Open Chapel: our program for finding families

Open Chapel is a program we created as a way to interact with community members here in New Zealand where we didn't know anyone.

Everyone loves family. Open Chapel is here to help them find their families, living or dead.

We learned skills along these lines when we were missionaries in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. They include both research skills and familiarity with various kinds of records. We also have skills pertaining to recording what they find.

Every day we open the doors of the chapel from 10am to noon and invite in anyone who would like to come discover their ancestors. We get them to write down what they already know, then send them off to look up other information and to talk to family members.

Many members of the ward have stepped up to help and so we have been able to give one-on-one attention most of the time. And that is really important for beginners!

A great number of those who have come are Maori. They have their whakapapa at home or someone in the family does or they have memorized it. There are helps online for them and ways to help them, and we're learning right along with them. Fortunately several of our helpers are also Maori.

We are working in conjunction with the local library and genealogical associations.

The church has published a small booklet called My Family. It is this we use to record their first several generations as they work backward in time. There is space for photos and stories and makes a nice keepsake. These booklets are free from the church. And there is an online facsimile at familysearch.org that anyone can use. Unfortunately we don't have enough. We have several thousand on order.

In the church, we believe that families are an essential part of who we are. By finding families, including lost or forgotten members, and recording not only their information but stories and photos, we are helping turn the hearts of the children to their forefathers and vice versa.

For more information see The Family: A Proclamation to the World.

We love families! This is a natural work for us. And we are building community here in a place where we knew no one. It's a joy to come here to the chapel each day. The biggest challenge we have is being in four towns, widely separated, to get this program off the ground!

New Zealand: our mission, the more sacred side

Here we are in Feilding, New Zealand. A short time ago we said, 'where?' Now it's home.

Each day we get up at 6:30 (unless the melodious birds wake us earlier) and get ready for the day. Part of that time - usually about an hour to maybe as much as two hours - consists of a prayer together to start the day and the study of scriptures on a given topic.

We use as a guide the marvelous book Preach My Gospel. I particularly like the studies in the chapter called Christ-Like Attributes. I have been transformed in many ways by doing these studies. I can't recommend that book - manual, really - too greatly.

Then we head to the chapel, which is about 5 minutes from our little house.

It's here at the chapel that we can get online, so we check our email and Facebook and so on. Then we open the doors for our Open Chapel program. More on that in another post.

After two hours, it's time to close up and send everyone home. We either stay for a bit to continue online, or walk to lunch a mile or so away, or drive home for lunch.

In the afternoon we visit people, share various gospel-related messages with them, just read the scriptures and pray with them, go for a walk, take a rest or a nap, make supper, or all the above. Or grab some groceries or do the wash.

In the evening we go out and teach, or stay home and write, or take a walk.

Often our work takes us to distant towns. We have four towns under our care: Feilding where we live, Foxton, Levin, and Wanganui. We are getting to know church members in each of them. We share our Open Chapel program with them in hopes that they will find ways to take it up, too. We give talks about the importance of family history, or our journey, or gospel topics.

I'll write separately about what we've discovered in our travels. That will be on Travels with Juan, another blog. (travelswithjuan.blogspot.com).

The real nature of our work depends on an understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'd like to talk about that, since my understanding has changed so much, but I'll save that for a different post.

What is really meaningful, of course, about what we do is the people. That has been a real eye-opener. So I'll save that for another post too.

For me, these six weeks since we have been on our mission have been transformative. Never have I understood the gospel the way I do now. Study of the scriptures and prayer make a huge difference. On our other missions, we were caught up in a workday that was not in itself immersed in the gospel (and a lot of what we do here is not either), but here we have time to study and make ourselves busy in direct missionary work.

I should say that unlike the young missionaries, we set our own schedule and choose our own activities. It's up to us to make of this experience what we will. As you will see if you continue reading, Open Chapel is a result of that confidence the leadership has in senior missionary couples.

Time is going fast. We are almost a quarter of the way through our time here. Sometimes I want to keep going, other times I know it would be good to go home. But we signed up for 6 months, and that is no doubt what we will do.

Angels and miracles, part 1

We are at the airport. Most of the logistics gave been handled, and we have been among angels along the way.

Friends from our last mission housed us and gently counseled us and kept us calm in their sweet atmosphere.

Family met us for lunch today on this last day and shared their good humor with us.

Moriah drove us to the airport and waited at the curb while we ferried loads to the ticketing counter. It's nice to have such a grown-up, responsible granddaughter so willing to lend a hand. I'm sure she'll do 'helpful' things with tour car. :)

And a real miracle, very strange in how it played out, showed us that our angels are everywhere. Here's what happened.

We found out a few days ago that by opting to skip a few days in Hawaii we would no longer be able to take two bags for free. That's because of switching airlines. The cost could have ended up being $360 a bag beyond the first bag.

So we spent hours weighing bags, rearranging suitcases, cutting down our not-terribly-large selection of clothes, and coming up with a plan that would see us with only one extra bag instead of two.

Still it was frustrating to have the extra expense with nothing to show for it.

Then last night, after laying out all the bags, I decided to call Delta Airlines to see what the rules really were. We had seen them listed several different ways, including on the Delta website.

Much to my joy the woman on the phone said there was no charge for the first two bags! That was good news even though we had lost several hours repacking. We closed things up and breathed a sigh of relief.

That was good news but not a real miracle, I don't think. But what follows is.

Today we went to the airport. Moriah waited at the car while John and I went in with a good-sized load each. We were met in the Delta area by a very large, pleasant agent. He took my passport and helped me get checked in, did the same for John when he returned with two more suitcases and a large box of Shaklee goods.

We immediately learned he was from New Zealand, from up north in Hamilton.

He helped us carry things to the counter. But there was a problem. Our ticket info showed we were entitled only to one bag each! The woman on the phone had been wrong.

We told the agent at the counter about the conversation and she sent us to another agent. That agent also said we would have to pay, that she wasn't authorized to remove the charges.

Then she asked our New Zealand helper to go get authorization from an office somewhere else in the airport. He came back a few minutes later with approval.

The miracle? The first agent on the phone, the one who was mistaken, ultimately put us in the position of taking everything we needed. Sam, the New Zealander, advocated for us the whole way and stuck with us. (Yea, John did tip him!) The women at the counters were sympathetic and didn't turn us away. And the unknown person upstairs did his part.

So now we are settled in good season at the gate. We got a pre-authorization to go through security. The airport has stations for refilling water bottles! And we are on our way.

