a call from Elder James Evanson of the Seventy . . . . .

Dearest Family!   

    Congratulations to Kenny & Rosie & Lucy Elisabeth born October 23, 2015 weighing in at 6 lb 13 ozs!   We feel so blessed that Mother & Baby are doing great!

    We have a wonderful, mostly normal week!   Our usual visits to Sisters, helping in Cowley, at the public library,  our morning at the FHC. It is just so very special to serve & help one another & the saints!!! Monday was a trip to the dentist for me & Bro Croft spent time checking out the computers in the church, things are just not going right.  Later in the afternoon the H Councilor over computers came in so they worked for awhile together & also with Technical people in SLC.   Problem still wasn’t corrected today.  Hope to get it fixed this week.

    Brother Bob Pratt passed away & we were able to attend his funeral on Monday, so many talented & beautiful voices in his family. It was great to end the day with a FHE in a Bishop’s home.  Wednesday evening we taught the YW of the Cowley 2nd ward about using Advanced Descendancy to find names for the temple.  The Laurels have scheduled another time in December so we will be able to work one on one!  That will be great!  On Thursday, it was great to help a Sister from Moorcroft, who was visiting her daughter.  We had a wonderful time in the Temple on Friday!   It was a beautiful day to travel, the temple was busy.  What a blessing it is to have it this close!   We were also able to visit a Family History Center there. Saturday I attended the Super Saturday in our ward & Bro Croft Went biking with Rob!  We both had a very special day.  It has been great to visit with some of you during the past several days!

    Well we came home on Wed for supper and received a call from Elder James Evanson of the Seventy in Lethbridge, Canada. He wanted to know if we could Skype with him that evening. We said we would be happy to, but were doing FH training with the C2 YW  until 8:30 pm. Since we were busy, the time went by fast and soon it was 9pm. (A little about Elder Evanson, he is a dentist  46 yrs old, he was released as Stake Pres in April 2015 and called as an Area Seventy. That area in Canada and a stake in Nauvoo leads the church in FH and people taking their own names to the temple. So he knows the import of FH in the lives of the people) Well after the usual hello’s he extended a call to us to be Area FH Advisors in the Montana Billings Wyoming Area. He said the brethern want you to do what you have been doing in your stake with the other 6 stake in your area. These stakes are Bozeman, Billings, Billings East, Gillette, Lovell, Cody and Worland. We’re aware of your service the past 3 years and the results in the Lovell Wyo Stake. Your Stake President gives you his highest recommendations. Go out and offer your services to these stake presidents, don’t wait for them to come to you! You can start tonight. We told him we wanted to do this full time and he said that is great and wonderful. He invited us to an Area Coordinating Council meeting in Billings on Nov 14 to bear testimony and to be set apart by him. He told us we can contact him at anytime by phone or email.

Here is a summary of our responsibilities:

Consult and inform Area Seventies and Stake Presidencies on Family History

Provide training in temple and family history to stake leaders and others within the stakes and wards

Keep local leaders informed on changes in temple and family history

Inform Family History Dept of local needs

Encourage Family History mission opportunities

Help with public affairs dealing with temple and family history

He reviewed the call process for us.  After gathering names and prayerful  pondering he submitted our names to the 7 Pres of Seventy. On the Sat of Gen Conf Elder Dale Renlund then a newly sustained member of the Twelve approved our names and authorized Elder Evanson to extend a call to us to serve. There was no time period given for the length of our service. We’re grateful to continue to serve full time at this time of the Hastening of the Lord’s work. We have really seen every week this hastening get faster in FH!  This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we know it’s true and love to serve and live it!  

May you all live it too is our daily prayer for each one of you!

Love Mom and Dad

   

   

Great – Great – Great!

Dearest Family,

        Great – Great – Great!  Brother Croft & I had a FHEve with a couple this week,  He reviewed indexing with the Brother & the Sister has had some health issues & wasn’t up to much heavy concentrating, so we just visited – We both agreed, it was so great to just visit!

