Bob and Rena blowing the latest snow......again! !

Bob and Rena blowing the latest snow......again! !

How time does fly, it is hard to believe that February is almost past!

January 26, 2014

Dearest Family,  

    How time does fly, it is hard to believe that February is almost past!   I think we are all tired of snow, we have had to many days of it lately, but soon March will be here!  Spring will be coming soon! We have recorded 25 inches of snow here at the house since Jan 1 with 12 inches still on the ground today. There has been no bare ground at the house since late November.

    Was great to start this week with visitors,  President’s Day!  Allen’s family had a day off from school & he from work. The Public Library was closed, so we took a day off also. We so enjoyed having them spend the day with us!  Thanks so much for the visit! We showed Amber puzzilla.org, played games, read stories, & played in the snow. We still have the snow fort in the front yard which they made!

    Shared the Photos & Stories at a Relief Society evening meeting this week! It was our week to work in the Family History Center this Wednesday. Worked later than usual, since some of the volunteers were ill.  Had a nice evening with 5 YM in the FHC. Our morning in Cowley was busier than usual!  That is always great!

    We were able to attend the Stars of Tomorrow program in Powell on Friday evening. Symphony did great! Played the piano & it was amazing  First place!!!!

The trip home was a slow one – it had snowed 4 inches while we were inside! We were blessed with a safe trip home!  Saturday night was Daeja’s baptism & it was perfect also.  We all enjoyed a soup & salad supper afterwards. It was good to be with family. We were able to ride up with Rob & Michelle.  This time it was icy road both ways. How blessed we are to be with family – but wished we could have been with Bo & McKinzea!  congratulations!! Looking forward to this Saturday at the Bowling Alley!

    Sunday was the usual busy one with some extra special times with patrons. We taught about the new Puzzilla.org process for finding more names. With all the leadership changes going on right now we will be doing double duty to get leaders educated on FH in today’s church! After next Sunday we will have a better idea of the numbers of new leaders we will need to work with. 

    We send our love to all of you!   CTR & have a great week!

Love Bro & Sis Croft

    

We hope you each had a special Valentines Day

February 16, 2014

Dearest Family,

    Happy Birthday to Ken,  We hope you each had a special Valentines Day, remembering your loved ones!  I am so grateful for a very wonderful Sweetheart! He is so very good to me – takes such special care of me & treats me like a queen! We also have a wonderful family, 36 very special people, with one more to be added this Friday when Bo & McKinzea are married in the Idaho Falls Temple!  How blessed we are!!!

    Today was a different day – 2 wards in which we usually have classes had Ward conference.  A youth class started in one of the Cowley wards & we had the YW (about 30) from the Lovell 2nd Ward. It was fun to talk to them about adding photos & stories.  It was a day of change in 7 of the 8 wards in the stake, with boundary changes. It will be a great blessing for all, & we are excited. Rob said it was the easiest change  in wards that he had ever made, didn’t require a moving van!  Our 2nd ward shared a lot of families with the 1st, 3rd & 5th wards.  We are a country ward & gained families from the 1st ward. We will also have a new Bishop! 

    This evening was a very special Fireside with the youth of the Stake.   Elder Neal L Andersen of the Twelve was the featured guest,,,,,,,,, it was his presentation which he gave on February 15 at the RootsTech 2014 Family History Day in SLC.  The Lord’s hand is moving forth in an amazing way as the spirit of this great work goes forth! Here’s the link to a song, written for this Fireside!  https://www.lds.org/youth/video/find-our-cousins?lang=eng  

    We hope to be able to share a link for the whole fireside with you in the coming weeks!  A link to the program to help us find more cousins to do temple work for was demonstrated by Elder Andersen (his demo was even better than this one) and Elder Foster at RootsTech 2014.    https://puzzilla.org/  It looks really strange but works awesomely! ! !

    This week was great!  An Activities Day group came in on Wednesday! 6-8 young ladies, ages 8 to 11.  3-4 had mothers or grandmothers with them, this adds to it! All seemed so excited to see pictures & read stories about their families!  Leaders & FH consultants who haven’t helped with one of these activities are always amazed at how involved & excited the young people get & how they enjoy it!

    We have some amazing older sisters that we have been working with weekly, they are so inspiring – their determination & their commitment learning to use the technology!  What an example they are to us!  We can all learn from them by applying this in our lives.  It is twice as hard for them because they have to learn about the computer basics also, but they perservere!  I pray that I can hang in there like they do!

    Finding cousins is the greatest & I continue to enjoy communicating with “Jane”,   our newest cousin whom we’ve found in Denmark! She is adding stories & photos about her branch of the family! She & her mother, who is 93, are excited to learn about the family who left Denmark & came to the United States!

    We went ice fishing out to Pond 5 on Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours enjoying being out in the warmer weather and sun! It’s been so nice to have a warm week, 40 and one 50’s temp day, lots of sun and now some wind to dry up all the water from the melting snow.