Bottom line: We have with us all the necessities we had planned to take way back. We didn't have to pay any more for luggage. We are well trained and eager to get to work. And it took angels along the way and when we needed them they were there.

Never doubt the smooth ride when you are on the Lord's errand! All the stumbling blocks along the way were not real. Tricky but totally ineffectual. Gone.

It starts again

We are headed to New Zealand, to Wellington on the North Island. The more travel-related parts of our journey are reported on our other blog, Travels with Juan.

This blog is for the sacred side of this trip, which is dedicated to our serving what could be called a 'search and rescue mission'. It's a church mission and I hope it centers on building part-member families into temple-sealed full-member families.

We have been working hard learning all we need to be good missionaries. That includes doctrine and small-group conversation skills, I guess you could call it.

The training experience is over now. It was most enlightening!

Faith and the Scientist - talks by Elder J Lewis and Sister P Lewis, 25 Apr 2010

The following are talks given by Elder John S Lewis and Sister Peg Lewis on 25 April 2010 at the Second Branch of the Salt Lake Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Elder Lewis's talk
Sister Lewis's talk

Please feel free to leave comments below.

Faith and the Scientist - a talk given by Dr John S Lewis on April 25, 2010

The Testimony of a Scientist


John S. Lewis

Salt Lake Second Branch, 25 April 2010



The Church has a long tradition of freedom of inquiry and expression on matters with no settled doctrine. Many members and General Authorities have stated a vast range of opinions and supporting arguments on numerous topics. It should come as no surprise that in many cases there have been serious disagreements, some extensively and energetically argued in official Church publications by respected General Authorities. When General Authorities differ profoundly with each other in the pages of the Ensign or other Church publications, what is the average Church member to conclude? Such conflicts afford openings for dissention and divisiveness. What then is doctrine; indeed, how can we know what is truth?

The most durable—and heated--of these public disagreements have been those concerning scientific issues: the creation of Earth, the origin of Adam, the age of the Earth, evolution, and so on. Some Church leaders have received a scientific education: Elders John Widtsoe, James Talmage, Frederick Pack, and Henry J. Eyring serve as examples. But in matters of doctrine it is the President of the Church who alone holds all the keys of revelation for the entire body of the Church. First Presidency messages take precedence over the opinions of individual General Authorities, no matter how strongly expressed.

Suppose we desire knowledge—how do we acquire it? The answer is clear: we study it out using every available relevant and reliable source of information and then form a conclusion. We then can test that conclusion by seeking the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Those who “take no thought except to ask” are like the student who wants a good grade without doing the coursework.

Suppose, specifically, you want to know what time it is. Do you pray for the answer to be given to you? No, you look at a clock. Suppose you want your laundry washed, dried, folded and put away. Do you ask the Lord to do it for you? Suppose you want to learn integral calculus. Do you pray for instant enlightenment? No, you read the textbook, attend class, and do the homework. After all that you can do, you are entitled to assistance in the learning process. Suppose you want to know the age of the Earth. You look at the clocks built into Nature: you collect the available evidence, study the dating methods and their results, and form a conclusion. After all that you can do, you are entitled to consult the Holy Ghost for confirmation.

Most of the supposed conflict between science and religion is caused by a failure to avail ourselves of both study and revelation. I am convinced that there is no meaningful conflict—the apparent disagreements are due to people failing to use one or both of these methods. Primitive misconceptions of non-scientists about what science is, does, and says are as destructive as the interpretation of scriptures by religionists using the intellect alone, without guidance by personal or ecclesiastical revelation.

Two false concepts bedevil this debate. Some hold that the material world was made by God with abundant false evidence of great antiquity to test our faith. But God does not lie and falsify: indeed, he cannot. This idea is heretical. Another argument holds that fossils and other evidence of Earth’s great age were created by Satan to confuse us. This attribution of the creative powers of the priesthood to Satan is the essence of the Gnostic heresy, which has been rejected by all Christian faiths.

Let us consider a few of the most frequently debated points. First, let us consider the duration of the creation of Earth. Genesis talks of six days of creation, but the Hebrew word for “day” is freely used in a figurative sense in the Bible. In the highest and purest version of the creation story revealed to us, we are told of “creative periods” Elder McConkie, who I believe represents the most conservative viewpoint, has also commented that the “days” of creation are figurative, and not to be taken literally. In the June 1982 Ensign he wrote: “What is a day? It is a specified time period; it is an age, an eon, a division of eternity.” We commend this statement to the many Church members who falsely believe that Elder McConkie advocated a one-week duration for the creation.

Secondly, let us inquire into the age of the Earth. Considering that D&C 77:6 refers to “…this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance, or its temporal existence”, what led Joseph Smith, who wrote that verse, to speak of Earth as 2,555 million years old in the King Follett discourse? The answer appears to be straightforward. Seven thousand Earth years is in conflict with all physical, chemical, genetic, archaeological, and linguistic evidence. But seven thousand years of God is not ruled out. The arithmetic is easy: 7000 years of God, calculated on the basis of one day of God being as a thousand years of man (one year of God therefore being 365,257 years of man) is just 7000x365,257 Earth years. That is 2,556,799,000 Earth years. Clearly Joseph Smith did not intend the “7000 years” to refer to Earth years. But why did Joseph Smith and his amanuensis W. W. Phelps quote 2,555 million years instead of 2,556.8 million? Their calculation simply ignored leap years, and took the average duration of the year as exactly 365 days: thus 7000x365,000 = 2,555 million years.

The same number surfaces again in Elder McConkie’s polemical address, “The Seven Deadly Heresies”, delivered at BYU in 1980. He says that God “has presided in our universe for almost 2,555,000,000 years”, but without any indication of the source or significance of that number, or where the phrase “presided in our universe” comes from. Let us recall that, at a time when scientists scarcely dared speak of tens of millions of years, Joseph Smith firmly spoke of billions.

Thirdly, there is the belief that Church doctrine holds that there was no death on Earth before Adam’s fall. We shall return to this topic later.

Fourthly, there is the question of “pre-Adamites”, man-like beings who lived on Earth before Adam. The first LDS speculations on life before Adam were by Orson Hyde in an 1856 talk published in the Journal of Discourses. Elder Hyde wrote that manlike beings, which he called Pre-Adamites, long predated Adam on Earth. This theme can be traced back at least to the 16th century in European writings, and was treated from a Christian perspective as early as the writings of St. Augustine.

Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection first appeared in 1859, three years after Elder Hyde’s suggestion.

Fifthly, we come to evolution. John A. Widtsoe, in his book Joseph Smith as Scientist, (General Board of the YMMIA, Salt Lake City, 1908), was strongly supportive of a geologically ancient Earth and anti-evolutionary only in the sense that the origin of man was left out of the general evolutionary progression of nature and life. Elder Widtsoe wrote (page 105):

…it has been found that under normal conditions all things undergo a process of evolution; that is, become more complex, or advance. This, in essence, is the law of evolution, about which so much has been said in the last fifty years. Undoubtedly, this law is correct, and in harmony with the known facts of the universe. It certainly throws a flood of light upon the phenomena of nature; though of itself, it tells little of the force behind it, in obedience to which it operates.

Several other articles around that time advocated conflicting points of view. Evidently the doctrine needed clarification.

In response to this flurry of interest, a First Presidency message, mild and conciliatory in tone, entitled The Origin of Man, appeared in Improvement Era 13, 75-81 (Nov., 1909). The President at the time was Joseph F. Smith: Whether the mortal bodies of man evolved in natural processes to present perfection, through the direction and power of God; whether the first parents of our generations, Adam and Eve, were transplanted from another sphere, with immortal tabernacles, which became corrupted through sin and the partaking of natural foods, in the process of time; whether they were born here in mortality, as other mortals have been, are questions not fully answered in the revealed word of God.

Elder Frederick Pack wrote a series of three articles entitled The Creation of the Earth, Improvement Era 13, 1023-1027 (Sept., 1910); 1121-1127 (Oct., 1910); 14, 220-230 (Jan., 1911). Elder Pack, like Elders Widtsoe and Talmage, was a trained geologist who accepted the antiquity of Earth. He discussed the geological record in detail and was frankly positively disposed toward evolution. He also later served as Chairman of the Church’s Gospel Doctrine Committee. Clearly the Brethren did not suspect him of doctrinal error. He speculated, indeed, but did so wholly within the range explicitly allowed by the First Presidency.

In 1927, two General Authorities, Brigham H. Roberts and Joseph Fielding Smith, took diametrically opposite views, Roberts defending the fossil evidence and Smith denying it as a Satanic fraud. Both Elder Roberts and Elder Smith argued their cases before the Quorum and its President, Elder Rudger Clawson. The Quorum, hung, sent the matter back to the First Presidency. They wrote, and announced in an assembly on April 7, 1931, that "The statement made by Elder Smith that the existence of pre-Adamites is not a doctrine of the Church is true. It is just as true that the statement 'there were not pre-Adamites upon the Earth' is not a doctrine of the church. Neither side of the controversy has been accepted as doctrine at all."

As of 2010, the most recent First Presidency message regarding the origin of man is still that 1931 address. It concluded:

Upon the fundamental doctrines of the Church we are all agreed. Our mission is to bear the message of the restored gospel to the world. Leave geology, biology, archaeology, and anthropology, no one of which has to do with the salvation of the souls of mankind, to scientific research, while we magnify our calling in the realm of the Church… Upon one thing we should all be able to agree, namely, that Presidents Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund were right when they said: "Adam is the primal parent of our race." Presidents Heber J. Grant, Anthony W. Ivins, & Charles W. Nibley, the First Presidency

The First Presidency next expressed a desire to see a moderate, authoritative treatment of the main issues: that General Authorities not invent "new doctrine"; that evolution be treated as an open question; that the idea of no death before Adam be abandoned; that the antiquity of the Earth and the authenticity of geological evidence be defended; that both sides of the issue of pre-Adamites be set aside as "no doctrine".

The logical Apostle to author this overview, Elder Widtsoe, was in Europe. That left Elder Talmage as the mediator. The First Presidency gave him this assignment, and on the same day Elder Talmage wrote in his journal:

Involved in this question (Roberts) is that of the beginning of life upon the Earth and as to whether there was death either of animal or plant before the fall of Adam, on which proposition Elder Smith was very pronounced in denial and Elder Roberts equally forceful in the affirmative. As to whether pre-Adamite races existed upon the Earth there has been much discussion among some of our people of late. The decision reached by the First Presidency and announced to this morning's assembly was in answer to a specific question that obviously the doctrine of the existence of races of human beings upon the Earth prior to the fall of Adam was not a doctrine of the Church; and further, that the conception embodied in the belief of many to the effect that there were no pre-Adamite races and that there was no death upon the Earth prior to Adam's fall is likewise no doctrine of the Church. I think the decision of the First Presidency is a wise one on the premises. This is one of the many things on which we cannot speak with assurance, and dogmatic assertions on either side are likely to do harm rather than good.

Elder Talmage presented his talk on this subject in the Tabernacle on August 9, 1931, in which he was very cautious about the descent of Adam, supportive of the geologically sanctioned great age of Earth, generally negative on human evolutionary change, but also positive on the presence of death on Earth before Adam's fall. It was a conciliatory, statesmanlike position, doctrinally secure, and consistent with his knowledge as a professional geologist. He explicitly upheld the authenticity of the geological record, and he left the pre-Adamites a completely open issue. Realizing that he had contradicted Elder Smith in several important ways, Talmage sent the manuscript of his talk to Elder Widtsoe for approval, knowing that Elder Widtsoe did not accept Pre-Adamites. He then met privately with the First Presidency on November 17, 1931 to review every detail of the manuscript of his talk. They approved it, and it was published in the Church News of November 21, and later as a pamphlet authorized by the First Presidency.

Interestingly, Elder Widtsoe later adopted and advocated the existence of pre-Adamites in his article Were there Pre-Adamites?, Improvement Era 51, 205 (May, 1948). Gary J. Begera and Ronald Priddis, in their 1985 book Brigham Young University: A House of Faith quote Elder Widtsoe as saying, in a letter to Albert R. Lyman on 14 June 1948, “If (the Lord) chose to place manlike beings upon the earth before the days of Adam, I really have no right to find fault with that”.

From a doctrinal point of view, the two most important facts are the Who and Why of creation. They both have clear relevance to the principals of salvation. The When, Where, and How of creation are matters for scientists to clarify. As President Grant and his Counselors said, Leave geology, biology, archaeology, and anthropology, no one of which has to do with the salvation of the souls of mankind, to scientific research, while we magnify our calling in the realm of the Church…

The relationship between evolution and the principle of eternal progression is also deserving of careful discussion, but we have too little time to attempt it. Just reflect that “eternal” encompasses all time.

