October 2011

I have been wondering why we do family history.  Why not just wait until the millenium then all the families can get together and say I belong to them and so on.  Well, I got my answer.  In Relief Society we had a lesson on the spirit world after we die.  We go to paradise or prison.  Then in the lesson they indicated that people are in prison until they accept the ordinances of the temple that have been done for them.  Oh My Gosh, that is why we do it.  We need to get our ancestors out of prison.  When I think of prison I think of a place where your progression stops.  So, by not doing the ordinances for our ancestors we are stopping their progression.  Wow, what an insight for me.  I wonder why we are doing family history when I hit a brick wall and can't figure out where to go to find a record.  Sometimes it can be frustrating, but you just keep plugging along - perhaps leaving that line alone for awhile and then go back to it.  In fact, the family history databases are adding so many records all the time that the record you are looking for may not be there one day, but the next day it may be.  We have one patron who comes in all the time and he says that he has a line where he has hit a brick wall, but every month he will look again on the databases to see if something has been added.

Megan and her friend Tim came down during October.  They had dinner with us Thursday night and then went to his sister's house near Santa Barbara to spend the rest of the weekend and then went to church with us on Sunday.  It was fun having them visit.  Always love to see family and friends.

The photo tree died.  One long thick trunk limb at a time.  Each thick trunk limb was needed for the whole tree to survive.

Three weeks before it started to break up:

First limb:

Morge down, even the time of the picture is sad,  the twilight of it's life, the end of it's day.

It's gone:

Elder Zach Blackham, who has been our neighbor and who has been home-taught by Warren for years, came into our mission on October 26.  We didn't get to see him until the 27th, but it was exciting.  All day on the 26th I kept going outside to see if I would spot him.  I knew that he was just down the street at the Westwood Ward being taught by the mission president.  The Family History Library is next door to the mission and many elders were there on the 26th; so I felt sad I didn't see him.  But I learned that he would be back at the Westwood ward the next day from 10-4.  We didn't go into work until 1 p.m. that day; so Warren and I went on a walk at 9:45 which takes us past the church.  It just blew me away, but there he was.  I went right home (after our walk) and made cookies for him since he was going to stop by the library that afternoon to let us take a picture of him with his companion to send to his mother. 

The spirit of Elijiah is strong here in the LA area.  There are many people doing their family history both LDS and non-LDS.

Love ya,  Phyllis