10 December 2017

The last ten days of our mission were busy trying to get our laundry done, several of our personal items packed, and begin the shipping process of television, monitors, books, journals, clothing, etc. back to Utah.

Elder Adams carting boxes to UPS in the rain.

This is just one of the many trips we made to the UPS Store on Amsterdam Avenue, NYC.  Elder Adams with television and computer monitor shipment.

After service at the New York NY Family History Center one afternoon, Tom and Liz Hanson took us around the corner to the Atlantic Grill.  We enjoyed a great meal of fish and chips.  Our share of the meal came from a gift card that one of the patrons had provided.

Left to Right:  Elder Adams, Elder Tom Hanson, Sister Liz Hanson, and Sr. Adams

The most difficult part of returning home from our mission was saying goodbye to several of our friends in New York City.  These photos represent some of the people we met during our mission, including many with whom we served.  Our friends who have served for several years at the FHC include Aurea and Zaida, Spanish volunteers, and Roger and Stanton who were African American volunteers.

On Wednesdays at the FHC, Aurea and Zaida were Spanish volunteers, and good friends.

While living at 2 Lincoln Square, we made friends with the doormen and employees who manned the desk for various shifts.  We were not able to get photos of all of these, but Randy always answered "I'm good" whenever asked show he was doing, Freddy was always easy going, Tony liked to kid and had a great sense of humor, and Robert was always opening the door for us (as did the others) but usually early in the morning when we went to serve in the temple on the first shift of Thursday mornings.

Tony at the desk of 2 Lincoln Center where our apartment was: 10J

Robert Ardon and Elder Adams at 2 Lincoln Square entrance

Just outside the door of the Family History Center at the front entrance, our security guards were always on duty to make sure that the Church, Temple, and other offices were safe and no unsavory visitors made it into the various parts of the building.  Albert was always friendly, and he usually worked the early morning shift, beginning at around 5 am.  Michelle was always very friendly, as well.  But the most recent security guard was Patricia, who I always called Teresa for some reason.  It wasn't until we were ready to leave that she informed us that she would be baptized by Pres. David Smith here at Lincoln Square building on Saturday, November 18.  We departed on Thursday, November 16th.

Michelle at her station.  She said she never let anyone take her photo--but did let us!

Sr. Diane Adams and Patricia. 

Some of the young Elders and Sisters who were at Lincoln Square building as we were preparing to leave, and with whom we had the opportunity to serve in the New York New York North Mission, shared their best wishes as we prepared to return back to Utah. Elder Mafi, from Tonga, will also be returning home soon.  He and his new companion posed at the temple entrance with us.  It was Elder Mafi that scared Elder Adams at the subway station as he was counting the money in his wallet on the platform waiting for the train.  "I thought for use I was being mugged!" Elder Adams had said.  The look on his face made Elder Mafi laugh so hard and this experience brought us close together whenever we saw each other.

Sister and Elder Adams (left) and Elder Mafi (right) with his new companion.

(l-r): Sr. Leavitt's new companion, Sr. Adams, Sr. Leavitt

Elder and Sr. Adams, Sr. Bon Lee, and her companion

We took Uber to JFK airport on November 16th.  When we arrived at the Salt Lake International Airport, we were met by our daughter Chantel and her husband Joseph Rhodes with two of their four children, Kristina and Ryan and our daughter-in-law Melissa Adams with her children: Tori, Kayli, Austin, and Graci.  Our son Matthew met us at Chuck-a-Rama not far from his work at Carmax in Sandy, Utah and our son Aaron later joined us there after he finished work at St. Mark's Hospital.

Ryan was so excited to have us receive the balloons they had brought to welcome us home!

The welcome home balloon boquet with our old family photo in the background.

We were surprised by being escorted to our new home that Matthew and Melissa had spent many hours remodeling and decorating after they and our daughter Chantel (with power of attorney) had obtained it for us.  Our son Aaron helped with some of the electrical that was added, and we were informed that the new carpet had just been placed earlier the day before.  This was at the Lindon Creekside 55+ community.  Everything was readied for us to settle in for the night, and they had moved our home furnishings and personal belongings from Salem, Utah where we had lived prior to our mission to New York City.

