It was great to be with many of you on Saturday!

Dearest Family!    

    It was great to be with many of you on Saturday!  So nice to get together for dinner!  We love you all & miss those who were unable to be here.  Yummy Potato Bar! 

 

    It has been a very cold, snowy week with temps from –10’ to –30’F with day time highs of zero. Over a foot of snow this week too all of which has slowed down the work.   Many cancelations but still several great times helping patrons in their homes or at the library!   Three days were spent here at home, watching web broadcasts of the 2014 Roots Tech conference held in SLC!  We probably watched 12 or so different presentations!  Learned a great deal & now we are excited to study them all more!  It was interesting to listen to Todd Hansen of the Story Trek program on BYU TV & Stephanie Nelson, the young mother who was burned over 80% of her body in a plane crash & writes an inspiring blog about her life. We learned about “Doing FH in our sleep” , “DNA”  “How to interview Yourself” just to name a few. We will let you know when these videos are put on the web. The FH Day that both the Cody and Lovell Stakes are having soon are among the 640 ones being held across the church using Roots Tech presentations at the local level. The Lord is hastening His work at all levels! ! !

  

    Then there were talks by Elder Dennis Brimhall who is  CEO of Family Search for the church  & Elder Allen Packer FH Director, both gave instructions as to what the Lord expects us to be doing in FH.    Lets just say we have been spiritually fed!

 

    The other project this week – Ryan & Rhonda’s quilt is finally on the frames & over the next – I don’t know how long – it will get quilted. 

 Among other things, Dad’s biggest project was shoveling snow!  He has had more than his share, thankfully he has a snow blower.  It has been unusual to have below zero temperatures & snow  at the same time. He has had several fun visits with Marlene, teaching her about Family Search!   She’s a great student.

 

We love you all & CTR

Your missionary grand parents,

 

Bro & Sister Croft   

 

This has been another wonderful warmer week

February 2, 2014

Dearest Family,

   Happy Birthday this week to Daeja & Kenya!!!   It is their 8th & 10th birthdays!  We excited for Bo & McKinzea’s wedding coming up in 20 days and Ethan & Becah on July 19th!  It is a wonderful time & we are so grateful for all of you & the great decisions you are making!

    This has been another wonderful warmer week with all the usual activities!  We awoke to 4” of new snow on Saturday morning that gives us 9” on the ground – we have had snow cover now for 2 months. I enjoyed some yummy smoked fish – I have a sweetheart who smoked a fish we caught last week!

    There has also been some different experiences!  Bro Croft helped on older brother finalize his contribution of records of relatives shipped into Siberian prisoner camps. These will be digitized so that they are available to others. It is great that we can donate these items so that they can be made available for others to use & be preserved!    I enjoyed an afternoon of sewing & remodeled Amber’s wedding dress for her sister!  After several weeks of problems with my laptop, it is finally repaired, Dell has done a great job! We are grateful it is still on warranty!

    This week was the Kickoff Fireside for this years Youth conference “Faith in Every Footstep....Now is My Journey”, it will end with a trek at Martins Cove/Sixth Crossing.  Several youth spoke & shared special testimonies of finding & doing the temple work, of experiencing the excitement of learning about an ancestor & what they had learned by going on the Trek 4 years ago!  What a great spirit radiated from them.  They are encouraging each youth to do a baptism for an ancestor. They also want them to find a story about someone who has been a “pioneer”.  This can be anyone who has gone before them & prepared the way! We are excited to be a part of helping with their activities prior to the Trek in June!

    We are becoming busier with preparations for the Family History Day that will be held on March 22.  The video presentations for this will come from the 2014 RootsTech Conference going on this week in SLC!  We viewed this conference for three days last year on the web and it was awesome!!!  What a blessing to have it available world wide this year! We are working with the FHCenter  directors, HP Group Leaders and FH consultants to get this all organized.  Registration for it is just beginning. We are excited for this activity!