    Love ya so.....& CTR            Bro & Sis Croft

It was great to be with many of you on Saturday!

Dearest Family!    

    It was great to be with many of you on Saturday!  So nice to get together for dinner!  We love you all & miss those who were unable to be here.  Yummy Potato Bar! 

 

    It has been a very cold, snowy week with temps from –10’ to –30’F with day time highs of zero. Over a foot of snow this week too all of which has slowed down the work.   Many cancelations but still several great times helping patrons in their homes or at the library!   Three days were spent here at home, watching web broadcasts of the 2014 Roots Tech conference held in SLC!  We probably watched 12 or so different presentations!  Learned a great deal & now we are excited to study them all more!  It was interesting to listen to Todd Hansen of the Story Trek program on BYU TV & Stephanie Nelson, the young mother who was burned over 80% of her body in a plane crash & writes an inspiring blog about her life. We learned about “Doing FH in our sleep” , “DNA”  “How to interview Yourself” just to name a few. We will let you know when these videos are put on the web. The FH Day that both the Cody and Lovell Stakes are having soon are among the 640 ones being held across the church using Roots Tech presentations at the local level. The Lord is hastening His work at all levels! ! !

  

    Then there were talks by Elder Dennis Brimhall who is  CEO of Family Search for the church  & Elder Allen Packer FH Director, both gave instructions as to what the Lord expects us to be doing in FH.    Lets just say we have been spiritually fed!

 

    The other project this week – Ryan & Rhonda’s quilt is finally on the frames & over the next – I don’t know how long – it will get quilted. 

 Among other things, Dad’s biggest project was shoveling snow!  He has had more than his share, thankfully he has a snow blower.  It has been unusual to have below zero temperatures & snow  at the same time. He has had several fun visits with Marlene, teaching her about Family Search!   She’s a great student.

 

We love you all & CTR

Your missionary grand parents,

 

Bro & Sister Croft   

 

This has been another wonderful warmer week

February 2, 2014

Dearest Family,

   Happy Birthday this week to Daeja & Kenya!!!   It is their 8th & 10th birthdays!  We excited for Bo & McKinzea’s wedding coming up in 20 days and Ethan & Becah on July 19th!  It is a wonderful time & we are so grateful for all of you & the great decisions you are making!

    This has been another wonderful warmer week with all the usual activities!  We awoke to 4” of new snow on Saturday morning that gives us 9” on the ground – we have had snow cover now for 2 months. I enjoyed some yummy smoked fish – I have a sweetheart who smoked a fish we caught last week!

    There has also been some different experiences!  Bro Croft helped on older brother finalize his contribution of records of relatives shipped into Siberian prisoner camps. These will be digitized so that they are available to others. It is great that we can donate these items so that they can be made available for others to use & be preserved!    I enjoyed an afternoon of sewing & remodeled Amber’s wedding dress for her sister!  After several weeks of problems with my laptop, it is finally repaired, Dell has done a great job! We are grateful it is still on warranty!

    This week was the Kickoff Fireside for this years Youth conference “Faith in Every Footstep....Now is My Journey”, it will end with a trek at Martins Cove/Sixth Crossing.  Several youth spoke & shared special testimonies of finding & doing the temple work, of experiencing the excitement of learning about an ancestor & what they had learned by going on the Trek 4 years ago!  What a great spirit radiated from them.  They are encouraging each youth to do a baptism for an ancestor. They also want them to find a story about someone who has been a “pioneer”.  This can be anyone who has gone before them & prepared the way! We are excited to be a part of helping with their activities prior to the Trek in June!

    We are becoming busier with preparations for the Family History Day that will be held on March 22.  The video presentations for this will come from the 2014 RootsTech Conference going on this week in SLC!  We viewed this conference for three days last year on the web and it was awesome!!!  What a blessing to have it available world wide this year! We are working with the FHCenter  directors, HP Group Leaders and FH consultants to get this all organized.  Registration for it is just beginning. We are excited for this activity!

    We have had several special experiences this week which testified of the sacredness of this work.   Today a young man who is becoming active again was doing some searches for information.  He found a World War I Draft Registration form for his great grandfather.  The grand father was from the Star Valley area. The interesting part was his occupation. He was listed as clergyman for the LDS church in Canada. He was receiving an exemption because of his occupation. We assume he was serving a mission in Toronto, Canada.  As he found this & other records, we could see his hearted being turned to these family members.    In another class, with RS & Priesthood,  a Sister shared with me that her husband had found pictures of several grandparents whom he had never known or seen pictures of!  Tonight was an “evening with photos” in the FHC. Bro Croft spent the evening with 4-5 patrons, photos seemed to be what most of our patrons wanted to work on!   We also had a brother finding family in findagrave.com.  Go to Familysearch.org & Memories to see what is there about your family!

    Today was filled to the brim, from 7:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m.  We are so happy to be a part of this, and love to see the people finding joy in the work & feeling the spirit of it!

 

Love to you all & CTR   Bro & Sis Croft