Today was great!

April 13, 2014

Dearest Family,

    Happy belated Birthday to Ira, he turned 8 years old on Tuesday!!!!!  Happy Belated Birthday on Wednesday to Kirena!!!!!  Happy Birthday this Tuesday to Chalin!    We love you all!

The weeks seemed different – the last two Sunday’s have been General & Stake Conferences!  We are out of sink & we are ready to get back into our normal routine, even tho it is busier!

Today was great!  Many special words of council, & again we heard the words relating to FH & temple work.    From the Billings Montana temple, youth were challenged to go to the temple weekly, any time of the day, without an appointment for baptisms!  What a blessing that is for them.  With the new youth Temple Recommend it makes this possible!

    Sister Niedens, an assistant matron in the BMT, spoke today!  She prefaced her comments by saying, “at 3:00 a.m. this morning I was inspired to change my talk for today!”   She told of being sealed to her parents this past week.  She then went on to tell about the importance of sharing our memories of our family in Family Search.  She challenged the youth to asked a grandparent to tell them a story about their grandparents  or parents & record it in FS.   We each remember special stories about parents & grandparents or other relatives. When we are gone, the stories will be gone! She also testified of the blessing which technology is & how it is for the Lord’s work.  We each make the choice, will it bless our life or drag us down under Satan’s influence?  Several sisters visited with us about helping them in the coming weeks.  That will be great!  President Niedens counseled us to help other members of our stake with their temple names, for the Lovell Wyoming Stake box is overflowing.  One young Women has found ?00 names.   We also have several adults in our stake who are converts with lots of names to do.

Dad was busy with two extra service meetings mid week. He held his last FOBHL Board meeting as President after 8 years in that position and also resigned from the board to become an Advisor and serve as board secretary. It has been a very successful many years for FOBHL plus all the years before working on Lake issues before FOBHL was formed in 2006 (FOBHL = Friends of Bighorn Lake). He encouraged the board to take FOBHL to the next level in the coming years! ! ! He also attended the annual Northwest College/LDS scholarship award meeting in Powell for 3 hours to award about 23 students over $55,000 this year. He has been on this committee for 20 years since this program began. I had a great visit that evening with Gaye, Frank & Evee.   Was a nice evening!

We went to HSBend cat fishing on Friday morning getting only a 6 lb carp that gave dad a good fight. We will use it for bait next time out. This will be our last time out there for awhile since it will be a mud flat by this weekend, as the USBR drain the lake to provide storage for the high snow run off this spring! We attended the funeral for Chuck Hayes at the Methodist church in Lovell. We have been working with 2 of his grand daughters in Cowley on FH plus Dad knew him well from helping him with High School science projects for many years.

    Saturday was a great day also!   We were in Worland with Ira for his baptism! What a privilege that was!   Dad spoke about the Holy Ghost in our life by sharing stories of how the Holy Ghost can help us in our daily lives. These stores are in his Family search  pages for all to read. Had a wonderful lunch with all the family.  Dad helped Melvin and Al with a project in the shop while I helped  Ira set up LDS Account.  He & Amber wrote about his baptism & then he uploaded a picture of he & his Dad taken just before his baptism. What a treasure this will be for his family in the coming years!

    It has been fun to exchange emails with a Cousin in Denmark, Jane’s great-grandmother & my grandfather are siblings. We completed a story & posted it in FS, both in English & in Danish. What an amazing world we live in, blessed to be able to communicate so quickly!

We love you all, CTR 

Bro & Sister Croft

It has been so great to hear our Prophet & apostles speak!

April 6, 2014

Dearest Family,

    It has been so great to hear our Prophet & apostles speak!   We love General conference!  Dad invited two brethern to attend priesthood meeting with him. It has been an inspiring weekend!  So refreshing to hear the Lord’s servants give practical, daily advise on how to enjoy the Gospel each day in an increasingly wicked world! Of course, this quote was a favorite, “Hastening family history & temple work in our day is essential for the salvation & exaltation of families” Quinton L Cook.

