The weeks fly by, by, by so quickly!

Dearest Family, 

   A Happy 1st Birthday last Thursday to Emerson Vehrs!  Happy Birthday this week to Ryan on Wednesday & Chris on Friday!  Have a great day!

    The weeks fly by, by, by so quickly!  Rob spoke in church today about Duty to God, how it is easier to build boys, rather than fix men! He shared some very spiritual experiences which he has had. Today was great – helping brothers & sisters add stories to their Memories App.   Have each of you added a story?  What a blessing it is and will become thru the years! Tonight we met with our Family History Youth consultants!  That is always inspiring & exciting.  They were sharing things they had done the last month in the Memories App & how they felt about it.   Sister M talked about how she felt so much closer to the relatives she had added pictures to, Sister G shared how she had stayed with a Grandma for 3-4 days & they had gone thru pictures, her grandma had shared a story about almost every picture.  Some pictures even had handwriting on the back by the people in the picture!  Sister A shared recording the precious voice of her 3 year old brother & a story by her great-grandmother. She plans to do more with her this summer!  Their spirit is contagious!

      Brother Croft & Bro H went to the Shoshone River by the railroad trestle to take pictures, where, as a youth he & his friends had swam. They wanted to add these pictures to his stories. Sister H & I sorted digital images of slides that were taken when their oldest daughter was young.  Sister H plans to get them printed and give them to her daughter – these are the only pictures of her childhood. We’ll also add them to Family Search.

      At the Public Library, Bro Croft had several families who were interested in the Apps – and I helped a Sister who was stuck, trying to find a lost ancestor.  We explored other places & ways to search in FS – also gave her names of several people in our area who are really good at finding lost people!  Elder Richard Scott has promised us that the Lord will help us find a way & there will be someone to help!

        Wednesday afternoon and evening we spent in Worland  visiting and doing a birthday service project for Allen.  Grandpa & the boys overhauled the pigeon coop, they are trying to train their birds to enter the coop a different way.  The girls & I had lots of fun reading & playing! Thursday I enjoyed the Follies with Darece;  Whitney & Kaitlyn were in two dance numbers & Rhonda sang with her sisters. They all did a wonderful job! Friday was our temple day, we had a wonderful time there, then did a little shopping afterwards!   Friday evening was the Family Fun Night & the Grants served the hot dogs, chips & pop! We enjoyed helping! I am a pro at putting on the ketchup & mustard now.  Also got to see Rhonda & Quinn for a few, enjoyed playing with him. Bo, McKenzea & Athena are here also & it has been wonderful to meet our newest little Great grand daughter! Saturday was the Mustang Day Parade!   Had a gdpa, his son and 2 grd children come to our pond and fish before the parade.   Sounds as if we socialized all week – but that is Family History also!

        To any of you, we have some family names which have sealing ordinances that need to be done!  Would some of you enjoy doing them?   Let us know & we will get them to you!

Love to all & CTR     Bro & Sis Croft

Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful Fathers in our family!

Dearest Family!

                    Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful Fathers in our family!  We so appreciate all of you & the great Priesthood men that you are!  It has been a wonderful Sabbath Day! We have mainly helped people learn to use the Mobile Apps to record audio stories!  The hardest part is to inspire people to look past their initial fears, just relax & talk about whatever!  This way they can learn the process! They relax & tell that first story! Sometimes we just sit & chat, letting the device do the work!  Other times we review how to do it!  Anything that lets us practice the steps. Each week we have individuals who say “I tried it, but what was I missing?”   Well, it was just one step of the 4-5 steps!  Gee Whiz – that amazing word practice!   Guess what, I have to do it also!

    Well, it was our turn to speak today – even in our own ward!  We are thankful for the opportunity, but I am sure glad it is done, sometimes topics I am given can really be difficult- “The Sacred Role of Fathers in the Plan of Salvation”  I just had a hard time wrapping my mind around it! (She did an awesome job with it - Dad) Bro Croft’s was about “The Blessing of a Righteous Father & Husband in the Home”   His talk was so very special with many personal experiences. What a gifted and wonderful, sweetheart, husband & father he is – love him so-o-o-o

    This has has been a wonderful week!   Last Sunday, I was walking thru the foyer in Cowley, I happened to visit with a sister who had been in some of our classes. She has been going to college & has been just to busy to really get involved, but has also felt frustrated that she isn’t doing it.   She was so excited to see me & wanted us to come to their home on Friday!  It was a wonderful visit, Bro Croft was able to work with her husband & a teenage daughter. They worked on the apps! She & I worked together – it is great to work in the home, one on one!  Her family came from Lebanon, into Central & S America.  She was raised in Illinois.  We had a wonderful time & will get together again in two weeks!

    Monday at the Public library, I worked with S C, a non member sister who also comes to the FHC to work other days.  Bro Croft had a family of 6 stop by whom he helped with the apps! I also made contact with a lady I had worked with last Fall.  I had expected to see her again but lost contact with her.  It was amazing how the Lord works so that we could make contact again! In the next few days I plan to record this story. Our Thursday morning in Cowley was busy!   We enjoy the family who comes in – Mom, Dad & three daughters, 8, 12, 15 I think.  Then we had 4 other people also! We were BUSY being sure they all had a wonderful experience! ! !

