Bighorn Mtns

Five Spring area Bighorn Mtns

Hiking near Five Springs

Sunday’s are always amazing days!

Dearest Family,

    Sunday’s are always amazing days!   Today was no exception!  We attended the Lovell 1st ward Sacrament Meeting at 8:00 a.m., We find that to partake of the sacrament first thing just gets the day started in the right way.  After that we helped teach in three wards, two youth class & one with a FH consultant whose parents, a sister & husband, and son & wife were visiting.  What a great opportunity it was for her & us.  She was supposed to start a new class but that hadn’t happened. She went ahead & gave the first lesson. This was so very special!  In between the classes, we attended 3 different wards where missionaries were speaking.   First, we were blessed to go hear Nathan, Nat, you did great! Brady Winland also spoke in our ward.  Jacob Asay spoke in the 4th ward & we were also able to go to the 5th ward to hear Dino Collins & Kurk Welch. Dad had home taught in the Welch home for years!  It was special to be at the Grant home for a few before going to the FHC from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. (oh – we did find time to eat today)

   

    We visit a sister who is anxious to get the temple ordinances completed for the first four generations of her family tree.  She had discovered that someone had reserved the ordinances for her grandmother & a great uncle several years ago, but didn’t have them completed. There was an email available for the person, so she emailed her. She has discovered a cousin, she didn’t know & they have had fun conversations & love to visit.  We all got on the phone one day, & the cousin unreserved the names, then our sister reserved them.  Now she can do her grandmother’s temple ordinances! The cousin is not related directly to the grandmother.

    Now this is techy........Today we had a deacon’s quorum president in a youth class that needed to connect his FTree to his family. So he used a iPad and Face Time to  talk to his grandma in Canada. They had a conversation via Face Time in full video as he typed in the needed info to connect to his tree. Just like grandma was right there in the FHCenter helping him. WOW! ! !

   

        On Friday evening, Sister Pat Wellman called me, I go VTing to her. Her son was here from SLC visiting, & had called his mother last week & asked her if she knew an Elder Croft from Lovell?  She said she did, because we often talk about our missionaries when we visit! He works for LDS Church News, & had just finished posting the Mozambique article online.  He had brought copies of it & delivered them to our door.  What a thoughtful gesture, we have so enjoyed them & did deliver them to Rob & Michelle that very evening!  It was so kind of him!

        Dad did really well on the mtn this week even walking around for about 1 1/2 hrs with no problems. We will go up again next Friday morning to do final prep - then on to Big Sky Sat morning!

CTR & remember, by this time next week, we will all be together a Big Sky! Love you all, & we will see you soon!

Our Love,      Bro & Sis Croft

An Awesome Wyoming Sunrise!

This has been quite a week, probably the busiest we have had

Dearest Family,

    Happy Birthday, Ky! belated, oops!,   Happy Birthday, Vicki,  Happy Birthday Talon!

This has been quite a week, probably the busiest we have had, helping the most people, What joy! 

    Our usual Monday at the public library!   Our scheduled FHE canceled & we were able to go to Powell & see Marcie & Shawn Owen, Shawnee, Marlee, & Dixon, who were visiting at Gaye & Frank's.  It was great to visit around the campfire!

    Wednesday was our day in the FHC, morning  & evening!

    Thursday we had appts in 3 homes, & were able to help 6 people, wow!  In the a.m., it was great to help Talon, Whitney & Kaitlyn find more names for their Family Excursion next week!  Also helped another brother, three more in the afternoon, at two different homes.

    On Friday, the Sister Missionaries brought a lady they are teaching to the FHC, She is excited about FH & has been given a lot  which is all in Family Tree. Again on Sunday  evening she came to the FHC & traced one line back to 400 B.C. The Sisters also had two high school girls from Powell doing spilts with them for 3 days.  Dad spent time with them, connecting their trees, exploring them & doing some indexing!

    We spent 3 hrs on the lake fishing and enjoying the rest of our pDay time. A beautiful place to relax and enjoy the Lord’s handiwork!

    It was good to spend time with Ryan on Friday evening, thanks for the help picking raspberries!  

