To begin my adventures
over the last couple of weeks, I will start with an interesting experience with
a patron that came into the center a few weeks ago. Eric came in to the Family
History Center for the first time and wanted help with his family history. As I
worked with him, he began talking about himself and describing how he had been
in prison or jail, I can’t remember which, and that he was completely innocent
of the charge of assault on his wife. He said that he was a member of the
Church but his knowledge did not seem to match a member’s knowledge so I just
shrugged it off. He was really loud spoken and made it difficult for others to
work.
A couple of weeks later,
he came in and spent the whole time with me telling his story again. I finally
got him to try and do some research but he did not have enough information to
find anything. He tried calling his grandmother and she just hung up on him. He
asked me "why would she do that?" I did not want to answer that
question so I just stated that I really did not know. I told him that there was
not much I could do until he got more information and then I began working on
another project and he just sat and watched for awhile.
He then left for awhile
and I learned that he had gone up into the chapel and was looking around and
taking books. The security guard told me that she had to go upstairs that there
was a problem so I watched the front for her while she was checking things out.
Apparently he had taken some books from the center and taken them upstairs to
the chapel. The security guarde asked him to leave so he came back down to the
family history center and put a stack of books on top of the shelf.
When it came time to close
down, we mentioned that we were closing the center and that he would have to
leave. He started to scavenger around and was looking at the list of people
that had made copies and left money. He asked if it was tithing and I just
explained that it was money for copies.
Grandpa did not dare put
the money away until he left, so we started walking out. He went outside and
then we were able to lock the money up. When we went to go out the front door,
he came in and asked us if we had any money that we could give him. I told him
that I did not carry money with me and then we started walking to our
apartment. I noticed that he was following us to our apartment. When we turned
the corner I saw that he had stopped walking and stood on the corner.
When I went to our
apartment, I was concerned that he was going to come in and claim that we were
friends and ask for our apartment so I went back down to the front desk. I
asked the doorman if he saw the gentleman following us and he had. I told him
that if he came in and claimed we were friends, tell him to leave because we
were not. He had read our name tags and we did not want him up there. The
doorman stated that he was from New York and he knew how to recognize these
guys and was very much aware of him following us and had already taken care of
it.
I have since then spoken
with the security guards at the front desk by the Family History Center, and
they are all prepared to escort him out the door or they will call the police.
I hope that he does not come back in but I guess time will tell.
Our cold weather is
finally hear. We have been in the high of 15 with the wind chill so I am
wearing my leggings and triple layers of clothing. We only got about 2" of
snow off this last storm but it looks like from Wednesday on this next week we
are in for freezing rain and snow all week. I am already homesick for spring. I
guess I can't complain when I see the pictures that your mother is sending us
on the 15 to 20" of snow that they have and are getting more. I don't miss
that at all.
Our mission is going
well. We will be meeting with our missionaries at the district meeting on
Tuesday and the Elders have asked us to present how to approach people using
family history. We have been putting together some door approaches and street
approaches that we can use to have them practice and they are going to get some
consultants going so that we can teach them and prepare them to work with the
families in their area.
This last week has been
one of challenge and also great reward. Since our FHC director travels a lot,
she will not be around too much so most of the assignments are falling on us.
We have been assigned to manage the microfilm orders and returns and all of the
maintenance on the microfilm readers and to maintain the patron scheduling
system for reserving a scanner. By scheduling the scanners, it assures them of
being able to work on one when they come.
When Emily, an assistant
director, was training me on the program that they had been using for the past
three years, I found it very cumbersome and decided that I would try and set up
the new year with a more simplified way to do it. I spent several hours trying
to make the form look like the one they were used to but where I would only
have to update it once a year instead of every month. I moved it into Google
Docs and had it working well for the first week and then trouble set in.
Someone or something deleted the first week from January which took out my code
and destroyed the rest of the year. When I caught it, we had three patrons all
scheduled at the same time to use the same scanner.
My first testimony of
how the Lord is always there to help out, two of the patrons that were
scheduled at the same time discovered that they were relatives so they were
happy working together. When the third patron came in, he was really patient in
understanding the problem and worked on another computer until the other two
were finished which was about a half an hour.
I called Jane, our old
director, and asked her to break the link in the website until I could get it
fixed. I rewrote the whole excel file and made it easier to follow the lines
and see the times for scheduling. I hope that this was the problem and that
they will leave it alone as I cannot secure an excel file in Google Docs. I
have said a few prayers in hopes that I can have it work for everyone’s
benefit. I will hopefully be putting it back up in this next week as soon as
Jane gets back from working with her daughter in the hospital.
We have a ward clerk in
the China Town Ward that came in and was really frustrated. He was trying to
get some backing on getting some supplies for their little family history
center but he wanted us to do it all. I am not sure why as we really have
nothing to do with how the wards budget their supplies to their centers and
where and what support they can get. He asked us to quit our calling as
missionaries at the Manhattan Family History center and come and work for
theirs. I knew that we could not do that but he really did not care about rules.
He was willing to do anything to try and get things for his ward.
Pedro seems to be so
happy when he comes in to work with us. He still has very little confidence in
himself but his attitude is slowly changing. I guess he tried to work with a
patron when we were not there but Elder and Sister Hansen were and they would
not let me. I told them that we were working on training him to be a volunteer
but they said that it would never work. He would not change. I hope that we
have success with him. He would be such an asset to the center with his skills
and Spanish abilities.
Another sister came in
that was one of those choice experiences that won’t be forgotten. She said that
she only had an hour and wanted to find the brothers and sisters of her grandfather’s
family. With the short period of time that I had, we set up her account so she
could see people and then I took her right into searching. As her family
started to come together, her excitement began to grow and she could see the
miracle of the database and the opportunity of working with family members. She
expressed what a joy it had been for her and even though we did not get exactly
what she thought she came in for, she was overjoyed with what she had and she
wanted more. She was excited about the possibility of going to a family history
center near her but also asked if she could come back and work with me.
I expressed to her that
one of the things that she should focus on was stories and photos. I told her
how we could help her and how important it was that she preserve the now. I
told her to tell stories that would make her family come alive. The spirit
began to grow and the light came on with her and she was excited.
Each time I experience
this type of reaction with our patrons where they are so grateful for the
wonder of familytree and the tools and support that we offer everyone, my heart
fills with gratitude for what the Lord has given us. I find it interesting how the
non-members come in and see familytree as a marvelous miracle and get teary
eyed when they see family names appear but our members could care less about
it. Over 80% of all people using familytree our non-members and the spirit they
have brought into the family history center has been a joy to be a part of.
On Saturday night our new Family History Center Director,
Lyn Wilcox and her husband Bill,invited us out to dinner and to go and watch
the New York Philharmonic Orchestra perform. It was a wonderful experience and
we enjoyed their gift and thoughtfulness towards us. We went to Restaurant
Roberts on Columbus Circle and had a delicious dinner that was quite ritzy
before going to the David Giffen Hall at Lincoln Square which is the home of
the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. We had box seats. I could not believe it!
