HoHoHo, we had another birthday today. Mr. Noah
decided to come into the world this day, carrying on the Lenhard line. That is
a real burden for one young man to carry. Just ask Adam, who probably never
really thought about it before. We are truly glad to have this young man in our
lives. Very talented with a wicked sense of humor. Reminds me more of Adam than
he may want. We have an Adam and a Noah – two great prophet names in our
family. Love it!
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| Noah after learning he will be Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory |
We went to our usual PAF genealogy meeting that
night. What a great meeting as usual. We will continue our membership in this
group when we leave. Everything is online, there are lots of helps given. We
have made some great friends from this group.
On Thursday, we went to the Temple at 7:15 with
the other Senior Missionaries. How fun was that. Although it was a long day, we
so enjoyed it. We had to get home for Pathway that evening, but before that, I
had to proctor a test. There were other people that entered the library while I
proctored the test, so I was afraid Heather might not do well, but evidently
she did. From there we went right into Pathway. President Cutler showed up for
class to see what it was about, and he was very impressed. The students, as
usual, did a great job.
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| Looks like we are in a fish bowl |
Friday saw us proctoring another test for my
second student, Jaime. She is really smart, but I found out she and her husband
were getting divorced. He had told Craig a couple of weeks before that she had
moved out because he had said that a girl was pretty in Church. She accused him
of being an adulterer. We worried about
them during the time they were in Pathway, but we had hoped they would make it.
That evening we began to make sure the set up
for the South Stake Genealogy Conference. I was presenting the next day on the
differences and similarities between Ancestry and Family Search. It has been a
six-week torture time of writing the powerpoint. Every time I thought I had it
ready, one or both of the sites changed something. It was crazy.
So, on Saturday, we were involved in the
largest genealogy conference in Milwaukee. We had about 300 attendees. The
woman, Jane Orne, who is over it (with the PAF group as co-sponsors) said that
she had never had so many newcomers, and she felt it was due to us being at the
festivals and giving out so many invitations. I had a presentation on the
differences/similarities between Ancestry and Familysearch. I felt like it was
a good presentation, I didn’t use so many “printed” slides, meaning I didn’t
write everything down so I could read it verbatim for them. It was my belief
that I needed to show them live pages and what was found on the pages because
there was just too much to do justice to it. Well, I thought I had 45 minutes
to an hour, but at 45 minutes, Jane comes in and tells me to wrap it up. I told
her I would in a minute. She came back, she sent Craig in, and, finally, came
and stood by me to tell me to stop. I did, and didn’t get to finish the last 10
minutes (if they had left me alone, I would have done it in plenty of time). I
heard from her that she had to start hers late (she was talking about the
genealogy library there at the building), and she got a whole hour. Another
presenter made sure I knew he had to start late because my attendees were still
coming in when he wanted to start. Each attendee had to fill out a survey about
how well we did. I have no idea, because they have not told me. I keep getting
the feeling that I should ask, but maybe I don’t want to know. To make me feel
better, I will state that several people told me they were there because they
had talked with me at the festivals. Others told me I did a good job. Who would
know???? Hahahaha It is totally my fault
because I thought I knew the parameters, but obviously, I did not. I also found
out my name was left out of the handouts. I was told to submit something, but I
truly didn’t remember that when I had to concentrate on the powerpoint. I will
keep my presentation and someday (after much tweeking, I’ll use it again I’m
sure).
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| I was getting into it! |
That afternoon (the 17th), Cousin
Howard Davis called to let me know that Aunt Shirley Walton died. She was the
last to pass away of the previous generation on the Walton side. I began to put
her work into familysearch and ancestry. Remember I had found a relative
recently at the Indian Summer Festival by the last name of Suit. I had never
seen that name in my work in Grayson County, Virginia, where many of our
relatives lived. While doing Aunt Shirley’s work, I found the Suits. They are
part of her direct line. I just thought it was no accident that the Lord helped
me to meet this couple.
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| Aunt Shirley, Uncle Wallace, (R-L) Boyd, Brenda, Morris, and Karen. Morris is only one still living. |
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| Uncle Wallace/Aunt Shirley, Uncle Howard/Aunt Polly, and Daddy and Mom |
Sunday found us in Victor’s ward to hear his
very first talk. WOW, he was more scared than anyone I’ve ever seen on the
stand. He couldn’t finish the talk, in fact, got only partway before he broke
down. He closed it and went to sit down. Once he sat down, he started crying
like there was no tomorrow. I felt so sorry for him. He had a complete
breakdown. I wanted to go up and help him; however, one of the missionaries that
worked with him, Elder Allen, went up, sat next to him, put his arm around
Victor and pulled him close. He took care of him like a little baby. It was the
kindest thing I have witnessed in a long time. I know the Lord was proud of
Elder Allen.
On Monday, we met with some friends for
breakfast at Baker’s Square (the best pie place in Milwaukee). Jolene and Tim
Carson are good friends of ours. Jolene was in our Pathway class last year, and
she is quite a lady. We are hoping to encourage them to get to the Temple. They
have let such things as coffee and not paying their tithing to keep them from
the Temple. We love them a great deal and it hurts to see them hold off of the
blessings they could be experiencing. This was our P-day which means we had to
wash clothes (takes half a day because we have to go to basement, wait for
machines to finish; go back to change to dryer – hoping all the while that no
one else is using them, and then returning to get out of dryer). Thank goodness we are now taking Craig’s
white shirts to cleaners.
On Tuesday, Aunt Shirley was buried. I thought
a lot about her that day. She and Uncle Wallace had four children. All but one
have also passed away from cancer. The two daughters, Brenda and Karen, were
nurses at Abingdon Memorial Hospital where mom worked for so many years. The
oldest boy, Boyd, died first in Ohio I believe. I remember when he was married
to a local girl, Patsy Thomas. That marriage didn’t last, and he later
remarried but I never had any information on it. Evidently, they had several
children because I saw their writing on the on-line funeral book.
We had no district meeting today because
transfers are this week. New missionaries came today. We got about 13 this
time. That is less than we had been getting. There were about 24 that left, so
our numbers are down. We just keep praying that more Senior Missionaries will
decide to come out. Next week the Barley’s will be leaving for Farmington. The
Reeds, who are taking the Barley’s place, are already here. They will take care
of mission cars and apartments. They are computer techs from BYU, very quiet,
and appear to act as I think we must have acted when we first got here –
scared.
Our scripture of the month:
3 Nephi 9:14
“Yea verily I say unto
you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of
mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come,
him will I receive; and
blessed are those who come unto me.”
Elder and
Sister Lenhard
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