    We attended  Zac & Courni Haskell’s wedding reception this week & the wedding of Sam Smith & Natalie Kasinger, Joy will know her family.  Bro Croft visited with her grandfather, Dale (not LDS)who is one of dad’s friends since childhood. He has a lot of FH type stuff from his family and doesn’t know how to put it all together. Dad talked to one of the grand daughters who is LDS about helping her gdpa. Bishop & Sister Davidson of the Powell Student Ward also had lots of questions.

    Enjoyed a visit with Rob one afternoon this week.  Friday a.m. Amber & girls came. – Allen was at the Cub Scout Day camp with the boys!   Dad spent a lot of time with the girls and they had a great time talking, fishing 3x’s and swinging!  Dad and Leanne recorded a couple of stories on the FS app too!  We so enjoyed having them here Friday & Saturday!   The greatest!   Saturday lunch Allen  & the boys were here also for egg rolls!  Yummy!  Had a delicious Father’s Day dinner with the Grants Saturday evening,   Ken, Darece, Whitney, Kaitlyn & Talon.   Thanks so much for the nice evening & yummy dinner.                                    CTR & we love you all!     Bro & Sis Croft

It has been an enjoyable Sunday evening!

Dearest Family,   

    Happy Birthday to Kaitlyn last Saturday! She is 16 now! Happy Birthday on Monday to Allen &  Uncle Charlie who is celebrating his 84th birthday! Happy Anniversary on Wednesday to Dak & Joy- it the 21 one!  Hope all of you have a great day! Saturday, we also enjoyed a quick visit with Uncle Bruce & Eugene Petersen, for abt an hour. They stopped here, then were on their way to Riverton for an activity later in the day & then home on Sunday!

    It has been an enjoyable Sunday evening – after many wonderful classes today! In several we taught the Memories app, also one Lesson on Sources!  Again today, I helped the brother doing the Spanish records!  His enthusiasm is great!  It was also exciting today, a sister from California, visiting her friend here in Lovell – was introduced to Indexing. Her comment - This is the greatests – now I have something worthwhile to do & I enjoy it!

    We have kept busy with the usual appointments!  Installed printer software on one computer for a sister! Then ended up back in the evening to help her with some other problems, unrelated to the work we had done earlier!  On Tuesday evening we did a class on the Apps again!  This time we broke up in two groups, a beginner one & the other one learning to do audio to text & practicing! People are excited, but just need to practice.   Like everything we do, that makes it easier! We are working with an older couple in their 80’s do memories on their computer and using our tablet to help them do stories. The brother was telling Dad about water skiing on Lovell Lake and how it came to be a nice facility when an older man volunteered to build ramps and docks on the north side. Even a little concession stand was setup on the dock. He also talked about the places they would go swimming like the railroad track bridge hole west of the sugar factory, the hole by the Big Horn Coop in the Hunt canal, ride inner tubes down the flume on Sand Draw by Farnham McArthur farm east of Lovell, and the glory hole at Ralston ( this is a 1/2 mile long cement canal that goes down a very steep hill into a big pool full of boulders with a large whirl pool in the middle, if you fell off your inner tube it was very hard to escape the whirl pool without drowning.)

    We have enjoyed visiting with many of you this week, either on the phone or here. Spent Friday a.m. at Crooked Creek Bay, totally skunked by the fish! the sunshine was wonderful.  I did some sewing this week, completing Kaitlyn’s pillowcase doll for her birthday!  Bro Croft has been busy with the yard & found an interesting bird next!  We’ll include a picture!   We have decided that the nest was built by a Lazuli Bunting. Her eggs are the small white ones, about the size of a jelly belly jelly bean!   The other ones were laid by a Cowbird, she lays her eggs in someone else’s nest for that bird to raise. This is called  “Brood Parasite“  Her eggs hatch first & the babies are much bigger.  The smaller babies seldom survive!   It sounds to me like a true “welfare case” !

    We love you all,    Have a great week & CTR...... Bro & Sis Croft

 

We had great groups in each class!

Dearest Family,   

        Happy Birthday to Uncle Bruce, he is 81 on Tuesday!  Also took Janet Nazer to lunch on Saturday, her birthday,  it was today – we enjoyed Chinese at Jen’s Kitchen!  It has been another great week!   I know, I say that about every one!   They are all special & we enjoy each day so much!  Our Sunday was filled with workshops, that means class members are practicing what we have discussed the previous week in a lesson.  Several wards were having open library, no lesson, no class, anyone can come in & work on their own & ask questions if they wish!  We had great groups in each class. We did a little of everything; descendancy research, pictures, duplicates, indexing help, & helping with the apps.

