060 Tuesday to Tuesday (June 10-16, 2015)

So, I want to share something I learned today in my Scripture reading. Those of you who have religion classes at BYU probably already knew this, but I didn’t.

Alma 10:2-3 – Lehi’s lineage as a descendant of Manasseh is partial fulfillment of a promise to Joseph of old. Shortly before his death, Joseph of Egypt related assurances that the Lord made unto him concerning his posterity:

          Lehi was promised that the Lord would raise a righteous branch out of his    
          loins and they would write the stick of Joseph to unite with the stick of 
          Judah.

According to Daniel Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon,” prior to their flight into the wilderness, Lehi and Ishmael, both descendants of Joseph, lived with their families in Jerusalem, which was part of the kingdom of Judah. One writer suggested an explanation for why Lehi’s ancestry, though descended from Joseph, lived in Jerusalem, which for the most part was made up of descendents of Judah: “Some students of the Book of Mormon have wondered how descendants of Joseph were still living in Jerusalem in 600 B.C. when most members of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh were taken into captivity by the Assyrians about 721 B.C.  A scripture in 2 Chronicles may provide a clue to this problem. This account mentions that in about 941 B.C. Asa, the king of the land, gathered together at Jerusalem all of Judah and Benjamin ‘and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh’ (2 Chronicles 15:9). These ‘strangers . . . out of Ephraim and Manasseh’ who were gathered to Jerusalem in approximately 941 B.C. may have included the forefathers of Lehi and Ishmael.”

I hope you were following me here. I would never have thought of wondering about the lineage of Lehi, but this just opened my eyes to another truth that I didn’t know. This came from the Institute manual I’m using along with my reading of the BOM this time.

On the 10^th, Wednesday, we picked up Victor and took him to the genealogy library so that he could print off his papers for the Temple. He has 7 men and 6 women to get the work done. I will have several of my own for baptisms while we are there. It is getting real now. One problem we have is that Victor finds out on Monday what day he will be off work that week. So we have to be ready to go in a hurry. We will call the Temple and let them know we are coming. 

Victor at Genealogy Library to copy off his baptismal records to do at Temple.

That night we had our regular meeting of MPAFUG (PAF group). As usual, it was a great meeting with lots of information. This is a wonderful group, and when we leave here, we will continue our membership in the group.

On Thursday, we had two online meetings during the day.  I had one webinar with one of my genealogy sites. Two hours later we had one with our Pathway coordinator from BYU-I. We are getting up to speed on our recruitment, and we are getting pressured to make sure we have the number of students necessary for Fall classes. They lowered the number we need to start our classes (now need 10 each); however, we have to have 10 in both classes for us to have the program. The Brother who is in charge of the younger group has recruited the Missionaries to help him in both Stakes. We were supposed to work with the South Stake for both old and young groups.He refuses to tell us if he is doing anything about the older group in the North Stake. I’m calling those whose names we get as recommendations. We will have to do something about the North Stake older group because no one else is doing it.

Friday gave us two wonderful birthdays to celebrate.  Mallory is just shy of the big whopping big 3 0. She spent her day gathering all the free deals in Castle Rock, and she celebrated her day with Brad making her supper and taking care of her. What a fun birthday she had.

Mallory at the red house, taken in Nov. 1986.

Then there is our little Ellie who has become 6. Who would have thought. She is ready for first grade, and she has grown up so much this past year. We loved talking with her that morning.  She made off with a tremendous amount of booty, and she was loving it.

No one could mistake this little one. Ellie has been bright-eyed from day one.

Friday also found us opening up the Polish fest. On Thursday, Sister Orne and Elder and Sister Smith set the tent up for our genealogy work. It is hard to believe that last summer we started our work big time with this first festival. This day was the last time we start festivals for the summer. Weird!

Getting started

Elder and Sister Smith

Craig and his new hairy hat!

A Picture Within a Picture!

Sisters Wise and Escobar Dancing!

The woman is wondering "Why do I have to pose with

 dorks like this one?"

A Family Affair

Elders Helping

We were very busy even though it was rainy and cold. I was glad I had taken a sweater with me, but I wished I had my coat. We had 8 people on both shifts for the day, starting at 12:00. I thought there would be people who showed up, but I was surprised at the number. It was a good day, but when Craig and I left at 10:00 that evening, we were beat. We got to meet lots of people, and it was a wonderful time to talk with people about why we want to do family history. We used a new video that Elder Smith developed on Family Search. It is a 3 minute, repeating video, no speaking, just a marvelous summary of what Family Search will do. We love it.

On Saturday, we were there all day again. We were truly worn out. It rained again, and it wasn’t quite as cold, but it wasn’t comfortable. We met the people in the Polish Councils here in town that shared the tent with us. They were so nice. One husband/wife team were so impressed with our missionaries. The man is a superintendent of schools in Milwaukee. He couldn’t believe how our missionaries would look him in the eyes when they talked with him. He said he had never seen a better group who were “in there,” when communicating with others, meaning they listened to him and weren’t distracted by other things around them. 

That night we left the tent with a man who had a van and offered to drive us to our car which was parked in the toolies. He had another elderly couple riding with him. Just as we got to the van, it started to rain hard. We drove around the parking lot for 30+ minutes and couldn’t find it. The rain didn’t help. Finally, we knew the others were really tired, and they just wanted to go home. We were thinking that maybe we would just have the driver take us home, and we’d get a cab back in the morning. I got the strong impression that we needed to say a prayer. We did, and the rain stopped. We told them that we would get out near the place where we thought the car should be. We got out and walked straight to the car. It was a joyous occasion. We were so grateful for an answer to our prayer. Never forget the power of talking with Heavenly Father.

Sunday found us at Sacrament, but then we had to leave and go straight to the festival again. When we woke up that morning, I couldn’t move my fingers, they were so stiff. Craig’s feet were hurting from standing on the concrete for the last two days. We didn’t have to stay so late this day, but again, we were given lots of opportunities to talk with so many people. I spoke with one woman who really needed to hear that families are eternal. We had such a spiritual moment as we connected because of our desires for our families. One day I hope she will come looking for the truth.

On the 15, we were supposed to go to eat dinner with a family (the Calabro’s) whose son was graduating from high school. We have eaten with them before, and we really like the family. However, they had to cancel, and we were glad they did. We spent the day trying to recover from the weekend. We were bushed. We slept late and tried to ease the aches and pains. We are getting old!

On Tuesday, we were off to the Temple again. We were excited to go, and Victor was not off this day. We again took family names. It is really exciting to be able to do work for our own. We know that they are not likely to accept the Gospel if we do the work. Afterwards, we had to get home because we needed to buy a watermelon to take to a dinner meeting. We stopped at a Costco on the way home that we hadn’t been to before, and it was fun to see what they had. Every Costco we have gone to has different stuff. We got the watermelon, and got home in time to relax a little while before going to the Rebarchik’s home. They are an older couple, who have filled their house to the gills on antiques. He is the one who saves it, she would get rid of it if possible. Every space is covered many times over with old things that they have received from their families. It is funny to see how many things that I recognize as having when I was a little girl. Her kitchen has the table covered – they can’t eat at the kitchen table, but they have a dining room so no worries. All the cabinets are covered, the stove, the frig, you name it – there is stuff everywhere. She just shrugs and wishes they could get rid of it, but some is here.  It was a good day. We loved it.

Not at our best, but we made it.

Our scripture for June is Doctrine and Covenants 59:9-10 -

          And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, 

          thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon 

          my holy day;   

         

          For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to     

          pay thy Devotions unto the Most High;

         

Elder and Sister Lenhard