Family Tree Matthew and Melissa made with Diane's parents and all our descendants.

This is the fireplace that Matthew put in for us. It is all  electric so we don't have to clean it and it heats our house with controlled heat and lighting options for the fire.

This is the new bedroom set that Melissa had set up for us that had a blue bed cover and pillows . We added a 3" form to the bed so we had to add the bed spread.

 This is the dresser and vanity in the master bedroom. It was beautiful.

This is the visitor bedroom upstairs where she had many of the painting from Grandma Jolley and Great Grandma Huntington with heirloom bedspread made by Diane with squares from all of our grandchildren. The pillows on the bed are from Grandma Meacham, Golden's mother.

This view gives all of the four seasons that Grandma Huntington painted for Diane when she was a teenager.

We reported our mission in the Salem 12th Ward on the 26 of November 2017 before moving into our new ward, Lindon 23rd the following week. We will truly miss all of our friends in the Salem 12th Ward but are looking foward to meeting new friends in our new ward and Stake.

This mission allowed us to participate and experience many miracles where we watched the hand of the Lord change lives along with ours. Each time we participated in presenting personal experiences in Family History for our mission friends and Temple and Family History Consultants, we were always astounded with the miracle we were able to watch unfold and experience their joy as they found new family members.

An added blessing was that we were able to serve as Manhattan Temple Ordinance Workers, and with the help of temple missionaries and patrons, over 750 of our own deceased progenitors received the ordinances of the temple.

Temple release letter as Ordinance Workers at Manhattan New York Temple

We will be forever grateful to our family who sacrificed their time and efforts and supported us with their faith and prayers. We have truly been blessed!

6 November 2017

Last week, Diane had a conversation with Sr. Natalie Bean, assistant matron in the Manhattan Temple about the Find-Take-Teach Program.  She asked Diane to give her instructions on how to do it.  Diane told here that the best way was for her to experience a "Helping Others to Love Family History" experience.  Sr. Bean gave her a goal, as well as her email.  So Diane used the Consultant Planner in FamilySearch.org to invite her, and her goal was getting to know something on her Stout line.

With this goal in mind, Diane soon found that one of Hosea Stout's granddaughters, Nancy Bowman had a spouse, Anderson Underwood, who had not been sealed to his parents because only the mother's name, Prisilla, was connected to him.  We found that, after some hours of heavy research in the census records and marriages, that we could identify several of his siblings, as well as his parents, who were already in Family Tree.

So over the course of this week, we prepared to make a lesson plan for Sr. Bean's experience.  With prayer from her side, and  prayers in her behalf, it did not take long to identify that Anderson needed to be sealed to his parents.  However, it took time through this week to research the records and find that some of the family were already identified in FamilySearch.org, but without parents.

On Saturday and Sunday, we were able to put the lesson plan together.  We found that Hosea Stout and Anderson's parents were from Orange County, North Carolina where some of them came from Cane Creek.  In the past couple of weeks, Mark Mitchell and Golden had found that the newly found Findley family that we had been trying to find for several years, were also from that same place in the same time period.

We found that David Underwood and Priscilla Melton were Anderson's parents, and their ordinances have already been completed.  But now Anderson can be sealed to them.  Siblings can be connected to the family so that their descendants will be able to find them easily and perform their sealings to the parents.

On Thursday, we served for our last time in the Manhattan Temple as ordinance workers.  Diane made cinnamon rolls and we provided that and orange juice for the workers serving that day.  It was a huge hit, since homemade anything usually isn't something that is common here in the City. 

With the change that FamilySearch has made to view records that have been digitized, it has become exceedingly busy and our eight computers are being used much more and the microfilm reader has not been used since we moved the equipment into the microfilm room.  As we serve in the Family History Center, we often see the young missionaries go by as they do quite a bit of teaching in the Lincoln Square building, or provide guided tours for the Book of Mormon original paintings of Walter Rane, exhibited in the building.

Sr. Lee, Sister and Elder Adams - Lincoln Square Meetinghouse/Building

On Saturday, after a very busy afternoon at the Family History Center, we were invited to join our Temple and Family History Center lead, Lyn Wilcox and her husband Bill for dinner and a concert.  We dined at a restaurant in the Time Warner Building at Columbus Circle, a few blocks away, and then attended The New York Philharmonic Orchestra concert. 