We are told to beware the wisdom of men. Science is non-dogmatic and non-authoritarian. It places observation of nature supreme over hypotheses and theories. The sociology of science rewards most generously those who overturn orthodoxy and improve our ability to explain and predict nature. Science is not perfect; it is self-correcting. It is personal and idiosyncratic interpretations of scripture, uninformed by revelation, and in conflict with established facts, that most clearly represent the wisdom of men. Brigham Young warned us of the destructive influence of such uninspired and intellectually dishonest ideas, which lead to faithlessness (“infidelity”):

I am not astonished that infidelity prevails to a great extent among the inhabitants of the earth, for the religious teachers of the people advance many ideas and notions for truth which are in opposition to and contradict facts demonstrated by science, and which are generally understood.



I bear testimony that

1. The greatest strength of the Church is that it is governed by revelation through prophets chosen by God. Their word is superior to all written scripture in matters of both doctrine and practice. This is a Church of both order and revelation. If we hearken to the words of the First Presidency we are following the proper order of God. If we shun doctrines rejected by the First Presidency, we will never be led astray and will not fall into contention, schism, and apostasy

2. Respect for truth demands that we study out these issued diligently, formulate our conclusions, and seek confirmation from the Holy Ghost. It is through the testimony of two independent witnesses that the truth can be known. Those witnesses are revelation and science. The two witnesses of truth, science and revelation (intellect and spirit) do not conflict in any way. The supposed conflict of science and religion is a myth that is dear to Satan and serves his purposes.



It is my hope and prayer that when, in the due course of eternal evolutionary progression, we are called upon to assist in the building of new worlds, we will be both spiritually and intellectually prepared to go and do the things which we are commanded.

Faith and the Scientist - a talk given by Peg Lewis on April 25, 2010

Years ago we were on a long trip with some church members we didn’t know very well. As the miles went by, the brother described a new business venture he and some friends had undertaken. They had invented a new way to heat houses that would save a great deal on energy costs. As he described it, my husband, an expert in thermodynamics – the science of heat – grew more and more aghast. It became evident that the new ‘invention’ would break a fundamental law of physics. Finally he told the excited brother that it wouldn’t work. The brother shrugged his shoulders and said that there are naysayers in every crowd and they had the faith that it would work (and make them all a fortune).


My point is: The best of intentions without adequate knowledge of the laws of the universe often leads to failure. My purpose today is to show that that good science supports faith, and that faith is essential to good science.

Before I begin, I would like to establish my authority to speak on the subject of faith and the scientist. I was a scientist from birth, as all babies are. I experimented with dropping things and squishing bananas. And I kept at it through childhood. When I was 7, I looked at a glass of water that I had stirred salt into and honestly had a hard time believing the salt was still in there, even though I knew it had to be. I couldn’t see it. I had read that if you have a glass of salt water and evaporate away the water, the salt would return. I wanted to try it. My mother wasn’t so sure we should waste the gas to try the experiment, but my father was game, so we did it. We boiled the water in the pan and when it was all gone, salt covered the bottom of the pan.

Later I became fascinated by the Solar System, and wanted to know about the planets. I wanted to build rockets. I wanted to know how disease worked, and cars. I collected snakes, turtles, and frogs. I read about these things. I wanted to know this world and understand it.

Deep inside me, I knew there were rules, and I was trying to uncover them. It’s the same for all children, I believe.

I loved numbers. They work in predictable ways, and I loved the way they provided answers. I did my 9th grade project on electronics, a relatively new field back then, and taught my science class how a computer works, including doing arithmetic using the binary number system. I majored in chemistry in college because I thought it would provide me with ultimate answers about creation (and met Elder Lewis because I was the only person who would go out with a chemistry grad student). Later I got a graduate degree in linguistics, the science of language. I also translated science books and edited medical books, and I wrote space articles for Technology Review. Today I love math and computers, languages, the Solar System, the outdoors, all growing things, the mountains and other formations around us. I have never stopped being a scientist.

Now to the topic of our talks, faith and the scientist. First, a bit about science

The word science comes from sciere, a Latin word that means ‘to know’. Science is a way to know things. Science is a way to investigate truths.

Science is a way to eliminate he prejudices and agendas of scientists and those who hire them and pay their way and politicians who might use their discoveries for their own ends. It is a method for achieving objectivity and eliminating influence. It is friendly only to those seeking truth, and nothing but the truth.

In fact, the ultimate purpose of science is to discover the laws that underlie, and also give rise to, all of creation.

Likewise, the ultimate purpose of faith is to discover the will of God for us and understand his creation (so we can return to him).

The biggest difference between science and religion is in a few details of the method used to gain knowledge. We will look at this more closely in a moment.

But first, let’s look at the scientific method. We learned it in school, but that’s a long time ago, so let’s look at it again. Here are the steps a scientist takes to gain knowledge.

a. He becomes aware of a problem, or has a question he would like to answer.

b. He studies what others have done and finds out all he can about the problem.

c. He comes up with a possible solution, which is his hypothesis – an untested idea.

f. He designs an experiment to test his hypothesis, to find out whether this solution his correct OR NOT. (Rules have been laid down for the proper design of experiments to eliminate the possibility that the scientist will get only the results he is looking for.)

g. He runs the experiment and analyzes the data, and from the results draws a conclusion whether his hypothesis is correct or needs to be abandoned or adjusted. And he needs to replicate his results so that he can eliminate chance.

h. He publishes his results so that others can check them. If his results are flawless, he has now come up with a new theory. Otherwise he must repeat one or more steps.

Now, how does a person of faith solve a problem or answer a question? In a way that is strikingly parallel:

a. He ponders the question.

b. He studies it out through scriptures and conference talks, counsel, prayer, etch.

c. He forms a hypothesis, an idea of a possible solution.

d. He does an experiment by praying about the solution he has come up with.

e. He gets an answer through the power of the Holy Ghost and analyzes it in the clear light of day.

f. He may repeat the process of praying about it several times until he has a clear answer.

The greatest point of difference between science and a faithful approach to a problem is the nature of the experiment. Everything else is the remarkably similar: the question, the study of the issues, the conclusion about a possible solution, the analysis of the answer, and the verification or replication of the answer.

Importantly, in both science and faith it is necessary to ask a question and study it out. We have this important instruction in D&C 9:7-8: “Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed I would give it unto you, when you took no thought, save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right. And if it is right, I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore you shall feel that it is right.” This is the scientific method using the Holy Ghost instead of a lab experiment.

