Head Fiddler

Finally someone found the photo of us with the mission president and wife!

compare progress in the one below:

Head Fiddler

I earned the title for the day when I was able to fiddle around until I got someone’s dates and assignments fixed correctly, at first it kept losing things off their record or refusing to make the change, etc. We learn how to do something and then every time the parameters are just different enough to make the procedure new. It helps that Durk and I can ask each other and assist and share problems. Sometimes I know what he needs to do and sometimes he knows what I need to do. We've had a few days that really reminded us of Brasil - the complications, detective work, and things not working.

More learning from a Mission Devotional – did you know there is a whole zone for Data Quality Assurance that works to make sure the information on Family Search is accurate, of high quality, and up to church standards? They even can “lock” famous people and historical General Authorities so no one can make changes in their history without submitting a case. They might check on the names of localities so that the name used at the time of the birth/death/whatever is the one used with the records of it. They do random checks of camera capture to make sure everything is to very high standards, help with various ways records are organized so users can find them, much more.

No other organization on the face of the earth would undertake this (connecting the whole human family) plus offer it free of charge to the world. It is the Lord’s work and will only be completed with His help. (here's a cool free guide to working on your family history)

The Family History department has 950 employees and 5,800 missionaries and long-term volunteers. They work on getting, organizing, preparing, providing access to records.

So far they have 4.8 billion images of historical records, over 530,000 are digitized in the FamilySearch digital library, currently there are over 330 camera capture crews around the world. There is an effort to collect oral histories especially in places without written records. The Aletheia (?) Project is working on teaching computers to read handwriting in various languages (you can help, search “family history games byu” and do “reverse indexing”) because gathering is going much faster than indexing.

Many have stories of searching for things like entries had two people almost the same but searched out and gradually found information on them both and the differences to put them correctly in two families-

The purpose for all his? To connect the human family. One story of a father who abused his wife, told her he would beat her if she got baptized but she did, he moved to strike her and fell down, died a week later. Later the children did not really want to get him sealed to Mom but they did and everyone present felt a strong spirit of joy and knew he had changed and accepted the gospel on the other side.

Tuesday group at the Clark Planetarium. Did you know half our oxygen comes from tiny sea creatures? And birds thousands of miles from people are dying from eating pieces of plastic?

LEADERSHIP

The enrichment talks that we only have access to while here are awesome. I think everyone with a family or on a ward council needs this course! Some of the bits:

Eyring: “treat moments of inspiration as seeds” , whatever the impression, do it - your power to choose the right will increase. Following the Spirit is not making us dependent but magnifying us. Eventually we can apply what we learned without needing direction.

Nelson – Humble yourself before God, Write, Record, Follow through – choose to do the spiritual work required

Bednar: (Stephen L Richards?) leadership is building capability in those you lead, seeing capability in people they might not see in themselves. Help them find and develop it. Gifts are given to us to bless someone else (ask for them for helping not for self)

Ask in prayer to see yourself as you really are = one of the most spiritually rigorous things you can ever do – anguish is the beginning of real repentance and change. See the gap and ask what you need to do and how to sustain it.

Everything in the gospel is about not staying the same.

Bednar spoke of being pres. of BYUI and Elder Eyring was coming to speak. At a gathering with some students he asked them to come prepared – dress in Sunday best, etc. and to tell a friend, and ask him to tell a friend. One by one everyone got the message and showed up spiritually prepared and dressed respectfully –

Sister Clifton's birthday got sixteen of us to a Korean Restaurant

eight "side dishes" all types of kimchi except the broccoli,
I liked most of them but didn't try the seaweed

Something has gone totally haywire with blogger drafts, I published the previous one without fixing or finishing because all I see in the "draft" is gobbledygook yet it looked fine in Preview. Maybe Blogger has aged out...It now lets me type but photos are all code. Apparently every time I blink it resets to html instead of a view you can see/read.

Try two to get Blogger to work: A DAY IN THE LIFE....