    Wednesday evening, a group of 6 Priests, their leader & Bishop!   They caught the vision of Descendency Research & Hints.   Then to top it off we showed them the newest feature in the Family Tree App! It has a list of hints for the first 6 generations in your tree. You can link them to people or add new people to the tree where ever you are with Wifi or data plan!  So fun!  How to find the new feature: Apple ck the 3 lines menu in the upper left corner - Android ck the 3 dots menu in the upper right hand side and ck on the Hints list item. You will get a list that you then ck on a name to see all the hints for that person. Remember that hints are being added everyday so they just keep showing up! ! !     

    And speaking of Hints – one evening I was helping a lady & we had looked & looked for a certain Census for this family – it was no where to be found.  I had tried searching for it so many different ways. I went to one of the family members person page & in her hints it was listed.    The last name for the family was Davis & was indexed as “Da*s” because they couldn’t read it when they were indexing.  But the hints found it by matching all the other info about the family!  Very Cool.

    The plague of this week, at least twice, was the internet, especially today – so slow in all the buildings! So Dad will be working hard tomorrow to solve the problem with the Church and the Wifi company? ?

    And by the way, we have a trick light here in the family room!  Sometimes is works & sometimes it doesn’t! The last couple of days it has been working, but tomorrow, who knows?   We do have a new ballast to replace in it so that should help! Deer season began this week and we checked out Snell’s bean field but none came out that night. They are threshing the beans now so we’ll have to wait a few days for that to finish and the deer to move back into the area! Dad and I enjoyed another Friday morning boat fishing at HS Bend, didn’t get any fish big enough to keep but had a great time together! Dad put in a new threshold in our front south door too. Our green house is doing great all the plants growing nicely! Still no killing frost in our area yet as of Oct 18.

 

Held a wonderful Youth FH Consultant meeting this evening to show and train them in the latest in Family Search, They get so excited about all the new stuff for mobile devises! Bro Crosby came to invite them to serve in the FH Center on Sunday nights when their schedules allow.

 

We love you all & appreciate all your prayers, & good works!    Our Love,   Bro & Sis Croft

 

This has been a fun & exciting week!

Dearest Family!  

       This has been a fun & exciting week!    I think I’ll just mention several of the highlights. 

 

         Wednesday after helping a couple, we returned home to prepare for an evening with a HP group Presidency & I to help one of their wives.  Bro Croft went into LDS.org to review some videos which he was going to use.  Much to his surprise, everything on the site was in Spanish!  There is a place to change the language & it would change to any language listed, but each time we selected English, it would return to Spanish!  We checked both of our tablet, both computers – all the same.  We tried using other browers – still just Spanish!  We had Darece check her’s – Spanish. The next option was to call a help line, but who do we call?  We didn’t have a help number for LDS.org – so.o.  FS it is!     The missionary on the other end of the line (in Utah)  just didn’t know what to do.  We asked her to go to LDS.org, which she did. Guess What?   Her’s was in Spanish also!   Next step, she contacted her supervisor (in California).  She checked her’s also.  It was in English.  Very interesting!    We were given a number for more technical support & he couldn’t replicate the problem. While on hold with this gentleman, the first song we heard was “I Need Thee Every Hour” them “Put your Shoulder to the Wheel”. He said he could do nothing.   (His was in English, in Utah)    We persisted, and finally he sent the problem to his supervisor.   About a half hour later it returned to English!     Thank goodness the video’s we needed for that evening Bro Croft had downloaded prior to the Spanish!

 

        Friday Afternoon,  we helped the Elders.   Elder Hunter has a line, non-member, which he was stuck on!   I had worked on it prior to our appointment & just felt very uneasy about some parents we were going to add.  I felt inspired to go to Ancestry.com, look in the public trees to see if anyone else was working on this family and they were!   It was wonderful to share with him & help him do it, to discover several more generations of his tree.  The first parents were not the right ones & there were several marriages, etc with the correct ones.   There were three Elders together & two had an appointment to give a discussion to a Sister who is becoming active now.  We helped the third Elder while they were away.   At the end of their discussion, they were holding it across the hall from the FHC, the Sister pointed to the FHC door & said, “Can I go in there?”  They were excited to bring her in, & now we have an appointment to help her this week!

