Our Work

I realize that I have never really described what I do.  My call is to the family search zone of the Family History Library.  We are on the main floor of the library and mainly provide services for new comers and inexperienced family historians.  Ninety percent of my time is spent on the patron services floor.  Here we answer questions, help beginners with on line resources, show people how to print or save documents they find.  A typical patron will come in and say, "I don't know anything about my family."  We ask questions and help them identify what they do know and what they would like to know.  We show them how to find their ancestors in resources like social security death index, census records, birth or marriage records, military records and voter schedules.  We show them how to use the library catalog, and where further research can be done.  We introduce them to familysearch.org, and its associated sites.  This work is fun and rewarding.  I often meet people from far away.  We do not preach the gospel here, but the spirit is almost always present and our encounters are often spiritual experiences.  Occasionally members of the Mormon church come in for help with new family search.  These are usually wonderful experiences too.
The other 10% of my time is spent in the lobby.  I man the information desk, the exit desk, the temple desk.  Here we direct the patrons as they come into the library and answer phone calls that come in.  We show a short film to the first timers.  We get them help if they need it.  We direct them to other floors, depending on what they are looking for.  This is also fun.  We will interact with literally dozens of people during an hour.  They are all nice people who are sincerely looking to connect with their families.
I also do a little mentoring of new missionaries who come into the zone.  I have recently been trained to work the "pod" which is the reference desk on the main floor.  Here we are expected to know more, so time will tell if I'm ready for that.
David comes into the library with me every morning.  After prayer meeting he goes off to the Cafeteria dish room where he helps get the cafeteria ready for the lunch rush.  They eat lunch at 10:30, before the cafeteria opens.  During the lunch time he stacks and puts away dishes as they come out of the dishwasher.  Sometimes he stands by the automated dish return to make sure nothing sticks out and stops the conveyer.  The rest of his crew goes home at 3:00 but David stays another hour to scrub tables and chairs in the dining room.  It takes him a couple of months to get through the whole room, but he is very thorough.  At 4:00 he walks back to the library and we go home.

Even though we do the same kind of thing every day, the people we interact with make each day interesting and new.

September 2010 Milestones

This month I will complete the first 12 months of my mission and the first 60 years of my life.  If I am like my parents (unlikely because I have abused my body with unhealthful food and slothfulness for too many years) I can expect to live to 90.  So I have finished 2/3 of both my mission and my life.  It has got me to thinking about the the way each of them is going.
First of all I'm not eager for either to end.  This mission has been so much more fun than I ever could have imagined.  I don't know what I imagined my earth life would be like, but I'm pretty sure I didn't know how much fun it would be either.  Did I know how much I would love my family?  Did I know how much I would enjoy my work and play?  Did I know how much beauty I would find here?  Doubt it, or I would have signed up earlier (1000 BC for example).
Secondly I know they will both end eventually.  The mission call was for 18 months, and when that is over I will return home and do something else.  I hope I will have made a difference in some way, to some one.  When my mortal life ends, I will return home and do something else.  I hope it will be true that I made a difference during my life as well.  Is anything better because I am here?  I think so.  I hope so.

But for now I have 6 months to do my best in the mission.  It might be a good idea to give us advance notice of our earthly release date.  Do I have a day? a decade?  Whatever.  I plan to live it all, right up to the end.  So here's to the last third.

It's autum time

Last April, as Spring emerged from the reluctantly departing Winter, I was in awe of the variety and abundance of flowers.  Everywhere!  Every kind, I thought.  Now I'm seeing some new blooms of early autumn.  Most especially sun flowers.  They are growing among the tall grasses of fields, along the road ways, sprouting around rocks on the hillsides.  They are beautiful in a simple and rangy way, dotting the washed out summer fields with bright yellow and deep brown.  The pale grey/green of the omnipresent sage brush is turning yellow with blooms as well.  This one is problematic to me.  It seem sage blooms do something to my nose.  I sneeze, and sneeze, and wipe my eyes, and sneeze and blow my nose, and sneeze again.  I've tried 4 different allergy meds, the only one that dries me up is Benedryl.  Turns out Benedryl is also a sleep medicine.  So I have a choice: Sneeze or sleep.  Relief will come with the snow.
I woke up to a little chill this morning.  The hot days of summer are coming to an end and there is the smell of Autumn in the air.  I rode through Dimple Dell on Saturday and noticed the leaves sound different when the wind passes.  They still look green from a distance, but they are drier and up close you can see the colors of fall creeping in.  We may still have some warm weather ahead of us, but it is becoming clear that summer cannot last.