Instead of jumping in to what are really my study notes about devotionals, etc, here is a typical day: (though no two days are really alike)

We head for the office about 7:40 or a bit sooner, although sometimes Durk now goes early to work out in the gym. It's been pretty chilly so I'm grateful for the ear-warmers someone gave me. We walk through the parking lot of the apartment and cut through the corner of the conference center block, watch to see how fast to hurry to catch the light change to cross the street, dodge little golf-cart type vehicles with grounds workers, no longer have to pause and mask up to go in the building. It took us a few days to find our way efficiently to 3 West, but now we are even familiar with and to the people near where we catch the elevator. Durk starts out by forwarding phones to any IFR subs, I start checking e-mails - on Mondays especially there can be quite a few. We hope for answers from stake presidents and mission presidents on queries about when we can send reinstated missionaries back and if we have enough information we call Travel. We are very familiar with "we are experiencing and unusually high call volume"...

Some days we have Department Devotionals, Mission devotional (full hour), or zone devotional -- by zoom during which we occasionally answer phone calls. Mostly we get calls from stake presidents with questions about their missionaries - maybe about sending them back after early release, or the family is worried about them getting to their original assignment, etc. Some of our other duties include compiling reports on the days off/subs, reasons for missionaries who went home sooner or later than normal, getting information on who is approved for service missions to the right IFR who deals with making the change from teaching mission to service, getting letters explaining early releases sent to stake presidents, attaching translated ones to the files. Around noon we take our lunch (usually leftovers, sometimes cafeteria) down to the second floor where we join other senior missionaries who are working in the department that processes all the things involved in seniors who apply to serve. They get the medical information and other things ready for the names to go to the assignment meeting. Its nice to have conversation, since until this last week our area has been pretty empty in the office. March 7 was our area's start at coming back, but most will come two times a week, perhaps three. They got to liking being home :)

Occasionally we get lists of missionaries that are working in a temporary assignment whose original assignment country is opening up and we check on those with medical notes to make sure they are medically and mentally fit to go. The greater portion of these are done now, only a few countries remain where missionaries haven’t been able to return. Japan is finally opening, for instance, but it has been so long that many were never able to go there. We had a very minor part in the moving of missionaries from Ukraine, Russia, and Moldova due to concerns for safety. Some days we have so many calls we can't finish what we were doing from the last call and we spend a lot of time trying to figure out what we were doing but we've had a lot of days with almost none, so you never know.

After work we sometimes have social group gatherings, often in the JSMB where we eat and do some kind of activity in the lower level cafeteria or we go someplace together. Now that Covid precautions are going away we might start having zone potlucks that apparently used to be a monthly occurrence to welcome new missionaries and say goodbye to those leaving. The building these are held in has been sold but once again we have been told the turnover has been pushed back so we will have it another month or two - a stake center just north of the apartments. Those who meet there will start going to a high-rise south-east of the COB. Many evenings we are pretty much brain-dead and thankful for BritBox and PBS and popcorn (we had to buy a new WhirlyPop)

Saturdays are getting routine, groceries, laundry (we are better at getting the laundry pay app to work and using the machines that have few options and no explanation about what the options mean), cleaning a bit, etc., but now I get to add in painting which is awesome, and Durk studies Portuguese. We went to some WinterFest concerts but they are getting more like rock concerts with all the yelling and very high volume, are not so much to our taste. We have decided to try to shop and laundry on weekday evenings so our Saturdays can be more of a day off.

The TIPS (Tuesday in -person social) group has started meeting in person again. We had a night with a quiz about temples and this week we had a tour of the Utah Capitol building, many times voted as the most beautiful in the country. I didn't realize there is marble in Utah but the reddish brown marble is from Utah, as well as Utah Amber in some places, but all the white is from Georgia. They also have the tallest one-piece solid marble pillars anywhere. Much of the roof is glass to let in light, symbolizing transparency in government. The whole building was recently closed for four years for complete restoration. The doors are steel because when it was built fire was the greatest hazard, but they are all painted to look like wood, they really do look like it.