7 May 2017

[Golden]: On Tuesday morning, April 25th, we had the opportunity to work with temple and family history consultant training at the New York, New York Stake Center on 87th Street.  A demonstration of the "Helping Others to Love Family History" experience was presented with Carolyn Dillard, a member of the Manhattan 3rd ward and recently called Temple and Family History Consultant.  Much of our P-day on Monday was spent preparing the lesson plan for her.  In fact, two formal lesson plans were prepared using the new Consultant Planner on FamilySearch.org.  Material for about three more lessons was also prepared in rough draft for follow-up.

When the participant and the presenter are praying for each other and being directed by the Spirit, it takes very little time to be directed to the person or family that is prepared on the other side of the veil for temple ordinances.  Such was the case with Carolyn.

In the process, she was concerned that her grandmother wasn't sealed.  I found that this grandmother was living with her mother and sisters in the household of her grandmother's grandfather. According to the census, Carolyn's great grandmother had given birth to three children, all living in 1900.  They were listed with in the census entry.  However, all had the same surname which was one of the things Carolyn wanted to determine--the maiden name of her great grandmother.

The miracle Carolyn experienced was that we could list her grandmother with her biological mother and her grandfather (as a foster parent), which allowed her to be sealed to them.  In this same process we were able to do the same for her grandmother's sisters.  In all, six people were identified and reserved for temple work!  It was a great experience for all of us, including the two consultants that were at this training.

As we prepare the experience to help people become converted to this great work and the spiritual nature of it, we are humbled to share them with the members.  Our mission president has taught that the prayers and the planning that we do are creating spiritually before the actual physical experience, as we are taught in the temple that all things are created spiritually before they are created physically or temporally.

We enjoy walking in Central Park, just a block away.  Here are some photos, now that the weather had turned warm between the rain storms we have experienced in the past couple of weeks.

Diane near Shepherd's Meadow-NYC Central Park

Flowers near the Tavern on the Green adjacent to Central Park

Shepherd's Meadow - Central Park with the skyline south of the Park.

[Diane]: The 27 April 2017 was our temple day where we take the early morning shift from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Most of the time the shift is really show, so the missionaries are asked to be patrons along with taking the various posts. It works really well, because if we have a preference based on what temple cards we have with us, they are very willing to accommodate us. I have been able to do several family file names because of being so close to the temple and they allow missionaries to leave up to ten temple file names for the temple to work through so it has been really helpful with my male names and baptisms that I have a really hard time doing.

At 12:00 noon, we start our shift at the family history center. Today, I had the opportunity of working with our director's unofficially adopted daughter the whole shift. Her name is Debbie and she is a little disabled so so she needs quite a bit of help. She has the cutest smile and English accent. She is from England and comes out to New York to stay with Lyn Wilcox for a month a couple of times a year.

I gave Debbie a choice of what she would like to do and she wanted me to guide her. I suggested that we clean up her line so that when we began to research it, she would know that what she had was correct. I noticed that she had to have me spell everything out for her, so I decided to create her a cheat sheet. I wrote all of the months out for her and then I wrote "Standardized date and place." This is a sentence you use a lot when cleaning up the records.

I showed her the cheat sheet and then I put it where she could use it when she needed to. She was so excited because she was able to do some of the work on her own with the cheat sheet. When I would go and help the other patron she would try and work on her own. When I came back she would show me what she had accomplished and I would cheer her on and congratulate her on being able to do it on her own. She would grin from ear to ear and was so proud. She was always so grateful for the little things that she could accomplish and for what I did for her that it was just a joy.

On Sunday May 30th, we were asked to teach the combined Priesthood/Relief Society time and teach them about family history. For the last two months the ward had been focusing on family history and temple work in sacrament meeting, so this was the culmination for this theme. One of our options was "Call to Action" so we played a four minute video of President Nelson calling all members to sacrifice something, preferably time, to temple and family history work. Golden then presented the priesthood responsibility and the impact that it would have if the priesthood did not fulfill their responsibility in family history.

After his presentation, I spoke about my personal family history experience and born testimony of the power of the "Find, Take, and Teach" program that was rolling out throughout the stake. I explained how it worked and that the stake goal was to have at least all of the youth have this experience before Youth Conference." When we got through the bishop came up and said "I had no idea of the "Find, Take and Teach program." All he could say was that it was a miracle the experience I shared, which I had to agree. We offered to work in their ward and train, and he was excited for the offer and has scheduled us for the month of May to work with their ward.

Manhattan 3rd Ward Birthday Photo - Celebrating their 4th birthday as a ward.

Word is starting to spread throughout the stake and we are getting calls from several of the wards wanting to schedule us to come and train. I think that we are going to be pretty busy for the next few months until youth conference. I am really excited to see the impact that this program will have on the stake. It is an amazing program and one that can create a conversion experience for both the consultant and the ward member.

Today was Regional Conference. The first half hour we had our stake business of sustainings and listening to our new second counselor in the Stake Presidency, and then a few words from Elder Buckner, the new area 70th for our area. After he spoke we sat and listened to a member of our stake play the piano while we waited for the televised session from Salt Lake to start.

We heard from Elder Gerrit Gong, one of the Seven Presidents of the Quorum of the 70 who spoke on the power of service and how to provide opportunities for our families to serve. He quoted the scripture that says "....When you are in the service of your fellow men, you are only in the service of your God." He spoke of how service can turn hearts and bind us to others. Service strengthens not only the one we serve but it also changes our heart and creates a new friendship.

Sister Bonnie Cordon, General President of the Primary, spoke on the "Light of Christ". She talked about how she loved to watch the fireflies in the evening and that they reminded her that we all have to have our own light to survive mortality. Sharing your light with someone else is good to strengthen them, but all of us at some time in our life must carry our own light of Christ.

Elder Anthony B. Perkins, a member of the Quorum of the 70, spoke of the power and blessing of the atonement and repentance. He spoke on how repentance brings joy, not sorrow, and gives us an opportunity to become more than we can become on our own. He shared four examples from the scriptures of Nephi, Alma the Younger, and Zeezrom who all came through their own experiences of repentance and became wonderful servants to our Father in Heaven. Even as bad as Alma the Younger was, he was later told that he would have eternal life. All of us can make it back home if we keep our focus on the Savior and his atoning sacrifice.

Our last speaker was Elder Oaks of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles and he spoke on the power of faith.

It was a wonderful meeting and the Spirit was strong. We have learned so much while serving our mission and have been able to be witnesses of miracles far beyond what we thought we could have ever experienced. We both come home very tired but full of gratitude for the opportunity we have had to serve.

We have had our health challenges, but we have always been blessed with just enough good health to keep going. This is the Lord's work and he is hastening the gathering of Israel in a miraculous way and it is a great privilege to be a part of this work.