Challis Power

It is a “winter wonderland” here in Salt Lake, with enough snow to cover the grass and turn the foothills white. Thankfully, the snow is cleared promptly from city sidewalks and walking paths, so we still get out and walk, marveling at the snowy peaks against a blue, blue sky. We are on the “schedule” now on the US/Canada floor.   That is the true “wonder” land:   we wonder how we could have already forgotten so much of what we’ve studied;   we wonder when we will be “helpers” in deed and not just in title; and one of us wonders when the anxiety will subside when a patron approaches with a research challenge. In the meantime, we continue to work our way through the lessons, most recently US Land and Property Records—the fun part of that lesson was the BLM website with a map that shows tracts of land that were homesteaded.   The vocabulary in that lesson was more challenging for me than it was for Elder Challis, the engineer.   Venturing across the border into Canadian records

Last week in our training we studied probate, land and property, immigration, naturalization (no, we aren’t in law school), and military records.   It really is like being “sprayed with a firehose.”   The question is, how much will we remember when it’s time to help a guest.   (One of us is fretting a bit about that—next week we are on the schedule as “helpers.”)   It was interesting to find some records from our own ancestors, though nothing that we didn’t know, still interesting to see the records of the Mormon Battalion and immigrant ships’ logs.   Next, we start on Canadian records, including French Canadian (oh, boy).               Melissa, Christopher’s wife, had a sleepover on Thursday night so she could catch an early morning flight on Friday to Florida for a sisters’ reunion.   It was nice to have her.             Each day, we start with a devotional where we are blessed to hear some pretty inspiring stories of faith.    On Monday, the entire mission meets together.   Th

Having completed the sixteen e-learning modules about helping guests at the Family History Library, plus the first four lessons specific to US/Canada research (Vital Records was a beast), we were presented our grey lanyards on Friday by the zone leaders.   The lanyards mean that guests can ask us questions.   They don’t mean that we will know the answers. Oh well, jump in and start swimming.   And cry help!             The week started out with a blanket of beautiful snow which gave an added sparkle to the lights—and a little more hurry to our steps.   We only had to dash across the street to the Conference Center for the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.   Even though our tickets had us seated in the middle, second section back, the speakers were still “tiny” so we relied on the big screens for facial expression.   I had forgotten how enormous that place is!     The music was powerful!   I was especially moved when the organ came in on “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”   And the f

Let there be lights—thousands of them! Temple Square is ablaze with lights! We enjoyed “giving tours” to family who came to enjoy the delight. 😊    Monday, Dan, Janny, and Ella (Dan is Elder Challis’ brother) came and treated us to dinner; Tuesday, it was Jaynie’s family; and Thursday, Christopher’s family.   Amazingly, we had good weather all three nights, so we could take our time and enjoy.   And no, we are not tired of the tour.   Please come and be delighted!             Thursday, about noon as we were walking to the COB, we noticed a section of lights was turned on. A “light doctor” was in a cherry picker up in one of the high trees that had gone dark on the top.   When we saw the tree on Thursday night, sure enough, the tree was lit bottom to top.   How is that done?   Surely, those tasked with keeping all those lights on, have better tools than I have. Pushing each light in along the string, surely is not their method. I want to know their secret.               Part o