The program was Bernstein's Philharmonic: A Centennial Festival and was a two and one-half hour program involving Bernstein's "Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs", Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", and Bernstein "The Age of Anxiety, Symphony No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra".

The New York Philharmonic Orchestra at the end of performance of Bernstein's Philharmonic, pianist Makoto Ozone

On Monday, Lyn Wilcox hosted a farewell luncheon for us with the FHC volunteers.  We enjoyed each other's company at the Wilcox apartment on the 25th floor of her building across the street from The Lincoln Center. 

Lincoln Center Plaza as viewed from the Wilcox Apartment on Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Street

NYNY FHC Volunteers: (l-r) Stanton Biddle, Tom Hanson, Liz Hanson, Lyn Wilcox, Zaida , Nobuko Takabori, Golden and Diane Adams

30 October 2017

A few weeks ago, we were asked by Jordan McDonell, counselor in the bishopic, to speak in the Harlem YSA (Young Single Adult) Ward on the subject of Family History. We were told that he wanted us to create a spiritual connection for the members of his ward that would encourage them to want to get involved in Family History. W were given about 8-10 minutes to do it. I have learned that sometimes the five minute pep talks can be more beneficial that dumping a whole load on them.

We decided that I would speak on the Spirit of Family History and Golden would speak on the promise that Jesus made in the premortal life that He would redeem all on condition of following the plan.  He shared the importance of the scripture Moroni revealed to the boy Joseph Smith. Elijah came to bing the keys of the sealing power for all ordinances for this dispensation of the fullness of times.  So important a scripture, we find it in all four of our Standard Works.  We are a party to the promise and agreed that we would help the Savior keep his promise.

I shared some of my most cherished moments in my life on how it blessed my children and how I learned the power of prayer. I knew that the scriptures promised that when two or more are gathered in His name, He would be in our presence and that  if we asked in righteousness our prayers would be heard and we could experience a miracle. I have seen this happen many times while doing personal family history experiences and my faith in prayer has grown so much.

The meeting went really well, and we had some people come up and express that they really wanted to try and get involved. At least it will be a beginning that they can some day build on.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Sister Lee and her companion asked if they could have a photo, but Diane was elsewhere and they were headed up to Sunday School.  So this was the photo.  Sister Lee served about seven transfer rotations at the apartment on St. Nicholas Avenue where we were assigned for apartment inspections and she became quite attached to us.

Sister Lee (center) with her companion and Elder Adams - Harlem YSA Ward

As we were leaving the meeting, we ran into some people that told us that Elder Rasband, Elder Bennett, and Elder Buckner would be attending sacrament meeting in the next ward, as Harlem First Ward was celebrating the 20th anniversary of the formation of the Harlem Branch which has now grown into three wards.

Elder Rasband talked about how he was given an assignment to be in New Jersey a year ago, and he had no idea that the celebration on the 20th anniversary was going on until a phone call during the week.  Elder Rasband was so excited that he was close enough that he could make arrangements to be at the celebration as he is very much attached to the wards. He spoke of how there are never any coincidences in life, as the Lord knows all things.

Elder Rasband served his mission the Harlem New York area and then served as mission president in New York, approving the formation of the Harlem Branch,  before becoming an apostle for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints. We opted to stay for the next sacrament where Brother Anderson, the first branch president spoke along with Elder Rasband and Elder Buckner. It is such a wonderful experience to be in a sacrament meeting with general authorities, and the spirit is always very strong.

Elder Rasband told the members to not fear the future. He spoke of the challenging times in which we live, but also the promise that if we are faithful, we will stand in holy places. Our homes, the temple, chapels, of wherever we stand can be a holy place as we live the commandments. If we build our families and create Zion within them and within the home, that we could face the challenges and experience peace.

It is always a wonderful opportunity when we go to church and find ourselves in the presence of a prophet of God, Elder Rasband,  and two members of the quorum of 70, Elder Bennett and Elder Buckner. This is the second time that this opportunity has come so I got the courage to approach  Elder Rasband and asked if we could have a picture with him. He is so personable and welcoming and we were so blessed to spend time with him.

