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.