7 August 2016

The past few weeks, Suzie has been sending a weekly question for us to ponder and answer.  This week's question is "If you were to send aliens to any past decade, what decade would you send them to?"

As I (Diane) thought about this, it seemed to me that every decade had is good and bad so I decided to select when the heavens were open once again and the blessings of the gospel came forth. When I think of all the blessings that I have as a result of living gospel principles, I marvel at the wonders and promises of my Savior. This truly is work and what a privilege an alien would have to be able to meet Joseph Smith. 

I (Golden) thought about this and the decade I would send them to would be 30-40 A.D.  This was the time that the prophesies of all the prophets was fulfilled with the Atonement of our Savior.  The three days following his death in both the Old World and the Americas would have been fantastic to behold and the feelings of the Holy Ghost would surely help them to understand that this was also for them, as it is for all of the Creations of Jehovah and the opportunity for them to receive salvation and exaltation.

Yesterday I had a wonderful experience with a 75 year old lady that came in to do some research. When she first came in I asked her if she needed any help and she indicated that she would be fine alone so I did not do much. She has worked in family history for years but when she started working with Family Tree, the computer started to have her ask questions. I slowly introduced her to the features of Family Tree and until and I discovered that her research was in Norway. I asked her if she had ever used the Norway Digital Archives and then showed her out to get to it. She was so excited and that broke open a very comfortable  relationship that started out kind of aloof.

She told me that a few years ago she was desirous of serving a mission and went to her branch president to start the process. Before she could say anything the branch president asked her not to say anything until after he had spoken to her. He said: "I realize that you came to me for an interview to start a mission, but would like to ask you to withhold that request and accept a call to be our Relief Society President." He said, "I need an endowed sister that could encourage the sisters to get to the temple and she was the only one endowed and capable in their branch." 

Sister Jackson answered, "If that is where the Lord wants me, that is where I will go" and she gave up her opportunity for a full time mission. She served for three years as Relief Society President at the age of 70 or 71. When she was released, they called her to be Primary President at the age of 74. While holding these callings, she also served at the Manhattan Temple two days a week. This required her to travel over 1 1/2hours, each way.

I marveled at her attitude and she said, "I have been given so much from the Lord that I promised Him that when I retired, I would serve him with all my time." And that she is doing. She said that she could never match what He has given her, "But I can do all that I can do." I was amazed at her beautiful testimony.

After I explained to her the power and destiny of the data that was going into Family Tree, she could understand the importance of it and accepted the challenge of cleaning up her data so that it would be ready for the Savior when He comes. She never showed any hesitation in adding to her already busy schedule. I explained that if she needed help that she could call and I could go in as a helper with her in her home via computer and guide her through her problem. What an example she was to me. I hope that I can follow in her footsteps.

On Friday, we traded shifts with the Hansons so we went in from 2:00 - 6:00 and then we went out to dinner with the Hansons and then on to the Radio City Music Hall to see "The Rockettes". We have never seen anything quite so spectacular with the new lighting technology that could be used in the production.

The story line of the program was based on a family making a return trip to New York to relive their parents' marraige proposal on the top of the Empire State Building. The family was getting on the subway when the kids got into a disagreement that caused them to miss the subway and they ended up being split from their parents. They had the subway going across the stage and several stops identical to the actual subway locations. They had scenes of the Empire State Building, visiting the New York Public Library (with talking lions), Wall Street (with flying money through the air), Central Park (with greenery and a talking statue of Alice In Wonderland. People as bubbles were flying across the stag amidst trees and climbing vines  in Central Park turning into flowers that all covered the stage and the ceiling of the auditorium which was three tiers high. It was huge. All of these scenes were going on while the Rockettes performed their dancing routines. They are known for their precision dancing and the line dance and it was also something to behold. It was one of our best evenings spent with our friends.

Golden worked with a patron named Norma trying to resolve the spelling or information on her Polish grandparents. They settled in Massachusetts, and we found them in various census records.  She will be going to Massachusetts next week to visit her only living uncle to see if she could get information for him if he is lucid enough to give it.  Robert and Miriam Thompson from Queens and members of the Church, after finding that the temple was closed for maintenance, came in for help to print family ordinance cards. Since neither were computer literate, there was some clean-up on their trees.

On Saturday, the center was moderately slow. Some of the people that came in did not require one-on-one time, but two of them did. Golden took Sister Liz McMillan requiring research assistance and I took a gentleman that had not done research for years and wanted to get back into it. He had never worked on Family Tree so it was all new. I gave him the option of searching without creating an account or creating one. He opted for searching only the first half hour and then when we found some documents for his family, I explained how if he had a Tree he could begin documenting his ancestors. He got excited and created the account. I was able to help him upload the documents, take a picture of his picture, and put them both into the Tree. I then showed him how to label them and attach them to each individual. I also showed him how to take the document that he uploaded and attach it as a source with the image. He was excited and wanted more.

Liz was trying to find information on her grandmother and why there were so many hard feelings in the family. She married in early 1920s to a military man 25 years older than she and after having five or six children, died of tuberculosis at Tuberculosis Hospital in Washington D.C.  We were trying to find out what happened to the children, and if a family members may have raised them.  We found some of the children in two separate census records, each lodging (as teenagers) in the residences of public school teachers, but we did find the death certificate of the mother in 1929 which helped to dispel some of the family stories and verify other parts.  It is like reading a good mystery or detective novel with some of the problems we get at the Family History Center.  As we work with these African Americans, at least we don't have to try to struggle though a foreign language!

It is so fun to watch the light come into peoples' eyes and the excitement they feel when we help them connected with their ancestors and family. This is the work of the Lord and He is very involved in it.