Elder Rasband, Elder Golden and Diane Adams 22 October 2017

On Monday, the 23rd of October, President and Sister Smith sponsored a trip to West Point for all the senior missionaries. We thought that we would be seeing the same tour as last year, but it was all different and we had a lovely time. Brother Fleek was our tour guide and is the West Point Historian at the present time.

Elder and Sister Adams, Elder and Sister Miles, Elder and Sister Honeycutt, Brother Fleek, Elder and Sister Young, Elder and Sister Pothier, Elder and Sister Pederson, Elder and Sister Hanson, Elder and Sister Goodier, President and Sister Smith, and Elder and Sister Smith (Parents of President Smith).

Our first stop was the West Point Cathedral, currently used as the main chapel for several denominations.

Brother Fleek, guide at the front door of the West Point Cathedral

As we walked in the front door, we were greeted in a large chapel lined with flags and a seating capacity of over 900 people.

This is the main chapel area lined with historical flags from all periods of time in American History

Stained glass window at the front of the chapel.

These are some missionaries looking at the flags and listening to the lecture. In the background is President and Sister Smith with Elder and Sister Pothier near the front with their backs toward us.

The organ has 23,235 pipes, and is awesome in both its scale and its unique character. The impressive four-manual keydesk is arguable the world's largest "Horseshoe" console. 

Organs Horseshoe console, world's largest

 Organ Pipes near the front of the chapel near the organ

 Organ pipes near the rear of the chapel. This is where the entrance is.

 After seeing the main chapel, we were taken down to the crypt. These use to be used to bury their dead.

Crypt in the basement of the Cathedral.  LDS services used to be held here for the cadets.

Elder Fleek, our tour guide, telling us about the  crypt.

After touring the Cathedral, we walked over to the "Olde Chapel".  This building was moved to this spot in the early 20th century and is located adjoining the West Point Military Cemetery.

This mural is at the front of the Old Cadet Chapel near the West Point Military Cemetery

 For an excellent commentary on this quotation on the mural at the Old Cadet Chapel, Click:   Old Cadet Chapel Mural Text

Entrance to the "Olde Chapel"

Interior of the "Olde Chapel"

Some headstones are distinctively LDS.  When families are serving here, members may be interred.

View of the West Point Academy Military Cemetery. Note fall colors in the background.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch at the edge of West Point by the river.  Elder Adams, Br. Fleek and the Goodiers.

After our tour, the Hansons drove us home by way of Tarrytown, New York.  North Tarrytown is now known as Sleepy Hollow and the cemetery there bears that name, as well.  Walter Whitman wrote the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and lived near here.  Although it was a bit early for Halloween decorations, we saw a few along the streets.

Sleepy Hollow, settled in 1640 as North Tarrytown, became Sleepy Hollow in 1969.

We stopped at Ossingen, New York and made a quick stop at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, aka Sing Sing Prison.

Several look-out towers surround the perimeter of Sing Sing Prison

Sing Sing is a large facility and this is the other portion of the same street as above.

On Tuesday morning, we scheduled two apartment checks with the Elders in Harlem.  The first was at 128th Street near the Harlem Chapel.  Two of the four Elders were at appointments but we got this one finished, and then decided to walk to the other Elders apartment on 125th Street and near Old Broadway, some eight long blocks away.

We had made the appointment to visit this apartment with Elder Mafi and his companion on Sunday, and they said it was a mess.  Elder Mafi took the blame.  But when we checked the apartment, they had repented and it was very clean, even mopped behind the stove.  Each time we see Elder Mafi, who is from Tonga, we are reminded how he likes to joke around.

A couple of weeks ago, when getting onto the train at Lincoln Square, Elder Adams was just past the turnstyle and on the platform.  He was putting some cash away in his wallet when Elder Mafi came from behind him and grabbed him.  The look on his face made Elder Mafi laugh so hard that every time he now sees Elder Adams, he is reminded of the look on Elder Adams face thinking he was being mugged and robbed.