    We have had several special experiences this week which testified of the sacredness of this work.   Today a young man who is becoming active again was doing some searches for information.  He found a World War I Draft Registration form for his great grandfather.  The grand father was from the Star Valley area. The interesting part was his occupation. He was listed as clergyman for the LDS church in Canada. He was receiving an exemption because of his occupation. We assume he was serving a mission in Toronto, Canada.  As he found this & other records, we could see his hearted being turned to these family members.    In another class, with RS & Priesthood,  a Sister shared with me that her husband had found pictures of several grandparents whom he had never known or seen pictures of!  Tonight was an “evening with photos” in the FHC. Bro Croft spent the evening with 4-5 patrons, photos seemed to be what most of our patrons wanted to work on!   We also had a brother finding family in findagrave.com.  Go to Familysearch.org & Memories to see what is there about your family!

    Today was filled to the brim, from 7:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m.  We are so happy to be a part of this, and love to see the people finding joy in the work & feeling the spirit of it!

 

Love to you all & CTR   Bro & Sis Croft

Hope you each have a great day!

January 26, 2014

Dearest Family,

    Happy Birthday Nathan & Bryan!    Hope you each have a great day!

Each Sunday is much the same!  Exciting! with classes & open workshops!  Several of the youth today shared experiences they had while adding a photo to the tree – excitement! We did attend the Ward Conference in the Lovell 5th ward this A.M.  Sacrament meeting & SS.  Later in the afternoon, we were able to attend Ward conference RS & Priesthood in the Lovell 2nd Ward.  We so enjoy hearing our Stake Leaders counsel. Our evening in the Library tonight was busy with 4 patrons & several of the consultants who were there also were learning! We do have many talented consultants who enjoy serving patrons.  It is a joy to he!p the patrons successfully adding photos, discovering an ancestor or unraveling some problem which they have!  The spirit is definitely there, helping & testifying of the truthfulness of the work.

    Monday was a busy Pday getting things done including a trip to Powell and a too short visit and lunch with the Fikes - all in the morning!

    Tuesday – Indexing & visiting two homes to help sisters learn about their printer scanners!  Bro Croft is becoming a pro at this.   We also had a nice group in the center on Tuesday Evening!

    Wednesday – we enjoyed a YW’s group

    Thursday & Friday we were busy with appointments, & computer repair.

    It was fun Saturday AM to help Rachelle McNiven.   She is getting married in March & is wearing Amber’s dress. – but it needed just a little remodeling.  That will be a fun change of pace!  We did also spent a little time at Pond 5 & this time it was Bro Croft’s turn to catch!

    We feel blessed that this week we were able to make some progress getting my laptop fixed, Bro Croft spent several hours on the phone– Dell sent parts to a serviceman in Cody & on Friday he installed them. Hurray!!!!No more flashing screen,  but now, I discovered that it is not charging the battery – I think he forgot to connect something!   We will see what this week brings?

 

We love & appreciate all of you!  We feel the power of your prayers!   CTR

 

Bro & Sister Croft

What a great day!

January 19, 2014

Dearest Family,   

    What a great day!  Attended 5th ward!  Michelle was one of the speakers & a young lady, who leaves for her mission next week!  What great talks!  Had open library time during SS. We were off to Cowley for SS in both of the wards there, with lunch in between!  Both were youth classes, abt 8 young people in each one. One class was about photos & stories, the other about temple name submission! These youth are amazing & boy, do they respond to seeing the pictures & stories! On young man added links to ancestors on a photo his Grandpa had submitted. There is a special power in this which touches their hearts!

    In the afternoon, we had 2 more classes in Lovell, one a first lesson & the other an open workshop with 5 attending. One of the brothers who attended the open workshop, had not been into the tree for some time.  As we looked at pictures, he found a family picture of his father, siblings, & parents.  He had never seen the picture before & was amazed at how much he & his father looked alike at age 12, a spiritual moment. 