     Last week I mentioned helping a brother with indexing who knows Spanish.  Well today, he brought his laptop in & a consultant installed the Indexing program.  Well I don’t know Spanish, but between him, myself & the Holy Ghost, we were able to help him get started, showed him the helps & how to find answers to questions, & the computer side of it.   He is so very talented at reading the handwriting & in Spanish to boot!  What an asset he will be, helping do Spanish records!  Another retired brother in Frannie commented today that this is really addictive!  He has been doing Draft Registration Forms & really enjoys it!  Another commented how he needed to get back to his own ancestors, has been mostly indexing!   And sometimes that is OK, he may index his own ancestors!

 

    This week on Tuesday evening, Darece & I did a presentation on Family Reunions!  Fun!  Used pictures to share things we find helpful for a successful reunion, mainly planning, sharing responsibilities, using & sharing all the talents of all the family members!  

    In the FHC that night we had our first Apps class (Tree & Memories apps) for the summer.   We had 9 people there, all helping each other.  All were successful at downloading the Apps except for two, their devices were too old!  We felt they are all excited about recording & sharing stories!  It is great!  We are going to do this each week in June, it is time for family get togethers & the sharing of stories! Some of the wards are choosing to do classes for this also on Sunday’s.  Will be fun! 

    Several highlights of the week – Thursday in Cowley, a family came in, father, mother, three daughters, ages 7, 12, 14. They had been to the temple the day before & did family names, baptisms, (first time for one daughter)  & now wanted to find more names for next time – and they did. Today in class, the Dad was so excited, he found a new one from the tree – all by himself!  At the Living Center we had planned an appointment with one of the men there that we had been helping & his daughter.  It was exciting to have two of his sons come also!  They seemed to really like what he was doing and thanked us for our service! We showed them how to access FS and all the stuff their dad has added.

     Had a fun time fishing on Friday morning at Crooked Creek Bay!  We got 5 cats and one carp – kept the biggest cat to eat. Also attended a funeral for Harry McNiven  (65) on Sat, he died of a heart attack at home last week, one of Ambers uncles! It was a special service by the family and they taught the gospel using the primary age children in the chapel to help them.

    We were thrilled to have Chalin call us on Friday evening to tell us of his mission call to the West Indies (island group south of Florida). He will learn French and report to Provo MTC in mid Sept

 

 Love you all! Bro & Sister Croft

What a wonderful day this has been!

Dearest Family,           

        Happy Birthday,  Bo,   on Tuesday!  Have a great day!

    What a wonderful day this has been!  So blessed to be with the Fike’s  as Tchae reported his mission in the Powell 3rd ward.  Thank you, Tchae, for the special thoughts you shared with all of us about the daily miracles during your mission & how we can all have those each day! We enjoyed having Rob, Michelle & Krysta; Ken, Darece, Whitney & Talon; & Frank & Gaye there also.   There newest son-in-law, Landon Greer also spoke today!

    The Fikes arrived Friday evening, 10:00 p.m. They arrived safely, Wind River Canyon was open after being closed for several days recently due to mud & rock slides. It was so great to have them.  We enjoyed every minute of the time!  Saturday the Fike men, Symphony & Grandpa Bob went hiking out to Big Horn Canyon!       Joy, Kenya, Deaja & I played Mexican Uno & 7-0, then it was time to finish last minute Birthday Dinner/Welcome Home Tchae preparations!    Allen, Amber & family arrived about 10:00, great to see them, too. Kids had fun outside while we finished up a few things.  Thanks Ken & Darece for your hospitality! It was also special to have Wade, Wendy & family with us, (Dak’s brother)  We had a wonderful time together, eating, talking, watching pictures with stories of Tchae’s mission!  Then in the evening the Fikes fished at the pond! It was a wonderful day & the weather was beautiful!

Hiking in Bighorn Canyon Nat Rec Area near state line

    Our week has been a special one, some cancelations due to last week’s Memorial Day activities.  We used the extra time do get some mowing done, & even some much needed house cleaning. I took time out in the afternoon to help Sister Governale with her FH. She is a convert & we have been able to find her 1st 4-5 generations. We planted a few flowers and a small garden on Friday. The tomatoes in the green house are still doing well!

Yellow rock area near old uranium mines in the BH Canyon

    One of the highlights this week was in the home of an older couple, married 61 years!   She has done sculpturing during her life & has a Bronze bust of her younger sister who was 5 at the time she did it, she won college awards on it.  Bro Croft took pictures of it for the first time & we were able to put them in Family Search.  She also has a portrait of herself, taken by photographer where she worked during HS-College days, which we took pictures of & posted on FS.  She was totally amazed that it was so easy to do it!  They are catching the vision & her husband recorded the story of their meeting on a blind date & marriage just a few weeks later!  A very sweet experience. 

    Each appointment was special this week, each in it’s own way!  We were able to help several non-members in the FHC, & our own family!  It was great to have a planning meeting with the Crosby’s, they continue to be excited about their new call & are learning quickly.  We spend our Sunday evening at home now with our schedule ending with our 5 pm class. Other consultants are now capable of handling that evening. Had a wonderful phone visit with Vicki tonight. Thanks to all of you for your birthday wishes!

We love you all Bro & Sister Croft