Elder Adams and Elder Mafi at the NYNY Family History Center at Lincoln Square, NYC

On Wednesday, one of the patrons Elder Adams worked with was Luz Garcia who has been trying to get the records straightened out on her late husband, Carlos, who passed away in El Salvadore.  The branch clerk had not added the death information to Carlos' membership and she was able to get that done this weekend so we could prepare the family ordinance card for his ordinances beyond baptism and confirmation.  She was so excited to be able to have that completed and to be able to move forward with it.

This evening, we were able to meet with Abu Conteh, the high priest group leader from Harlem First Ward.  He is from Sierra Leone and he has been promised several times over some years to have help with his parents temple work.  But, apparently, time after time, the person(s) would take months to get back with him or the computers didn't work, etc. Elder Adams has been working with him since we began training in Harley in June.

With his memory, since the records his father had left for him, as the oldest living of the children, were destroyed by the rebels when they broke into their home and destroyed everything, we did the best we could to estimate dates for the family.

His parents were sealed to each other, he was sealed to them, and then the deceased siblings were also sealed to their parents.  He remarked that he felt real good, like when he was a school boy coming home from school and his parents were there for him.  He expressed it was the same feeling of being in their presence.

It was amazing to feel the Spirit as Diane and I knelt across the altar as proxies for his parents when he was sealed to them.  I don't know if Abu really understands the import, but he did say he knew it was important.  On a couple of occasions, during the early morning hours, I received the promptings that I needed to help him with his sealing to parents before we end our mission, as he is 82 years old.  A few ordinances still need to be completed before his parents can be sealed to their parents.  But beyond that, we don't have any information.

Abu Conteh, Elder and Sister Adams at the Manhattan Temple entrance

On Thursday, we served in the Manhattan Temple and then at the Family History Center.  At the temple, President Kem Nixon suggested that we do a sealing session and complete those I had prepared since we are winding down on our service here.

Diane had another appointment with Dr. Schottenstein at the New York Spine Clinic for injections in her neck.  She reacted to them in a manner that made it impossible for her to stand and not fall over backwards without someone holding on to her.  So they called Uber and sent her home.  I met her at the corner of Columbus Avenue and 65th Street, the corner where the Family History Center is located.  The block home was a challenge, as she was worse than a drunk trying to stay vertical.  After a couple of hours and overnight, she was able to get back to being able to walk on her own.

Friday, Diane manned the Family History Center while I moved the microfilms around in the microfilm room to make room for the films that had come in now that FamilySearch is no longer providing film rentals.  I was able to complete the move and ready the drawers and cabinets for final film numbers to be posted.

Arranging microfilms in the final drawers for storage in the Microfilm Room

On Saturday, we did apartment checks.  We were able to complete the 54th Street Elders after they weren't available in the morning and we went back in the evening after our service at the Family History Library.  Also in the morning, we took the C train to St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem and completed the apartment check for Sr. Leavitt, Sr. Hess, and their companions.

After retiring for the night, Zach (a grandson) called and I returned the call to find that he was to give a talk Sunday on an ancestor who had received their temple ordinances after they had passed away.  I wrote a narrative on Sunday morning regarding his 3rd great-grandmother, Willemke de Jong who was sentenced with her mother in the criminal district court in Groningen, Netherlands as a 13 year old.  She was placed in solitary confinement for a few days and her mother was in solitary confinement for 45 days for vagrancy.  In those days, homeless people had no place to go, and they had to live in the streets, which would have been a crime.

We had an appointment to do a "Helping Others to Love Family History" experience with Ryan Wood, the Elder's Quorum President in Inwood 1st Ward.  The Spirit was strong and Ryan was able to make the connection of his great grandmother, which he had been trying to do for quite some time.

In the process, he merged duplicates that were already in the system for his great-grandmother's parents.  The result was to link several more generations and fill his fan chart for this lineage as well as clear the temple work so he can complete the sealing of his 2nd great-grandfather's family and other ordinances.  It was great to feel the Spirit of Elijah as he connected with his ancestors and the same feelings he has felt as as Lenard Reeves, as both have experienced loss of spouse either through divorce or death.  Such experiences are miraculous.  Feelings always are a part of conversion, and it is such a blessing to be part of the process.