    This evening we had a Mother-Daughter (age 14), who worked together on different parts of their trees, the daughter has been in a SS class also. Findagrave.com was their gold mine! We love to see this! A gentleman came in, he’s a regular, but had a new memory stick his sister had sent with amazing pictures on it!   He has his time planned out for the next while, getting them all in & linked to his family!  We also had several consultants who were learning about new things & sharing with each other!   It just seems that the whole day was just about as perfect as it could be!

    Public Library Day, we each had several patrons,  Had a FHE with a family, helping them with their scanner.  Bro Croft has used lots of brain power this week figuring out how to set up the scanning software on several combination printer/scanners. That can sure be exhausting but the inspiration comes!

 

    Our indexing Sisters ( the ones in their 80’s) continue to be an inspiration to us!  One is struggling with eye problems. Her eyesight is deteriorating very quickly! She wants to continue so much & just keeps praying that she can. And she does it – amazingly well.  We are also discovering ways we can show her ways to enlarge things on the computer screen – Computers are amazing & made for this work!

    Friday was a wonderful day in Billings, so blessed to attend the temple!  Afterwards we were at Wendy’s for lunch! A Wendy’s supervisor, who travels around Montana was there & asked us about out tags & what we did! Golden moment!  Then later when we were eating, she came by our table again to asked more questions!

    We attended Elwood Emmett’s funeral on Sat morning, a wonderful service done by all of his children! Mom and I went out to Pond 5 for a couple of hours to try the afternoon ice fishing in our usual place and yes, you guessed it, she caught the big bass. We enjoy these outings a lot enjoying each other and the Lord’s great outdoors!  Our evening was spent in prep for tomorrow!

 

    Six months ago, we joined another site for help with research call My Heritage.  It’s specialty is more in European research.  I was in there several days ago, & noticed a response to an email I had sent to Jane Burkholtz in October asking her how she is related.   Her reply:   “my great-grandmother, Stine, is a sister to Frank L Petersen”   How amazing!   She lives, you guessed it, in Denmark & is a cousin!  We’ve chatted via email several times & are looking forward to more!  She does read English, and also writes it with the help of Google Translate.

 

    Well, this is just a short summary of a wonderful week!

   Congratulations to Ethan & Bekah – they are engaged!   Happy birthday to Whitney! 

 

Love to all & CTR    Bro & Sister Croft, FH Missionaries

This has been a week of many emotions!

January 12, 2014

Dearest Family,   

    Happy Birthday to Michelle & Mica this week!  Hope you have a special day!

    This has been a week of many emotions!   A tragedy hit the community when a 28 yr. old women was killed in an industrial accident at the Sugar Factory.  We felt so sorry for the family, her parents in Alaska, &her many friends here!  Bro Croft had helped her several times with some family history at the  Public Library, she was a very loving caring single lady. We were able to go the service at the Lovell Bible Church.

    The remainder of the week was a busy one!  We are again getting back into a routine after the holidays.  Our Sisters are indexing again! J Q is coming to the library – and we are enjoying working together again, she had taken a month break during Christmas.  Bro Croft also had several people stop by whom he helped.

    Wednesday the Bishop who was so spiritually touched  seeing his grandfather photo last Sunday, came to the FHC with more pictures to scan, he so enjoyed his time there. When the hearts of the leaders are turned, it effects everyone!  Today another Sister in Cowley told of a experience.  She also had a grandfather who passed away when her mother was a small child.  She had found a picture of him in Family Tree & it was a spiritual moment for her also.  We feel so blessed to see the Lord’s hand in the lives of people in our Stake!

    Joe & Pat, some regulars in the FHC, are back again, coming to the center.  It is fun to work with them because of their enthusiasm!  Both are converts in their youth & enjoy the work – now they have started doing photos!  Also had a group of YW  in the FHC this Wednesday,  some looked for temple names, others pictures & stories, & others indexed!  They enjoyed it. I worked with one of their leaders who was stumped on her line. Hope the ideas I shared with her will help her.