       

        About a month ago a HP group leader in Cowley talked to us about giving a presentation in their Priesthood mtg sometime. Of Course, we were willing, just let us know when. Today we decided to attend Priesthood & Relief Society in Cowley in between the two Sunday School classes that we help in.  Bro Croft went to the Bishop before Priesthood meeting to see if he could just say a few things about FH at the beginning of the meeting?  He discovered that they were expecting the FH presentation today!  The Lord does have a way of putting people in the right place at the right time!    We were there to fulfill this assignment – when we needed to be, even if we didn’t know it!

    

        Other activities, in addition to FH appointments – Fishing on a calm & beautiful lake Friday a.m – Friday night Lovell Football, Dance team & Swing Choir.  Saturday Afternoon we went to Allen & Amber’s to visit all of them! We had a great time making some treats & loving our newest Grandson, Neil Allen Croft – what a precious little guy he is!

 

    It’s been an awesome week with lots of spiritual moments and the goodness of the people we help is wonderful! They pray for us, thank us and give us food items all the time! We’re so grateful to be able to serve the Lord thru all the people in our area. We did service work at the Park Visitor center this week too! Had some special time there informing folks of this area and what is available for them to enjoy. 

 We love you all and may God Bless,

 Bro & Sister Croft

 

  Dearest Family, 

      Congratulation to Allen, Amber & Family.   Neil Allen Croft arrived Wednesday, September 30, weighing in at 6 lb 13 oz.   Mom & Baby Neil are doing fine!  We are so grateful for his save arrival!

That makes a total of 25 grandchildren for us!

    We have had a wonderful week! It was great to Skype our cousin, Jane on Monday morning.  8 a.m. here is 4 p.m. in Denmark.  It has been a while since we have visited, she was on a trip, then the last month it seemed I was always busy on Monday morning!  It is amazing that we can visit this way with our friends around the world.  We also enjoyed Elder Scott’s funeral that morning.   Our time in the Public Library was busy also.  It ended with a FHE with the 7th of our 8 Bishops in the stake. what a wonderful way to start the week.

Tues was a little slower, one visit helping a sister index, even took a nap in the afternoon, then Family History center in the evening with people to help & a lesson to teach.  Wednesday, normal appointments, and a class with the Family History Consultants in the stake!  There was a wonderful spirit of comradery  and unity there that evening!   Thursday a.m.  in Cowley, several of our patrons I think had left to go to General conference so it was a little slower but we still had one to help!

The highlight of this week has to be General conference!   It is such a  inspiring time & we enjoy the messages so very much! It is such a time of reflecting, pondering, & listening to learn the things we can do to progress & draw nearer to our Heavenly Father.  Saturday we enjoyed it all here at home!  I even attended General Priesthood meeting with my sweetheart!   He had decided to watch it here at home since he is still very sensitive to smells after his Wed evening problem with too many smells at church. We enjoyed it together.  Sunday, Allen & the family came up for the morning session at our house. We enjoyed that.  Amber, I am sure had a very quiet morning at home in Worland with baby Neil.   Had waffles at Darece & Ken’s together for lunch!   The traditional  “Whole Wheat Yeast Waffles”  also ham & scrambled eggs!

There are many thoughts and quotes to think about but just to share one from Elder Bednar’s talk. This is from Elder Robert Hales as told to Elder Bednar by him. “When you cannot do what you have always done then you only do what matters most!”  We have experienced this in recent years . . . . .good council even for younger folks!  We’re anxious to re-listen to and study  all of Gen Conf in the coming months so we know the Lord’s will for us  now.  We know we can count on His council to bless our lives!

Love you all!

Bro & Sister Croft