Seed takes Root

What a great week. We took some equipment to one of our centers and my what a change! First let me explain that we have to upgrade all of our computers with more memory and large flat screens to get ready for the new program of the church - new.familysearch.org. As we visited one of our centers to make the change we were shocked at the difference. This is the same center that we had to drag out the ping pong table and basket balls and you name it Junk! Our family history center looked like a storage closet with the computer buried beneath the pile. Now everything is nice and clean. The director said they are so full on Sunday with people coming that the stake president said he will probably have to move the center to two larger rooms just to accommodate the members. Now people are lining up to visit the center. This little center has gone from a junk closet to an overflowing work space for family history. The seed was planted and it took root. We get so excited to see that the work of the Lord goes forward.

To top off our great week the saints from the French speaking islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique came to the temple for two weeks. Thirty four of their members came and they are only small districts. They bring their whole family for two weeks and they love family history. We taught them about family history and I always share my Lora and Perry book. After the training, some wanted to look through the pages of the book. One sister in particular wanted to see more of the book so she knocked on my door, sat on my couch and turned the pages carefully one by one as if they were sacred. She looked at the pictures of Dad and Mom in love and she said her parents are divorced and it makes her sad. Her mother gave her away. Then she said she does not have anything like this book because she has no pictures of family. She has never met her grandfather and she found out he has 40 children with different women. She turned each page with love and respect. We are so blessed to have histories of all our family and their stories can strengthen us. By the way all these members speak French so it is difficult to talk to them but this group are some of my favorite people. They love family history and come every year to spend two weeks doing family names at the temple. They have no idea that our family history center has hours so they knock on our door til 9 pm at night because they want to inch out every hour while they are here. I guess that is why I love them so much because they love family history and we don't have to convince them of it's blessing or importance.

What a blessing to be on a mission. The church is true and it is an honor to serve in the kingdom.