Ryan Wood and Elder Adams participate in a "Helping Others to Love Family History" experience

We began our mission being assigned to Inwood 1st Ward where we served to help build the Temple and Family History program in the ward.  It has continued to be very successful under direction of Maya Kite, Temple and Family History Consultant lead and the priesthood leaders of the ward.  As a result, their unit continues to lead the New York Stake in the major indicators reported.  The Ward Virtual Tree was pretty baren when we arrived, and as members have submitted baptisms for their kindred death, the tree has "grown" name leaves.

Inwood First - Virtual Ward Family Tree - October 2017

October 22, 2017

Tuesday, October 10th was Lloyd's birthday.  He would have been 71 years old this year.  All of the siblings were involved in group texting with Lloyd's family on this first birthday since his passing in June.

As part of our FHC service, one of the Lincoln Square YSA Temple and Family History Consultants, Mary Taggart, came into the center with the request to learn Indexing.  Since her Find-Take-Teach experience will be getting to know more about a family member who was killed in an automobile accident when his family was very young and he was from Michigan, we chose a Michigan Indexing Project for her first batch.

Diane and I spent quite a bit of time working on Johanna Kreutz's request to learn where in Germany her family came from.  Johanna has been our Orthology physician assistant for the past year and has been very helpful with our physical therapy and other health issues, and has kept us going while we have been serving in New York City.  We found that there are many sources and line extensions to immigrant ancestors on her father's side of the family. They all come from different parts of Germany--Bavaria, Prussia, Baden.

Johanna Kreutz, RPA, ATC at Orthology at 1889 Broadway in New York

Wednesday, a Spanish brother came into the FHC indicating that there was a problem with his living sealing information since the temple could not read the bar code on the living ordinance file.  After going up to the temple recorder, we were able to find that a different part of the temple program not only cleared the sealing, but it recorded it.  So we immediately made arrangements to have him sealed to his parents to make the record valid.  He came to the FHC afterward and said he was very grateful to have that ordinance completed.  He had actually planned to have it happen at a future date.

Thursday, October 12 was our 45th Wedding Anniversary.  As part of our temple service, we participated in a sealing session where President David Smith and several of the sister missionaries also participated.  President Bean was the sealer and two of my Dutch families allowed the sisters to experience a whole family together.

One of the patrons who came into the FHC from seeing the sign outside inviting people to come in and "Find Your Ancestors" wanted to see if we could help her find her father's immigration record.  This was the first time I had looked for a passenger list on an airplane.  Amazingly, we did find the record that showed he had come from Brussels, Belgium on a Pan American Airlines flight to New York City.

Afterwards, we went out for dinner at the Sugar Factory on Broadway, a couple of blocks away.  This is a family-oriented restaurant where lots of young families bring their children to celebrate their birthdays.  We shared a hamburger and fries along with a Snickers Milk Shake.  New York prices being what they are, this was a $40.00 meal.

Golden sharing 45th Anniversary meal

Diane about to share the Snickers Milk Shake Specialty

We finished out the week, as well as Sunday afternoon, working on additional findings for Johanna Kreutz as well as putting some of the information together in a lesson plan for her.  We found many Find A Grave Index records for her family in Illinois and especially in St. Louis, Missouri where they stayed for several generations.  I also revamped a lesson plan for Ryan Wood, Elders Quorum President that we had planned to present as a demonstration in Elders Quorum Priesthood Meeting but we had to postpone as he was called last minute to go to New Jersey for the weekend.  With our mission ending soon, some of the plans for presenting FH experiences are being postponed with members having other things going on.

I have been sending microfilms back to FamilySearch Distribution that have been digitized and made browsable. Several microfilms where marked "Spring Street" for a project that Pat Nixon, former FHC Director, and now assistant matron in the Manhattan Temple, had used to transcribe information on deceased Spring Street Church members.  But I did not realize until this week that the films were of the Manhattan Death Records.  FamilySearch had said that if they weren't from them, they were to be given back to donors or they could be destroyed.

I found that these were actually records that FamilySearch had on microfilm and they have been digitized, and even indexed.  When Pat told me why they were transcribing (they had called it indexing), it made a lot of sense.

In the 1960s, Donald Trump purchased the property which, at that time, was vacant since the Spring Street Church had been razed.  In the building of a 42-story Trump International Hotel and Tower, it was discovered that under the church, parishioners had been interred after their deaths.  These graves had to be relocated, which was done in the process.

