Today was a spiritual high!

September 29, 2013

Dearest Family,

    Each week, it’s great to write and bring everyone up to date!  A normal week, anyway it started that way, the public library, indexing, FHC Tuesday, our morning in Cowley with several patrons to help, and a house call or two.

    It was great to have Bill & Kathy come on Thursday.   Kathy & I worked on FH and corrected the Shoopman line.  What a spiritual experience that was!   We were able to find censuses and other documentation which helped us. It was a special blessing to do this and have it all turn out perfectly!  On Friday we went to Billings Temple! Friday evening Trina & Trista had dinner with us!     Bill and Kathy went home on Saturday morning....we had a wonderful time together!

    The first frost of the fall occurred Friday night too, didn’t hurt much here. There is fresh snow on all the mtn tops around us! There was a herd of 10 mule deer here just before they left. We finished our pDay items on Saturday too then went to the burial of Daisy Sessions in Byron at 4pm. She is Uncle Newell Sessions (Gdpa Alvins youngest brother) wife, they lived in Thermopolis most of their life. We enjoyed visiting with the family. Dad and Mom were always close to Daisy and Newell. Rena and Janet attended the Gen Rel Soc Mtg tonight.

    As usual our Sunday was another great day!!!!!   Today was a spiritual high!  The Lovell 1st ward, the one we normally attend right now, had a great Testimony meeting, with 6 youth testifying of the influence which FH had had in their lives.   Also some of the adults also testified about FH.  Our youth SS class also was excited about it, and were wishing for more temple excursion, “when we have an excursion planned it motivates me to work harder to find names—“.  Then for the 5th Sunday lesson, the Bishop presented the “Family Stories Lesson” which comes from the brethern in SLC. The adults, YM & YW were all there, with everyone participating. The youth shared their experiences and responded in the discussions, along with parents and youth acknowledging how it was affecting their lives. The spirit bore testimony to this great work!  Another Bishop in Cowley also taught this lesson and it, too, was a spiritual feast!  The members are excited to write and share their stories!  See link below on Family Stories.  https://www.lds.org/callings/temple-and-family-history/sunday-lesson?lang=eng

    We were also invited by the stake presidency to give presentations in the Stake Bishops meeting and in a Stake High council Meeting.  Prayers are answered. We feel so blessed to be a part of this great work!  We witness every week the hand of the Lord in it & are amazed! 

  CTR & we love you all! 

 Bro & Sis Croft

From Tonga and Mexico City

Nate in Tonga

Tchae in Mexico City

Today was a great one!

September 22, 2013

Dearest Family,

    Happy Birthday, Krysta!  Well, time flies so quickly! 

    Today was a great one! Sacrament Mtg with Ethan Croft & Ben Cuch speaking, then in the afternoon, we heard Guy Jones was speaking! They were each a spiritual feast! Three Sunday School classes: a youth class & two adult ones! One sister had been adding lots of photos & stories to the tree! It was great to see her enjoying this part of the program. Another ward had an open workshop & I was able to help a brother! Sunday evening was also busy in the FHC. Had 9 people who spent time tonight working, asking questions, & seeking for loved ones. Bro Croft has continued to share the Sunday, Family Stories Family History lesson with HP Group leaders.  We will be helping with this presentation in two wards next Sunday!  The work continues to move along!

    FHE this week was with a family, husband, wife, adult son, & husband’s retired brother! We did indexing & all enjoyed it so very much!  Today they shared with us that they were continuing to work on it & are enjoying! Retired brother was talking to a neighbor who has time on his hands & would also enjoy it!  We talked to him, but he needs to do some upgrading on his computer.

    Wednesday was our day to cover the FHC in the morning! We arrived to find them spraying for bugs in the building. We were able to open up the building, but Dad decided not to take a chance, so he came home. Sister Nazer & I stayed. We each had a patron to work with, so that was good. Wednesday evening, we were scheduled to help a Laurels group do indexing in Cowley, only to find the power off when we arrived. They decided to come to Lovell instead!  Sure enjoyed working with them. They learn so quickly & do a great job!

    We’ve been in several other homes, just helping them get into the grove of working on FH again! Our new consulting time on Thursday mornings in Cowley will be busy this week! With the harvest on and our highway under construction we have to be extra careful driving. We use several alternate routes to get to our appointments.

    We had a fun morning of fishing at the Lake, 8 fish, kept 3 nice catfish,  Had two trips to Powell this week, thanks Dak for adjusting us! Bro Croft also had an LDS Scholarship Committee Meeting with the new NW College President. She is very excited about what the LDS families and students do for NWC!  We attended the funeral of Doyle Moncur, plus going to the first half of the Lovell vs Lyman football game. We enjoyed the game and seeing Whitney and Kaitlyn dance as part of the LHS Dance Team at half time.