    Last Sunday & today, we were in several youth classes who were just beginning!  I had helped a young man last week who lives with grandparents, his father is deceased & that was the line he wanted to work on.  During the week, thru Facebook, he & his Grandmother were able to find more information & help. 

    One of Bro Croft’s projects the past while has been with scanners.  Many have printer/scanner/copier units, but have not used the scanner function where it is possible to crop & save photos & documents.  He’s getting to be quite a pro at figuring these units out & setting up the program on the computer!  He also helped a young man solder his charging cord for his iPod.

    As you can see, it has been a busy week!  We also ice fished a little one morning at Pond Five getting some large mouth bass, enjoyed having Rob & Michelle stop by, went to half of a High School BBall game. We were relieved to hear of Ethan’s safe arrival in Albuquerque, NM where he will be living now.  We heard that Darece gave a wonderful talk in L2 today on serving others!

    We love you all & CTR  (remember now for those of us over 12 yrs old, CTR means Current Temple Recommend )

  Bro & Sis Croft

Our Missionaries Serving Jan 2014

Elder Grant - Tonga

Elder Allen - Africa

Elder Fike - Mexico City

Happy New Year!

January 5, 2014

Dearest Family,

   Happy New Year!   http://ldsliving.com/story/74663-5-new-years-resolutions-from-the-prophets  (if this doesn’t work, just cut & paste it)    Here is a link to five goals we have been challenged by the prophets to set!  Two relate to FH directly, one is FH among the living (finding someone to share the gospel with) & the best way to have them feel the spirit is to teach them about FH; the fourth, letting go of a grudge, how can you hold a grudge when you are busy doing FH & the fifth, Bro Uchtdorf challenges us to become an expert in a gospel topic in the scriptures.  We thought it was pretty amazing set of New Years Resolutions! 

    Congratulations to Bo & McKinze!  “Now that’s the way to play tennis”

    We have had a wonderful week!  It has been great to get back into the swing of our FH missionary activities!   Library day was great with our non-member lady & her husband.   One of these days she will be asking about the gospel!  Tuesday was back to our indexing sisters, one has a new computer so it took some time to get things installed, etc.  Next week will be more productive for her!  Also opened the FHC on New Years Eve & worked with one of our new youth consultants! 

    New Years day was great, it was so grand to see Allen, Amber, Melvin, Ira, Leanne & Camille!  Thanks for spending the day with us!

   

    Thursday, spent the a.m. in Cowley & had three other appts, another with a new youth consultant!

    Friday a.m. Dad & the Fike boys went bass fishing at pond 5!  All the girls hung out at the Grants, making signs with vinyl lettering or the reverse, doing the glass etching which is done also with the vinyl lettering templates.  Dad & I rushed off after a quick lunch, yummy Hawaiian haystacks, to a mtg about the youth FH devotional by Elder Neil L Andersen in Feb plus the FH Fair to be held in March!

    Saturday was a prep day, finishing up on the lessons for Sunday, especially the Priesthood one, we like to use examples from members of the group!

     And them the Sabbath Day!   New meeting schedules in most of the wards!  We are now attending the Lovell 5th ward who meets at 8:00 a.m.  This is Rob & Michelle’s ward!  We bore our testimonies in this ward today!  We had also been asked to do a follow up lesson about the My Family Lesson which the Bishop had done. It was to all the Priesthood brethren, 12 & up, about 30 brethren!   One of the very special things which happened; we had got a picture of the Bishop’s father to upload, & after doing that, we looked at his picture pedigree, which included a picture of his grandfather!  He had never known his grandfather & had never even seen a picture of him!  Was a special experience of him!   Have an appt to do more with him this week.  The remainder of the day was equally as enjoyable, with patrons in this evening in the FHC. Bro Croft also met with the Youth consultants as a group tonight!

    The spirit made it a warm evening, even with the temp at –10 degrees  (at least)

We love you all! Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful Christmas gifts & also for the great example each of you are to us!

Love Bro & Sis Croft