    Several of our appts. this week have been helping members who wish to transfer their FH info to other programs since PAF has been discontinued. There are several programs available that are certified by the church to integrate  with Family Search/FTree

    Saturday was the Cowley Family Reunion! Had a special experience there! A Young lady, 16, & a relative (she is the GG granddaughter of Anne, a sister of Gladdys Cowley Sessions) thanked us for helping in her ward. It was the ward that had found their own names for their youth Temple excursion.  They ended up having two excursions, one for the Beehive, MiaMaids, Deacons, Teachers & another one for the Laurels & Priests because they had too many names for one session. She told how very special it was, how all of her family had gotten involved, her father telling stories abt people he knew, & abt at the last minute she had felt she needed to check just one more name!  That name needed work also & she did it that day! The young man, endowed & soon to leave on his  mission & this young lady  felt a very special spirit when doing that baptism! She was also very excited to share her experience with Ruth & Ed Johnson, they are the Area FH Advisors.

    The week ended today with TWO youth classes and two other ones, both with ward council members!   The work is wonderful!

 

CTR & we love you all, will be seeing you soon!   Love Bro & Sis Croft

 

Family History Class

Family Class in Lovell Wyoming Stake

Dearest Family,  

Have you ever heard of loops,  computer loops that is?  Well the first of this week was spent preparing a lesson on them.  In FH, in the Family Tree Program, on the pedigree chart:    example,   the same 1-3  people, Charlie, Frank, Charlie, Frank repeat forever. Actually, son Charlie is his father, Frank's Dad.  We visited with several people, who thought they had loops on their pedigree!   One had 5-6 six people with the same name & different dates - not a loop, the other had one guy who was both the father & the son, , yes it was a loop, but to confusing to use in a class.   I finally created my own loop in my pedigree.   Anyway, lots of time was spent preparing a short lesson!  I learned, & was inspired as I prepared the lesson & handout! Just pray that it helped the people we teach!

 

Had a service day!  We were able to work at the Big Horn National Recreation Area Visitor Center, the employees had a training day, & they have people from Friends of BH Lake cover the visiters center.   It was enjoyable to be there from 9:00 to 1:30.   Service is always great!

 

We had several house calls this week for indexing and FTree mostly during the day. Our public library time was busy too. Our raspberrys are ready to start picking and picked  two times this week. We got a new laptop to replace the one Mom has used for six years that is doing strange things off/on, its been a good unit!  Went up to mtns again for Dad to get used to the elevation at Big Sky.

 

We spent Fri morning in Powell with the Fike children visiting, playing some games and doing FH. Joy is at girls camp this week. Another week of a lot of prep time to keep up on the changes in Family Search and not forget  what we study each week.

 

Today was our normal busy Sabbath Day!   Started out with Dad & I being called on in the Sacrament Mtg we attended to bear our testimonies!  In one ward, we helped with a Youth class!   They are always fun!  The other 3 wards were workshops which are great, too.  We find each week that we have studied just what we need to answer the questions which come up.  One sister, had a list all prepared. She had been working in the program during the week,  what a great student! 

 

We finished the day off with a full house in the FHC tonight!   The Grant family came in to find names for there own Baptism excusion after Talon turns 12 on the 21st of July.  We found several & will work on it over the next 10 days, I'm sure we can find some more - if we do a little research! We also had three other sisters, two from the Powell Single Ward! One is a new convert who has just been called to be the FH Consultant in her ward!   Wow!!! was she excited!  What a wonderful blessing for her!

 

Well, the calendar looks busy for the coming week!   so it is off to bed now!  CTR & we love you all!   Bro & Sis Croft

 

 

Joy took this moose family photo near Porcupine Camp Grd - Bighorn Mtns

Well, this has been an amazing week!

Dearest Family,

 

Happy Birthday, Amber!  Well,  this has been an amazing week! Now just where do I start!

    Monday at the library- JQ & I entered lots of new data into the computer!   Dad visited with three patrons too. We also had a wonderful FHE with a couple in Cowley, he wanted to learn about indexing, & is loving it. She wanted to learn about Family Search & Family Tree!   Had a great evening!.

    Tuesday helped with indexing & a "new Sister", who has very limited computer skills, but is preparing to be sealed to her deceased parents. Met with her twice & she has printed out the sheets for grandchildren to do the baptisms of several people &  then the other things can be done . . . more on Thursday. We met Joy in Deaver  to help us drive after dark & together joined Nathan for his endowment! Our family filed half the session! It was a beautiful evening!  The temple beauty was enhanced by the evening sun shining in the rooms as we did the session.