     Many things are prayed over in our home as well as in yours.  Several months ago, we found it necessary to upgrade my computer then Mid-week I dropped it.  When It came back on, the moniter was blinking terribly & the mouse pointer caused the blinking to come & go!!!!!   It was awful!  I prayed over it in my personal prayers, & I am sure Bro Croft did also!  We feel so blessed & thankful that by Sunday it was back to normal, working correctly, without any problem.

We love you all and appreciate your prayers in our behalf!   CTR

        Bro and Sister Croft

Where do I begin? This has been an amazing week!

Sept 15, 2013

 

Dearest Family,

    Where do I begin?   This has been an amazing week! We have had our normal activities, then many extra’s added in.   I worked at the Blood draw two mornings, 6:30 to 10:00 a.m. Was also able to do part of my visiting teaching. One of our sister’s had surgery, so took bread & chicken & noodles to her. Wednesday was a study day, reviewing many things on the computer & I studied the pedigree’s of several people I help. One amazing discovery on LDS.org was a “Family Stories FH lesson”.   It is to be taught by the Bishop in a combined lesson with RS, Priesthood, & YM-YW. It has the most amazing short videos & is so inspiring.  There is a new booklet to be used by each ward member to do some stories and their family tree called “My Family – Stories that bring us together! What a sweet spirit we felt as we have studied it & used some of the videos for training!   

    Thursday pm, we had an appt with a FHConsultant, JM, to continue her training, we felt inspired to call RL, a nonmember, who exclaimed, “I was just praying for your help, I’ll be right down” so, we had two to help! The Sister Missionaries dropped in, they were waiting for transportation for Sister Taylor, who was returning home after a successful mission.  She is a convert of 3 years. Sister NeVille had helped her prepare her grandmothers name for temple ordinances on Wed.  She & I found a great aunt she could also do.  On Friday, before leaving for home, she went to the Billings Temple and was baptized for both!  The NeVilles happened to be there when she completed this and shared in the joy which she felt!   She told them, “now there are three in her family who were members of the church!”  President Meacum, Billings Montana Mission President, also shared this experience with everyone at Stake Conference today, & expressed the joy which she felt!

    When we arrived home at 5:00 pm, there was a message from a High Priest Group Leader whom we had been trying to meet with for 6 months, wanting to meet.  We returned his call. He and his wife wanted to meet at 6:30pm. He is beginning to catch the vision of this great work and will inspire & direct his ward.  We met with another HP Group leader this afternoon, & he, too, is catching the vision!

     In addition, Stake Conference was amazing!  President Jordan, Temple Pres, said, “Family History will improve your whole life” speaking of all aspects of it bringing the Holy Ghost into our lives. Elder Rhodes of the 70 quoted President Hunter, “We need to receive both halves of the blessing”  To continue, he stated that to increase the influence & presence  of the Holy Ghost in our lives, we can 1st: do Family History & 2nd: improve our marriages. He also reminded us that if we have more names than we can do in our temple file, to immediately release them so that those waiting can receive the blessings.   Then on Sunday, he read the quotes of Elder Scott & Elder Bednar where they promised “that the youth and adults will be protected against the influence of the advisary by doing this work”   Aren’t we all in need of this protection?!. 

    Bro Croft felt inspired this a.m. early to call a certain Bishop. After trying several times, he called one of his counselors who replied, Bishop has been trying to call you?  When the Bishop was reached, he proceeded to express what he wanted to do in his ward for a 5th Sunday Lesson this month. Bro Croft asked him to go to his computer into LDS.org , there in the FH section  was “Family Stories FH lesson”.  a new lesson just released this week that was exactly what he desired! They both shared their spiritual witness of this great work & the Lord’s hand in it!  About 30 minutes later another ward’s first councilor called with the same request. Some days its hard to believe what we experience as the Lord moves this work forward in our stake! We are so grateful to be a small part of this awesome experience with our saints here! We witness this FH work (all areas eg: indexing, photo & stories, genealogy, oral history, journaling, Family search/FTree)  are true and blesses all who do it!!!!

 

We love you all  & CTR

 

Bro & Sis Croft

 

They are all making Family History!

September 8, 2013

Dearest Family,

    This week seemed much like the last, only a little slower!  Holidays  & end of the season canning does that to our family history work!  Several people were ill or remembered sporting events with family! They are all making Family History!

