Monday, December 28, 2015

078 Tuesday to Tuesday (October 14-20, 2015)


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!
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. 
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).
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. 
Aunt Shirley, Uncle Wallace, (R-L) Boyd, Brenda, Morris, and Karen. Morris is only one still living.
 
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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