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