June 24, 2013

Dearest Family,

The Lovell First ward has a new HP Grp leader that we are excited to start training with next week. Our time at the public library was awesome again! We both had success with our patrons and felt their excitement in finding more family members! 

 

Tuesday evening was a great night!  Byron Ward Relief Society came into the FHC at 6:00. Most in the group of 8 sisters  had a little experience, but wanted to work there so they could have some more help!  It was a fun evening for all of us!!!! We also had 5 consultants & 2 other patrons. Our goal is to have it this busy each time we are open!

 

We also had some great home visits this week all in Cowley & our phone support helping patrons and ward consultants went well also. We are using the Helper Function a lot now that you see on the FS/FTree screen. This lets us see what they are working on making it easier to offer support to them.

Dad & I were able to go to the temple on Thursday to do more family names!  It was a busy day there. We enjoyed it so much.

 

We learned tonight that the 1st Ward Youth  reserved enough names for two temple excursions recently!  Their goal was to provide 150 names for their excursion!   And they made it!!!!!  They went on a Thursday evening and the rest went on a Friday afternoon. They are so excited to do it again!  Having the youth class leaders trained to work with their peers is so much more successful. As Pres David Beck said recently in our training “the leaders must taste the fruit first” When that happens the work moves rapidly! ! !

 

We went out to BHLake on Friday morning fishing from the fishing dock since the wind was nasty that day. It was another nice time together to finish out our pDay for the week! There was a large group of cub scouts at the visitor center and at HSBend for their annual event.

 

This week got pretty  hot - three days over 90’ but nights down in the low 50’s. There were tornado warnings out on Saturday for the area too. Several were seen in southern Montana and the Casper area.

 

Dad was able to put the Croft reunion video and sound on Memory sticks to share with the families,( in his spare time.) What a great example this is of Family History. Thanks again for all your support for this event! ! !

 

We attended a 90th Bday party for Aunt Helen White on Saturday. She is a relative on the Sessions side. Her husband was the late Rueben White.

 

We were blessed to attend the Mission Presidents Broadcast tonight, what an inspiring meeting!  The guidance is inspiring! It can be seen on LDS.org if you missed it. Speakers included Pres Monson and Apostles Holland, Nelson, Packer and Anderson with a lot of video from around the world.

 

We love you all! CTR      Bro & Sister Croft

 

Mom and I went out to Horseshoe Bend Fishing Dock to fish this morning. It was too windy for us to use the boat. We like to take part of our pDay at the lake to fish or just tour around!

We were able to catch our water lilies at our pond blooming today too! One plant is over six feet across and has 26 blossoms!!

June 17, 2013 cont.

At the Gard Farm

Byron Cemetery Story Time

June 17. 2013
CROFT REUNION June 2013

The Family

Dearest Family,

    We have been so blessed this past week to see many of you!  What a wonderful time it was!

    1st of the week, we had several Community members come to the library! We love that & feel the hand of the Lord each time!  There is no preparation for that, except spiritual! It is always a great experience.  We had our usual Indexing appts & helped Sister VZ in her home. She has a amazing phamplet, compiled in the 60's about her Norwegian family.

    Sunday evening, a sister wanted to find the death date of her biological sister.She knew her given name, birth & death places, but no married name at the time of death.  We had done google searchs & several other things.  I am so grateful for inspiration - we did a search of the Social Security Death Index using only her given name, (no surname) & birth & death years & places.   We found her!!!!!! What we found had the exact dates of birth & death!  Remember miracles happen every day, in each of our lives!   Many times we don't take the time to recognize them & acknowledge them!

    Vicki & Bryan, Linz, Mica, & Isaac arrived on Wednesday & we so enjoyed having them here for the rest of the week.  The Croft Family Reunion was on Friday evening & all day Saturday!  Those attending were, Bob & I, Rob & Family, Vicki & Family, Darece & family, Joy & Family, Allen & Family, Bill & Kathy, Jared Sorensen & Family, Kirsten Byrd & Family, Frank & Gaye, TeeCee, Evee & Family, Brady & Family.  Saturday Evening at the Cousins Party, Jay Croft & family, Trina & Trista, & Will  were there with the rest. We so missed those who were unable to come & missed you so!