    Wednesday - helped  one of our sister's with indexing, we are changing projects & that is sometimes difficult for the older ones! We did some outside yard work this evening. 

    Thursday - we love this wonderful land in which we live!  No matter what, it is still the greatest place on earth!  Took our first trip up to the Big Horns to start acclimatizing Dad, preparing for Big Sky!  Was a beautiful drive. While walking up there, we discovered some swallows nesting in the crevases in a rock wall along the road!  We also planned to go to a 4 of July party, at least for the barbeque part, then the rain hit & the lightening, etc  We received  1.3 inches of rain in less than an hour, hail in town!  Some how, a lighting strike that hit the douglas fir tree by the kitchen (knocking the top off)came into the house thru our internet line, wiped out the ATA telephone box, (no phone service)  & the desk top computer which was direct wired to the internet!  We will get it checked out this week. Evee George was here Thur & Friday nights, she was taking CNA class at the Living Center, worked there from 6:30am until 4:00pm.  We enjoyed having her!

    Friday - Our "new Sister" & her daughter came to the FHC! I had a great time with her & Dad was inspired to do Findagrave & Google searches with her daughter!  They did a search in Google Images & up popped a 3 generation picture of her grandmothers!  It is so amazing when the spirit helps.

    Saturday - Big Horn Lake Day an opportunity for us to give service!  free boat rides - the triathalon - a great day! The weather was perfect! Altho we were doing community service, we had several asking about Family history!  Those name tags are wonderful conversation starters! When we were finishing up at the end of the day, a prominent local gentleman whom we were talking with, approached us, wanting help with his family history.  He had worked on it while in college & now wanted to learn new techniques!   An answer to our prayers! There were 120 plus in the triathlon and 455 free boat rides given today!

    Sunday - a grand climax to the week! Four FH classes - quiet,sweet miracles in each one plus – Just to share one. A young man in our class has been searching for a certain ancestor each time we meet. we told him that over one million names are added to the FS data base each day. All of a sudden he exclaimed he had found a gold mine today. He found a Montana marriage document that had three generations of info on it.  He came to the FHC tonight to enter these new names into FTree and print out the FOR to  do their temple work! Our evening was very busy in the FHC. 

    We are ending the week on a spiritual high!

We love you all & CTR 

    Bro & Sis Croft

 

 

Nate and family at the Billings Montana Temple July 2, 2013

Nate and family in front of the Billings Montana Temple July 2, 2013

July 1, 2013 It has been a great week.

July 1, 2013

Dearest Family,

It has been a great week training Bro Bill Hudspeth.  He was one of Dad's counselors when he was Bishop some years ago. We had a great FHE with him on Monday, then he came to the FHC on Tues Evening.  Today, he & his counselors came into the FHC so they would have an opportunity to "taste of the fruit". In the 1st Ward this A.M. we were blessed to hear from a young man just returning from a mission in Japan, & Cody Savage leaving next week for his mission!   We also heard this week that there will soon be 5 companionships of missionaries here in our stake!

You might also say this was an allergy week!  Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday, Dad did not feel good at all!  He got some extra rest, stayed clear of fragrances (difficult when so many things are blooming outside), & we so appreciated a priesthood blessing!  They are the greatest!  We think there might have been something else too, because he had alot of muscle aches!  He thinks it felt a lot like the West Nile rebouts he hasn’t had for a long time. He has improved the last two days & we have had a normal, busy Sunday! 

We so enjoyed having Joy, Kenya, & Daeja spend Friday night with us, while the rest of their family went backpacking!  Saturday was a great day with Allen, Amber & family! They had been invited to a Bryon A Sessions Family Reunion in Worland.  Bryon A or Binny as he was called is a brother to Scott Aytch Sessions, both sons of Byron Sessions. Allen goes home teaching to people who hosted the reunion.  Some of you may know Jackie Hecht from Powell,  this is her family.

The youth FH classes are starting in several of the wards, so exciting to be a part of!!!

And now, a little family story. . . . .Dad & Allen were visiting, & Leanne was sitting with them.  She climbed into his lap, near his face, took a hold of his tie, & said, " Grandpa, Do you do church every day?"  They then chatted a little about missionary service.

We enjoyed Rob coming by the FHC last night to visit and share photos of their trip to Michigan to see family members of the lady he baptized. We also enjoyed hearing about their fishing experiences.

We Love you all so very much & feel & appreciate your love, prayers & support .. . . .CTR   Mom & Dad