The college was interested in how these people died, and the ten microfilms of Manhattan Deaths contain death certificates that include these people.  Before Pat left as director, about 100 entries were provided to the college for their project.  Should they wish to continue, these records are now digitized and so I was able to prepare to send these films back to FamilySearch.

On Sunday, as Diane was working with census records on families for Johanna, she said she was interested in finding where they came from.  I told her that I doubted that she would find a specific place in Germany where the people came from in these records.  She reminded me that she had sufficient faith, and had seen and been involved in enough miracles to know that she would be able to get the information and scolded me for shaking her faith.

We continued to work on these research findings, and Monday she found an entry for a great-grandmother of Johanna's in the census, and here was the miracle!  Few times had I seen that census takers had listed a specific place, other than the country of birth.  But here was the entry giving Hanover, Germany.

Besides this, a Find A Grave Index listed Frank Kreutz with an exact birth date in Germany and listed the names of his parents.  When doing a search in the historical records of FamilySearch, it brought up a Roman Catholic Baptism record for Franziscus Kreuts in Boppard, Rhineland, Germany.  The exciting thing was that the dates of birth matched!  And baptisms were also found for six siblings.

On Tuesday, we went to Harlem for a doctor's appointment for my annual checkup and a follow-up for Diane.  While there, Diane had her hair cut at the Dominican Star on Lenox Street where she had gone a couple of times before.  We grabbed a bite at McDonald's and I noticed that a truck was pulled along the side street and a vendor had set up a vegetable and fruit stand.  Since we see this quite a bit in these neighborhoods, I decided to take a photo.

On Wednesday, Diane had an appointment for consultation with Dr. Patrick O'Leary who is a spinal surgeon, also a member of the Manhattan 1st Ward. He gave her all the reports from results of total body scan and the copies of the x-rays and MRI she had provided.  He said that surgery was not indicated and that after we get home, to look for a specialist that uses combination of pain management and physical therapy.  We found that Johanna's office was exactly that and we have been under her care this entire year.

While serving in the FHC, Sr. Luz Enith Garcia came in for a second time for help with her late husband's temple work.  He died in 2014 in El Salvadore and had only been baptized.  However, when he died, and ever since, his death information was never reported to membership department.  So without the death information, his ordinances can't be completed and Sr. Garcia sealed to him.  With help from the temple recorder and FamilySearch support, we need to get the death certificate to have it added to the membership.  We will continue with that next week.

This afternoon we met with Johanna Kreutz in our apartment to guide her through her family history experience and what we had found.  We spent three hours together teaching her how to navigate and search in FamilySearch.org and the historical records and had her attach sources and merge duplicates that extended and branched her family tree.  She was amazed at how much time we had spent and how organized the information was.  Pedigree charts and copies of the records were put together to help her see the extent of what we had found as to where here ancestral families came from in Germany.  At the time, she also said that it was much more than she had expected and felt connection to her family as she went through the Kreutz findings.

On Friday, I had an appointment with Johanna for my last injection in my knee. When I got there, before she did anything she gave me a card to say thank your for all that we did on the family search project.

At the same time, I reached over and pulled out the gift and card that I had for her. She smiled and asked me "Is that the Book of Mormon?" I said "Yes, it is and if you read it you will have a greater feeling that what she was feeling at that time but it would be the Spirit telling her of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon." She said that she was feeling something that she could not put into words and I explained to her that it was the Spirit of Elijah revealing to her the eternal nature of the family.

Then she had many questions about the Book of Mormon so I told her that we had marked the first scripture to start with in Moroni 10:4-6 and then she could read it however she wanted to. I suggested that she read with the focus on our Savior Jesus Christ and try underlining anything that was about the Savior. She said that she was so excited to read it and asked where to begin. It didn't matter, I gave her some of my favorite sections in 3 Nephi and Moroni but she could just start at the beginning. The Spirit was wonderful in her office and we talked for about 45 minutes before getting down to business on my office visit. It was a wonderful experience. She will be moving out to the west to Los Angeles, California in January, so she thought that we would be able to visit each other much easier. I really feel that some day, she will become a member of the church.