    Friday evening we all got together at the farm for a picnic, oh so windy the whole evening we finally had to go into the house. Everyone had a nice time visiting!

    Saturday we met at the farm at 9am to begin our day’s tour of the places our family has lived. See the enclosed map of the tour route. We have a lot of audio, photos and video to process so we can all review the reunion in the future. I will try to get this done ASAP......... We headed two directions at 4pm for the cousin’s picnic in Lovell and the rest of us to the farm. Everyone was ready for bed that tonight! We hope all will spend time visiting about the weekend’s events and learning more about our ancestors, which helps us know ourselves better!

 

We love you all & CTR!  Mom and Dad

Friday Evening Picnic

June 12, 2013

Tchae at the Provo Temple with his MTC Zone

June 9, 2013

Dearest Family,

Happy Birthday to Kaitlyn & Allen!!

    It is great to start a new month & get back into the swing of things!  May is so busy for everyone, so it has also been slower for us.  Thanks also to the Grants for the FHE they did at our home, mowing & washing walls & ceiling in the kitchen. Now we are on to greater & greater things.

    We've helped MJ clean up some errors in her Family Tree in FS, DW prepare an accurate fan chart, & several sister's do indexing. Dad had two Primary girls quizzing him about FH at the Public library.  They had walked to town 2 miles together to get some more books. The eleven year old, said she needed to start working on it again, so she would have some names ready when she soon turned twelve. She had been a part of a Girls Activity Day which we had done.  Her almost 8 year old sister wasn't sure she was into that yet! He also had a young man college age have a lengthy discussion about FH and wanting to find his family. He will be back next Monday. Walk-ins are so awesome since you have to rely on the Spirit even more to help them!

    Tuesday evening was busy again! PD, after working for several hours & having success, was about to finish up for the evening when she noticed the red asterick by the word, TEMPLE in Family Search.   What is that?, she asked.  There is an "opportunity list" now which checks several generations for names which need temple ordinances done.  She clicked on it - to find 5 names. Last week she had done the temple work for a great-aunt, only to find the name of her husband showing up on this list!  It was a sweet moment!

    JC, a young man Allen's age, shared a memory today of helping his aunt read films when he was young. She had gathered a group of the cousins in the family, I'm guessing they were abt 8-10 yrs old & had them at the FHC, each at a film reader.  They were to look for the surname, "Collins"  & let her know if they found one.  He remembers finding one!!!! Now he is feeling that great desire again! (I wish I would have thought of that years ago when I was reading films.)

    It was great to have some of the Fike Family here on Friday A.M.  They all fished, we had lunch together. Symphony, it was great to help you with your family history!  She wanted help connecting her family tree, sometimes connecting the living to the deceased can be tricky! Incidently, that was our lesson at the Wednesday nite FH Consultant training meeting.  Not only did she do that, but she is already looking for names she can do next year when she turns 12 & can go to the temple.The Grant Family is also planning a temple excursion when Talon turns 12 in July!

    We did the rest of our pDay on Thursday morning at HSBend in the boat for 3hrs fishing and relaxing. We had a nice time together. We saw only 2 other boats and lots of birds.

    Ken had his scouts at our place on Friday for an overnighter, camping, cooking food, making a big raft and fishing. Three of the fathers came to help, it was a fun time for all!!! A few rain drops and lots of lighting in the night added to the adventure!

    Saturday was so nice!  We spent part of it with the Howard Sessions Family, He is Grandma Croft's brother.  Six of his children & their families were in Byron for the burial of the ashes of Velma, Howards wife & Susan, his oldest daughter who died only days apart.  There was a memorial service at the Byron Ward building, Dad dedicated the grave, & then we had a dinner together at the church!  They had come from SLC & Lewiston, Idaho. Attended a wedding reception for two local youth just married in the BM Temple today. They have been great examples of goodness to our area.

 

We Love you all, CTR as always

    Mom and Dad, Gdpa Bob & Gdma Rena, Bro & Sister Croft

 

Velma and Susan burial of their ashes

June 6, 2013
Our Missionaries in the Mozambique Maputo Mission in Africa with families they have recently helped get married and then baptized.
So many local traditions really slow up or prevent people from embracing the Gospel.

Elder Chris Allen

Elder Ethan Croft