In fact, we are urged to experiment. The following scripture is astounding to a scientist, because here is an essential piece of science found in a scripture, the need to experiment, to test the idea. It is:

Alma 32: 33. And now behold, because ye have tried the experiment and planted the seed and it swelleth and sprouteth and beginneth to grow, ye must needs know that the seed is good.”

We have just talked about how a good Latter-Day Saint essentially uses the scientific method but how about the scientist using faith? While some scientists are proud of not having faith in a personal God, including Albert Einstein, they are denying the very forces that give them their scientific interest and pursuit.

In fact the very essence of science is the elucidation and understanding of the laws that underlie creation. The fact that there are laws for them to study is a testimony of a Creator. The creation IS the handiwork of a creator, and Einstein admits this.

“A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.

While he investigated throughout his life the most fundamental laws of creation, nonetheless he is saying that there is an existence of something we cannot penetrate. Not that we haven’t penetrated it yet, but that we can’t. It is not a law – it underlies law.

So the fact that there are laws to investigate testifies to an orderly creation and a creator who brought it about.

D&C 130:20 “There is a law irrevocably decreed in Heaven before the foundations of this world upon which all blessings are predicated.”

So when a scientist looks for a law, he is using faith that there is a law and an orderly creation, and he has a testimony whether he wants one or not.

I love the following scripture; to me it unifies science and faith.

Moses 6:63: “And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me”.

A second way in which scientists rely on faith is in the hypothesis step of the scientific method. Hypotheses are ideas that spring into the mind. Scientists talk freely about inspiration, or a hunch, or the lightbulb going on. Their hypotheses come from outside the realm of experimentation and logical thinking. A scientist may feel he is very clever to come up with such an idea. Of course we know where they really come from: They come from the Holy Ghost.

In case I sound as though I am mocking scientists because some deny God when they are essentially studying him, , let me testify as a scientist that others know and seek to know God through understanding his laws and mulling over and investigating his handiwork; that they openly use faith and inspiration as important tools; that inspiration is a key element of the scientific method, as are honesty and diligence and intelligence.

15. Let me tell you a story. Four hundred years ago, a great scientist, Isaac Newton, devoted a portion of his life to investigating the laws of motion that he observed around him. He came up with what are now called the 3 laws of motion. Later when he investigated the gravitation, he tested his hypothesis of gravity and found that his formulation was correct on Earth. By way of further experimentation he applied his new theory to the moon, based on what was known about the position and motion of the moon at that time. His theory failed: the motion of the moon could not be accounted for by his theory. He tucked his papers away in a drawer, where they remained for years. Later, though, when man’s ability to measure the distance to the moon became more accurate, large errors were found in the previous results. Newton then took out his papers and found that his theory of gravitation was correct. The theory was correct, though the original calculations on the moon’s distance from Earth were too crude to validate it.

From the time it was validated, we could find the mass of the sun and explain and predict the motions of the planets.

And this is how accurate these laws were: when the Voyager spacecraft was sent to Neptune in 1977, taking 7 years to get there, the moment when it was closest to Neptune as predicted by Newton’s laws to be within 1 second of the actual moment of arrival : 1 second out of 7 years and 3 billion miles! His theory is now a law for good reason.

Both scientists and the faithful as they strive to understand creation experience these things:

a. Joy in the discovery, and in creation. The more we know it, the more we love it and the more awe we experience.

b. Avoidance of mistakes (as our friends dreaming of a new type of heating system made )

c. Focus on what is important, true, and good

d. Improvement of life in practical ways.

e. The uncovering of the handiwork of God, to his glory.

In conclusion I would like to say, most earnestly: don’t be afraid of science. It is the systematic study of the works of the Creator. We ignore this knowledge at our peril. We give up our agency when we choose not to learn all we can on issues because they’re scientific, as if that were a dirty word. Learn all you can about God’s creation. That’s why he gave us the 13th article of faith. Read about DNA, about global warming, about pollution. Don’t take someone else’s word for them – knowledge and choiceyou’re your birthrights. Remember that science is a great tool for removing prejudice and agendas from fact-gathering and rule-making. It helps remove us from the clutches of ignorance and error and political and financial manipulation. We are asked to seek out the truth, as is laid out in scripture. As a scientist, I testify that this is true, that all truth can be known by the power of the Holy Ghost and the study of creation, and that all testify of the Creator. To this I bear personal and solemn witness.

My 3 sons...

Chris, Van, Peter - July 2009 - on a canyon hike in S Utah

Ten years...

Ten years ago this evening, Nana died.

My thoughts are often about her. Among the questions I have is whether I did all I could for her.

She moved to Tucson in July 1985, leaving behind friends who revered her, and a house full of all sorts of things that had accumulated over 31 years, and all sorts of other things that had been crammed into it when they first moved there when I was 11.

So she arrived to join us in Tucson in Summer 1985 with a moving truck full, the subset of possessions with which she filled her new condo.

She immediately took up grandmothering, driving kids to school, serving in its little library, eating supper with us, taking the kids to the pool where she lived.

She had 3 1/2 good years, and then she got sick. Surgery left her blind. Her driving, reading, and knitting days all came to an end at once. She was in and out of facilities - PT, nursing home, group home - and then came to roost at a good group home not far from our house. And it was there she died.

I could recount the circumstances, but it wouldn't make any difference. She did die. I didn't expect it, since she had been about to die so many times before. And this time, instead of falling on her head, or losing a function during surgery, or going into insulin shock, or having a stroke, she got pneumonia and faded away.

She always had said that pneumonia was the best friend of the elderly. All four of her grandparents had died of it, all around age 50, all around 1900. And she was far more elderly than they.

It may have been her friend, too. I don't know. I just miss her.

By now, 10 years later, she would have been almost 98, and would certainly be gone. So I would be missing her anyway. But it still doesn't seem right that she faded away when she did.

But what is a librarian without books? Maybe the time had come.

But, Mother, I still miss you. Love, RM

New meanings from the temple

We have been going to the temple every week, and understanding much more. It has all been there before, of course, but we are hearing it in different ways. These are profound truths that are emerging...

Developments part the next

How many developments have there been? Well, I don't know but here's another one:

We put an offer in on a house today. We should have a deal by Monday. Then we start on getting finances to buy it, and we're not sure how that will play out. But we're optimistic. We are scheduled to close on the house by the end of July.

