Savior. Here is just one promise and challenge made by Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

” It is no coincidence that FamilySearch and other tools have come forth at a time when young people are so familiar with a wide range of information and communication technologies. Your fingers have been trained to text and tweet to accelerate and advance the work of the Lord—not just to communicate quickly with your friends. The skills and aptitude evident among many young people today are a preparation to contribute to the work of salvation.

I invite the young people of the Church to learn about and experience the Spirit of Elijah. I encourage you to study, to search out your ancestors, and to prepare yourselves to perform proxy baptisms in the house of the Lord for your kindred dead (see D&C 124:28–36). And I urge you to help other people identify their family histories.”

As you respond in faith to this invitation, your hearts shall turn to the fathers. The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be implanted in your hearts. Your patriarchal blessing, with its declaration of lineage, will link you to these fathers and be more meaningful to you. Your love and gratitude for your ancestors will increase. Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding. And I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary. As you participate in and love this holy work, you will be safeguarded in your youth and throughout your lives.”