    Dad was busy keeping up with new info, reviewing video’s etc.   I’ve had time to do some research, solving some puzzles on several lines.   JQ had an ancester who had several wives, but I wasn’t sure how it all fit together.  With the Lord’s help, I was able to put each family together.  It is so great how all the sources online help.  We also have contact with a Croft relative in Ohio who had offered to help with something when she is in SLC later this month.   Have been studying Hannah Boyd, wife of Henry B. Croft, & will see if she can help a little with that! Her line comes thru his second wife.

 

     We enjoyed half of a football game & Whitney & Kaitlyn dancing on Friday. Had a beautiful fall day for fishing on Friday a.m. fresh cat fish on the table again!  Happy Birthday, Darece!  Joy, Kaitlyn, Whitney & I  joined her for stuffed Tomatoes that day!  yummmmmm

 

    Wednesday evening was our monthly FH Consultant Training Meeting!  There is an amazing Primary video which we showed! I’ll try to include the link for all to see. Just click on it & pray it works. The second link gives more details from the FS Blog on how to involve the Primary children plus has the video link too! We have worked with children in our stake like this young man plus have some grd children doing the same!

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/primary-auxiliary-training/2013/04&vid=2321572042001?lang=eng

 

https://familysearch.org/blog/en/influence-primary-children-ward/?ET_CID=45372659&ET_RID=gbob@tctwest.net

 

    Our Sunday was great! The highlight today was attending a sacrament meeting where JN spoke. JN has been a FHConsultant for about 3 years. She has blossomed during this time, her testimony growing by leaps & bounds. Feeling the spirit as one works on FH has an amazing effect on people. Her sweet testimony is a very special example of it. We have watched her confidence grow, her knowledge increase over these past years. She loves to help people in the FHC, Public Library, & where ever she may be! And she will continue to grow as she continues to serve!

 

    We are finishing up most of the FH classes we have been helping with, There were open workshops in most today.  That is a great time working one on one with people. We have Stake conference, then General conference, so new classes will start in October.  We are also trying an outreach time.  We will be going to Cowley every Thursday A.M. for two hours, for people to come to the church & work on FH, much like coming to the FHC in Lovell.   It will be exciting to see what happens!

 

    We pray you each have a wonderful week!   We love you all so very much & CTR   Bro & Sis Croft

 

We have had a wonderful week, all the normal activities,

Sept 2, 2013

Dearest Family,

    Happy Birthday last week to Micah Vehrs, Bill, & Gaye.   This week to Darece!  

 

    We have had a wonderful week, all the normal activities, phone support, indexing & the public library. We have had several appointments with people for the first time.   AB is a sister who is a convert, so has a wonderful tree to research.  These are the kinds I love,  the original research is so fun & exciting to me. Our evenings in the FHC were busy ones, with 4-6 people in.  We so enjoy working with the different patrons!

 

    Today we had 2 youth classes,  one is just finishing up.  In August, the Come Follow Me lessons were on families & Family History.  We taught the youth in one ward for the last 3 weeks.  It was a fun group, we enjoyed it & we felt they did also.  In another ward, the second group of youth started a series of lessons.  They have worked on finding names before & are excited to learn more! We also had two adult classes today, at the end of each group of classes, we do several workshops so people can work on the things we have talked about. In these today were couples in which the husband is a convert.  During these, the wards announce that anyone in the ward can come in & work, an open library time for members to asked questions, etc.  Today, we also had several people drop by the library, just to say, “you have inspired me, my wife and I started indexing again after 2 years. Sure felt good”  Some of the youth thanked us for helping them get temple names saying “Doing my own family names changed me” We also shared a story from the Heber City, UT girls camp where thousands of YW from 12 to 18 yr old attend for a week.  A YW with cerebral palsy with only the use of her right index finger has indexed 400,000 names! One person with love and desire can perform miracles even when severely physically challenged!

https://familysearch.org/blog/en/community-corner-indexers-share-stories/ link to her story.

 

    Last Tues evening, there were lots of missionaries around the church from the Riverton, Thermopolis, Worland area, waiting for vans. It was their turn to go to the Billings MT Temple.  The Zone leaders came into the FHC to see if there was some service they could do?  They were visiting with Bro Croft & asked him “How his mission had affected his family?” After sharing it, they desired that he share it at their next Zone meeting, but guess what? It is in Riverton?  So that they didn’t forget details, when they retold it, they requested that he write it up for them.   We have decided to include it with this letter and post it on our blog.

 

    Dad and I went to Big Horn Lake, Crooked Creek bay area on Friday morning cat fishing in our boat from 9:30am to 12:30. We had a wonderful time together while catching several cat fish of various sizes, none large enough to eat however.....

 

    Fall is in the air the past few morning with temps in the high 40’s! Plus we attended part of the Lovell Bulldogs first football game where Whitney and Kaitlynn danced at halftime.

 

    We love you all & have a great week!  CTR

Bro & Sister Croft