Wow!

We're still full-time missionaries until April 30, and then we drive to New England for my 45th college reunion. On that trip we planned to do significant research and see friends. And then drive back by way of Tucson, pick up the Durango and the load from D's office at UA, and drive to Anacortes to start our life there.

So much for ideas from the past.

There's no point in assuming this new plan will endure any longer, but here it is:

We no longer have to drive to Tucson in late June, the hottest season, and get the stuff. And there's no need to take it to Anacortes: it can come here. To our house here.

Van asked the other day which would be our vacation home and which our primary residence. It's obvious, I think, that Anacortes will end up being our vacation home...

So we will go straight to Anacortes after the trip to New England, and get to work on books and garden and hikes and trips to the Cascades. And then we will come back to Salt Lake for the winter season. And at that time we will drive to Tucson and get the load from D's office.

So what will we do here? Resume our mission. Probably as Church Service (part-time) missionaries, but possibly for the six months after we get back - in fall 2010 - we could be full-timers.

There are details such as the need to reapply (and do the physicals and all that) if we are to be away for more than 3 months, which we would be. So probably we would be CSMs and work in the library 3 days a week.

But it's impossible to say. The books we have set out to write are compelling in themselves. And we have a whole community here to learn about.

Well, we might not get a sales agreement on the house, and we might not be able to arrange financing, but if both these things go through without a hitch, we will be residents of Salt Lake by August.

So what' the house like? About 1650 sf, big living room across the front, big dining room on the right facing the back, and a decent sized bedroom plus bathroom plus closet on the left. Behind the dining room a lavatory. Behind everthing a kitchen, the big closet before mentioned, and a laundry room. Then a small yard covered at the moment in concrete. In the basement, two finished bedrooms partly above ground. No garage, but a shed. No grass. Place for a shady garden in the front facing south. A tenth of a mile to Van's, up the hill and to the right. A total of 1.2 miles to the Family History Library, less to the temple by a bit. Libraries are nearby and Smith's and a haircut place one block up the hill, closer than Van's. It's over 100 yrs old, brick. Pretty cool place!

We'd have room for overnight guests and dinner parties and patio parties and midnight walks. And we hope we'd have nice enough weather, since we would be here winters, to walk to work and home again.

Well, we'll see.

Not enough!

Twelve months here is not going to be enough. So we have extended for another 6.

But 6 more won't do it either: we are fulfilled in what we are doing, with people we know, with being near family and walking distance to the temple and the choir and beautiful gardens.

We really need to stay forever.

But on the other hand, we need to get back to Anacortes and plant our garden and write our books. And see our friends and the ocean and enjoy cold summers.

So we have a plan: 6 months here, 6 months there. And that means buying a house here. And we've started looking.

We can't be full-time missionaries on such a schedule, but we can be Church Service Missionaries, and that can be essentially the same thing but with more freedom.

In fact, there may not turn out to be anything magic about 6 and 6. We'd have to learn by doing.

Which we intend to do. :)

Integration

We have been on our mission for 7 1/2 months. Each month has led us to new understandings and confidence. The pieces have been collecting. And now we are beginning to experience integration.

One of the beauties of turning 50, I recall, is the feeling that things were beginning to make sense. The parts were starting to add up to a whole. This new mindset resulted in peace as well as a certain headiness around the idea that life could be grasped.

Becoming 60 was like turning a shallow corner. The changes were not abrupt, and the realities of the sixties could be seen from well back in the 50s. The biggest augmentation of 50s life was in realizing we could take control of our affairs when retirement finally became our reality. We figured it would happen when JSL was 67 or 68, but times changed and we were fully retired right after his 66th birthday.

Retirement meant being able to make more choices about our life, such as where in the world to visit, where to settle, when to serve a mission.

The mission came upon us sooner because retirement was sooner. We had been thinking about our mission for years, but by January 2008 we knew we wanted to go to Salt Lake for a family-history mission. One reason was because the economy appeared to be tumbling and house prices were falling, which meant, we felt, that we needed to stay close to home so we could take care of our affairs.

So the events of our 60s started coming at high speed, and we embraced them.

Now, after 7 months of full-time mission life, we find ourselves molding the pieces of our lives - the ones we began to discover as part of a whole more than a decade ago - into just the life we want. Here's where we are today with this creating:

We want to continue to serve in the Family History Library indefinitely. We extended our full-time call until April 30, 2010. But that will hardly be enough.

We could stay here forever - till the end - but we have other work to do. We have books to write, and places to visit, and gardens to plant.

So how to bring it all about...?

By living half a year in Anacortes and half a year in Salt Lake. By having a garden in Anacortes. By living in Anacortes from mid-May to mid-November, or June 1 to November 1, or something like that. By writing books in Anacortes. By indulging widely in the outdoors life. And then by coming back to Salt Lake, serving in the library many days a week, visiting children and grandchildren, enjoying conference and the Choir and evening concerts. And in between by traveling.

It's a beautiful vision to me. I see our moving forward in this dynamic setting for at least another decade.

There is such a balance to this plan! I see a small house in each location. The Anacortes one would have room for a garden, a little greenhouse, and visitors. It would have a view of the sea. The Salt Lake one would be a short bus-ride or walk from Temple Square and would be cozy and have good workspace.

We would write the books we have lined up and continue to be physically active as well as deeply engaged in understanding our kindred dead and helping others to do the same.

This is what the 60s is all about: not only understanding the parts but molding them into a meaningful and dynamic whole.

This understanding is causing a great swell of passion, excitement, rightness, and goodness within us. We will create it, and do it. Amen.

OH NO!

I am grateful for the Holy Ghost in my life. I don't think I would have survived otherwise. I have been saved from errors big and small, and I also think my life has been saved. 

But there's the other side: Sometimes the Holy Ghost has a message for me that are unanticipated and maybe even unwelcome.

Such as what happened to me today.

Elder Lewis and I went to Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearsal and broadcast, and instead of sitting in our usual place toward the front, we found it reserved for someone and moved toward the next section back.

I slid in next to a youngish man, smiled, sat down...

And he struck up a conversation.

Turns out he is a professor of Yupik languages at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. And he is in Salt Lake working with the translation group translating Gospel Essentials into one of the Yupik languages. He had started it on his own, but finished here, in connection with getting his PhD.

Now it so happens that in my first year as a linguistics graduate student at the University of Arizona I did a paper on Yupik, specifically on Central Siberian Yupik, which is spoken in Siberia and also on some of the islands in the Aleutians.

