Week Two--Family History Training

This past week we were back in our same "Zoom Meeting" locations, but we had four days of mostly Family History training.  It was amazing and made me so excited to spend time working on my own family history and getting things organized, photos, attached, names found---all of it.

We were taught along with five other missionaries also coming into our zone.  (One of them also have a son with Down syndrome who is 28, although he will not be serving with them if we ever make it to Salt Lake.)  It was mostly 8 to about 3 each day with an hour break for lunch.  I know that isn't like a full-time job, but I was very tired each day.  There was so much new information and review of old information to try to learn and remember.  A bit of a strain on the brain for sure, but also very exciting.

The people who trained us were all part of "The Training Zone" which is one of the 14 zones in our mission.  The zone includes both full-time missionaries like us and also many Church Service missionaries who serve for a few days a week.  This zone teaches the new missionary Family Search training plus provides 8 Enrichment classes a week on related Family History topics.  (We will be able to attend those classes if they fit into our schedule.)

Seriously, family history is so exciting and we all should get engaged in this work--both to enrich our own lives and understanding of our families, to share that with our children and grandchildren, and to do the temple work for those who have gone before us.

Some sources for you to have fun and explore:

thefhguide.com   This is a free site with resources on how to do so many things on a variety of family history platforms.  They have little mini classes that will guide you through doing almost anything from just starting out to serious newspaper searches.

fhtl.byu.edu   If you have a familysearch.org free account, you can link it to the games on this site and play with your own family tree.  The Jeopardy game (Geneopardy) was really fun.  There is also a Wheel of Fortune Game.

familysearch.org   It also has games and activities that you can do to share family history with your family.

If you want to get started, one of the teachers suggested the Institute manual "Introduction to Family History."  It is available on the Gospel Library app.

I know a variety of unconnected facts.  Let's see how I can use them to make progress on our own family history over the next few years.

Although this was all very exciting, one of the main things for this week was learning what our actual assignment was going to be in our mission.  We met with the three members of our mission presidency and their wives on Wednesday and had an opportunity to talk about the different zones and what we might be interested in.

Friday was the big day.  We had a meeting with most of the Training Zone and all the members of the Presidency and their lives.

Drum Roll, please!!!

We were assigned to the Church History Collection Zone.  I didn't have the handout with the different zones and I had no idea what that zone did as it was not one that we had really looked out....mostly because we were thinking more about the Family History side of things.

My Facebook post:

"For family and friends who were waiting to hear: Gary and I received our assignment to serve in the Church History Library and our main tasks will be taking oral histories from mission presidents who have served in the US and Canada and to gather pictures and other artifacts.

How interesting will that be!!

#utahsaltlakecityheadquartersmission"

As Gary commented later, it was nothing like we thought about as we began this process to serve a mission, but we are happy to do whatever we are being asked to do.  As I love people and their stories, what can be better than being a "collector" of faith- promoting stories! While we are actually assigned a cubicle with a phone on the second floor of the Church History Library, we will still be serving from home until the Library reopens. Our zone leaders are Elder and Sister Higginson who are from Idaho and are there currently.  We spent Friday having training with them which will extend through this week as well.  We will meet Elder Higginson in person on Thursday and spend the afternoon at the Library and learn more about our responsibilities and how to do them.

We have been told that about three months after we complete the oral history, it will be available in the Church History catalog for anyone to listen to.

As part of the zone assignment, we are also assigned to a branch.  Ours is the Ensign Peak Branch and meets in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building Chapel which is beautiful.  My dad and Karla attended a ward in this building as well when they lived downtown when they first moved here from Texas. Of course, we attended remotely for the combined Relief Society and Priesthood meeting and also Sacrament Meeting.  There was the weird feeling of being new in the ward, but that is made complicated by the fact that how will we ever meet people while serving remotely--or even learn their names!  Challenging!

One more note from the week:

When I work on my computer in the basement, I often wrap up in this blue blanket that my mom tied for Gary and I when we got married.  It is over 42 years old now but it still brings memories of her.  (It was the go-to blanket for some of my kids when they were sick as well.  Not sure it will last to be past down however.)  One morning I was colder than usual so I grabbed the  blanket on the rocking chair downstairs to add to the blue blanket to keep me warm.  Later that morning, I happened to glance down and realized that the ivory blanket was my mother-in-law's.  It seemed right that as I learned to do family history better and on the second week of our mission--I was kept "warm" by these two important women in my life.

Little things that "turn the hearts of the children to their fathers--" or in this case, their mothers!