So we had much to talk about, and did. He illustrated for me some of the Yupik languages, including their prosody. It so happens that the rest of my linguistics career was spent studying prosody...

Then I asked him if he had been to the Family History Library, which he had not. And unfortunately he is leaving in 3 days and won't have time.

The follow up question was whether he had done any family history research, and essentially neither he nor the Yupik people he knows had done any.

This man was warm and friendly and concerned deeply for the language of his people, and the culture that goes with it. But not with his kindred dead.

And then the Holy Ghost spoke to me. It is a work to be done. And it appears that we may be the people to do it.

Until recently I have been compelled within myself to go to set up a regional family history center in Ulan Bataar, Mongolia. I have had no understanding of why, it was just there. Dear Elder Lewis's comment about this compelling desire was, "I'll miss you". 

But just recently it was spoken in our presence that lawlessness had taken over in Mongolia. That did damp down my enthusiasm.

So maybe I had misinterpreted the location for that effort. Or maybe thinking through what it would be like to do a big family-history project like that in Mongolia prepared me to consider such a thing in Alaska.

In any case, many arrows drawn in the past point to it:

1. Study of Yupik and even prosody! 

2. Serving on the International floor at the FHL.

3. Being courageous (?) about learning and speaking languages.

4. Having prepared to serve in the same capacity in Mongolia.

5. Being filled with the Spirit of Elijah.

6. Knowing from my own experience how easily the knowledge of a family can be lost with the passing of just one person, and how rapidly any culture can be lost without knowing the life and struggles of our kindred dead.

7. Knowing that we can't be saved without them, nor they without us - and a whole culture could perish in unbelief without such a work.

Well, we'll see what happens next. Many many layers of effort must be made to bring about such a project, and if we are not on the right track with these thoughts, those efforts will not bear fruit. 

But I have begun. I have checked the library's holding in Yupik genealogies and they are sparse or non-existent (depending on how narrowly Yupik is defined). Next: where are the centers of membership in Alaska?

Crazy or inspired? I don't know - yet. But my friend from the Tabernacle and I really connected, I have his email address, and now it's a matter of letting the Holy Spirit guide.

Moses Mather in Darien

This is a fascinating article about Moses Mather, the cause of religion he upheld, the religious side of the American Revolution, and some intense warfare that happened in my hometown just 170 years before I was born. It's a real eye-opener.

http://historical.darien.org/matherhistory.htm

Please share your comments about it.

Love Month Q&A - answers to a quiz

I stole this from a wonderful family member who wrote it on Feb 10, 2009 (2 days ago)
Valentine 25 (stolen from my sister)

Now here are my answers:

♥ How long have you been together? A bit over 45 years.
♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? Not a moment! It was a blind date...
♥ Who asked who out? Another couple asked each of us out... I mean, Mary asked me and Phil asked him and then we all went together for the blind date. And Bob and Carol came, too.
♥ How old are each of you? I'm 65, he's 67.
♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most? About the same. It takes a cross-country trip to see them, and then we do them all at once, his sister and my brother and sister. In that order.
♥ Do you have any children together? Six. And 27 grandchildren.
♥ What about pets? We have a few grandpets and that is enough.
♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? Nothing. We're having a wonderful time doing and teaching family history research and enjoying all the benefits of being on a mission.
♥ Did you ever go to the same school? Never once. But while he was teaching at the University of Arizona, I was a grad student there in a very different department.
♥ Are you from the same home town? No, but we think our paths probably crossed.
♥ Who is the smartest? Depends on who you ask! And the answer is him. In fact, I used to be pretty smart until I married him...
♥ Who is the most sensitive? Definitely me. But deep down he is a bucket of sensitivity.
♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? Nowhere. But if we were still in Tucson it would be Mariscos Chihuahua. Now we just love to eat at our sons' houses.
♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Hainan, China, in the South China Sea, probably, unless it's some other place in China. Definitely China. But I wish it was to Mars (and back).
♥ Who has the craziest exes? He doesn't have exes.
♥ Who has the worst temper? Oh, me, definitely. He doesn't have one.
♥ Who does the cooking? He is the prep chef and I am the real chef. We always cook together now.
♥ Who is more social? We're both show-offs in our own settings. He impresses, I .... I use a lot of energy connecting with people, strangers and co-workers and friends. But we're also both reclusive at times.
♥ Who is the neat freak? That would not be me!
♥ Who is the more stubborn? Shockingly, he is. He doesn't really yield.
♥ Who hogs the bed? We do. We like to live in places that are cold at night so we can keep each other warm.
♥ Who wakes up earlier? Right now the alarm wakes up first. And I have always been a morning person, but now it's a matter of just hoping the night is over when I wake up at 3:30 - and then having the smarts to go back to sleep.
♥ Where was your first date? A Dartmouth College football game weekend.
♥ Who has the bigger family? We both come from teensy families - he has one sister, I have one of each.
♥ Do you get flowers often? He likes to give them, but I don't like to get them. I like electronics.
♥ Who is more jealous? Mostly we're not jealous anymore, but this one lady in the library really annoys me...
♥ How long did it take to get serious? It took him a brief moment, and took me a long time - about 4 months.
♥ Who eats more? Him at meals and me total.
♥ Who does/ did the laundry? He does. Except I put away my clothes, mostly.
♥ Who’s better with the computer? I am. I have an intimate relationship with them, while he's a bit of an outsider. I know what they're thinking, and he's just mad that they're thinking it.
♥ Who drives when you are together? Me unless we're pulling the trailer, then him.

Now don't forget to share! YOUR TURN!!!!

Ironies Of Family Research

Right now, as part of our training, we are spending nearly all our time on our own family research.

And if you look at the logic of it, that means more and more people all the time: each time we find one new person in our family tree, the door is opened to at least two parents. So the list of people we need to investigate increases rapidly: each success means the list grows longer.

It is delightful to discover the parents of an ancestor. Last week I found Elizabeth Wheeler's parents, Joseph and Sarah Wheeler. And then this week I found Sarah's maiden name: Manners.

I also had great correspondence with someone alive today who is descended from my third great grandfather, Alfred Adams. In fact, I found a whole family of descendants. And one, Cousin Helen Leaver from Colorado, has sent me a great deal of information, including a photo of Alfred's daughter Mary Jane Stottlar. She is a sister of our antecedent Augustus Albert Adams. These are the two children of Hannah Scott's four who lived to adulthood.

So where is the irony? While we are searching out our ancestors, we are unable to see many of our own children and grandchildren! We are learning about those who have died but we the living are mysteries to our descendants. That's ironic.

For this moment in our lives we are fully committed to being here, on location at the great Family History Library, an amazing repository of information about those who have lived and died, not only in the US but also in Europe and in many other parts of the world. And it's growing all the time. The library has thousands of microfilms in drawers that take up a huge amount of floor space and that extend so high that a tall person needs a stool to reach the top.

And just one microfilm contains names, dates, and places of thousands and thousands. Just the other day I was reading a film of the parish records made over the past 600 years from one small town in England, the town of Calne where our ancestors hovered for at least many generations. Just picking out the family names from that one town, I have pages of notes in small writing showing the christenings of babies, and their parents' names, and the date. It is possible to build entire families from such a record, ours and others'. That's how I found the names of Elizabeth Wheeler's parents, and verified her maiden name.

Sometimes after work we see our grandkids who live here in Salt Lake. We are not integral with their lives, though we are trying to get to know them and find things to do with them that they would enjoy.

But it may be that the only way our children are going to know us is if we right our own family histories, especially our own personal histories.

That's a project that would require a great deal of attention, and ironically it would come at the expense of actually spending time with our descendants.

There may be no other way. I don't like it. But I don't have a better solution for now. PL

Our kindred dead, newly found, and living people too - Part 1

The first week of training, when we worked intensively on our own family lines, I felt like I was standing still. No one emerged from the shadows. I learned technique, but didn't find a soul. Until that first Friday afternoon. Since then, I've received a torrent of discoveries. I'll post them one by one.

I'll begin with Elizabeth. Here's who she is: my father's mother's father's mother. She was born in Laycock, Wiltshire, England and had a whole family before her husband died and she met and married Charles Wilcox Tanner, in Calne, Wiltshire. They had 3 little boys and came with them to the US in 1853. Their youngest, Charles, was my grandmother's father.

Previously, we (I plus my great researcher-daughter Elizabeth aka Bonnie) knew that her maiden name was Wheeler because we found her marriage certificate for her first marriage, and it was given there. But I didn't know her parents.

So I went to the FHL (Family History Library, here in Salt Lake) and got out a microfilm for Laycock in the early 1800s (actually 1550 to 1900, approx.). I went through painstakingly - the pages were shadowed with age long before they were microfilmed - until I reached approximately the right date. And there she was: Elizabeth, dau of Joseph and Sarah Wheeler, christened 7 Jul 1807.

So now we knew the parents. The natural question was whether they had other children. I plugged the parents' names into ancestry.com's England and Wales Christening Records, and found all 9 of their children.

I've now put them together as a family in PAF and in New Family Search.

I love putting families together! I was able to determine from the dates of their christenings that there were probably no missing children for this family.

Joseph and Sarah are my great great great grandparents. Now I wonder who their parents were? Next step: marriage record in Laycock, around 1805, in the same microfilm.

Training is over...

We have just completed our two weeks of intensive training in the Family and Church History Mission department. It was amazing!

The 34 or so of us met in 4 labs on the third floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The labs were filled with computers, and we met each day, all day long, with a trainer apiece. Each trainee and trainer shared a computer. A written manual guided the way. The trainer pointed at the screen with a soft-tipped stick. Following instructions, the trainee learned all the tricks of using PAF, Family Search, New Family Search, and Ancestry.com.

Some of us had more experience than others. Because we each had our own trainer, though, we were able to go at our own pace.

I have had a lot of experience with computers, some with the various programs - and absolutely no discipline in sourcing the results of my research. That was my biggest lesson: how to source effectively. I now have census record and World War 1 draft card images attached to the people they refer to. It is very satisfying!

One surprise is that we are using PAF (Personal Ancestral File, a free download at http://familysearch.org/) as the main location for all our records. It's easy to create sources in PAF, and an enormous family can fit all its records, including images and photos, on a memory stick. No internet connection is needed, then, to add a fact or a new photo. PAF is easy to use, and I've enjoyed getting to know it again.

Our days consisted of intense instruction, practice, snack breaks, an hour for lunch, more of the same in the afternoon, and trips at times to the Family History Library. The FHL is about 300 steps from our apartment, so it's easy to drop in there and take a look at christening records made nearly 500 years ago that have been preserved on microfilm.

But now training is over. On Friday we had our 'Go Forth' day, a beautiful event filled with inspiring talks, announcement of our assignments, and a trip to the Temple with everyone in our Training Zone.

The Family and Church History Mission is made up of 28 zones, so after training we are assigned to one where we will spend 6 months to a year, or possibly more. Some zones work on the technical side, such as digitizing or repairing books, or entering data. Others are there to help patrons visiting the FHL to find what they're looking for. John and I were assigned to the International Reference zone.

In International Reference, we help people looking for ancestors from countries other than the US, Canada, or the British Isles, which have their own zones (and their own floors of the FHL). International has its own floor, and covers every other part of the world. Some of the patrons are English-speaking, but a large number are not. We need to be able to communicate the basics in foreign languages on a regular basis. Both John and I have studied several languages, so maybe that's why we received this calling. It sounds really exciting, and of course more than a bit challenging!

We have our first meeting in the zone on Monday, when we begin more training and have a new manual to absorb, specific to that zone. I am really excited to learn more about what we'll be doing.

These are all the details of our life, but the bigger work is about finding and linking to our kindred dead. All our training was focused on our own family histories. Our hearts are fully engaged with these loved ones from the past, most of whom we don't know and haven't even heard of. We have had many touching successes during our training period. I will write about these elsewhere.

I have learned so much these past two weeks! We feel it a true blessing to be able to be here at this time. Living on Temple Square is a wonderful experience: we are able to walk to work, and come home for lunch. We have new friends. One son lives 5 minutes away by car, another less than half an hour away. We have friends in the Provo area and also just north of SLC whom we are able to visit. Senior missionaries have a lot of latitude in their after-hours activities, and can travel a radius of 60 miles. We have a small apartment, sufficient for our needs, at a very reasonable price. We walk over to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearsals and performances each Sunday morning, and to church at the old and lovely Salt Lake City Stake building half a block away. It is a lovely life. No gardens, of course, and no long trips. But it suits us very well.

And since we can't come to you, why don't you come to us? Or better yet, come be part of this mission? (They need you - they are short 125 missionaries and have projects on hold for lack of faithful servants.)