   It was wonderful to get together tonight for a family dinner! We missed a few who were gone to SLC & other places!   Our week has been a busy one with all the regular activities!   We did do a FHEvening this week with a family of six,  including two 9 year old sons who are excited about adding pictures! We met with the parents the week before to help them get names for the temple on Friday.

    Also helped a sister with her scanner!   We’ll check back with her this eek to see if our instructions are working.  It is great to be able to help people with the equipment they have so they can do it at home! Wednesday was a busy night with a FH Consultant training meeting, we just enjoyed this time & others did the training.  That is nice occasionally! Helped two youth groups, but had a little confusion!  We still are unsure what happened!  One ward was scheduled for the FHC.   Another ward, we thought was going to bring laptops so they could work in another room in the church & we were ready.  That ward was doing other things & another ward showed up expecting to work in the FHC.  We didn’t have enough room or computers.  A little confusing – so we were able to show them a John Bytheway Video about FH and a youth panel testifying of their success with FH in their stake!   We feel blessed that this doesn’t happen very often & that there are other things we can do!  Very grateful for the guidance that we receive at these times.

Hurray - It was perm  & haircut time!   Thanks Darece.    The weather was nice on Friday a.m. so we were able to get a little fishing time in at HS Bend ramp area.  Came home with two catfish, we are ready for some fresh fish to eat!!!!. Also enjoyed going to the Grand March for the Whitney’s prom! 

Hastening Family History and Temple Work in our day is essential for the salvation and exaltation of families!  Elder Quintin L Cook - Apostle

Have included a few favorite quotes from General Conference!  Thought you might enjoy!

We love you all & CTR

Bro & Sis Croft

It has been a great day!

Dearest Family,

    Happy 10th Anniversary, Allen & Amber!

    It has been a great day!  A 5th Sunday & we were able to give a Memories - Photos & Stories lesson to the Youth & Adults in a ward. We just pray that they will feel the spirit when they see the photos in their own tree!  Today we were able to add the photo of the parents of the Bishop.  We were also able to share the Portrait Pedigree of the HP Group Leader – he has family members who have added a lot of photos!

    We finished up with two youth classes today, just in time for General conference this week & Stake Conference next week!  The young people enjoy the classes!  They have been able to get ready for their Trek Experience, some have found names & others the story of an ancestor to take with them on the Trek!

    Monday was a finish up day after our FH Fair- taking down posters & returning a wheel chair.  We attended the funeral of Bessie Zeller, & had our usual time in the Public Library with several patrons – they are tops! We were also able to visit with two of our newer Bishops about the blessing of Family History in their wards & how it can help the members! 

    Tuesday – three appts! And patrons in the center!  We are beginning to see people working on their tree at home more, then coming in when they have a challenging problem.  It was good tonight – a consultant assigned to help in the center,  a patron & myself all learning as we corrected a tree!

    Wednesday – FH meeting to critique the FHFair – several appointments, one to set up accounts for 2 young boys, & get their trees & their Mom & Dads connected. In the process, Dad found the info on a deceased uncle whom he was named after & reserved the temple ordinances for him. We will be having a FHE there tomorrow & have them look at, & add photos & a story!   That is a fun evening for them & they love it!  Several groups of YW were looking for stories & names, one in Cowley & one in Lovell.  Bro Croft & I helped in Cowley & witnesses one young lady with quite a sad background feel the spirit of the work.  Her comment as we finished the evening,  “I wish we could do this every week – it’s sure fun!” The Ward Consultant who helped her was still talking about it today & how special it was! 

    Thursday – our morning in Cowley!  Darece came by in the afternoon & we analyzed Whitney’s prom dress.   I’m glad I am able to help them. 

    Friday – was able to help with the dress at Darece’s house & in the afternoon we relaxed it has been a busy couple of weeks.

    Saturday – laundry, cleaning, preparations for Sunday, etc.    We went to Powell in the afternoon! Chalin had his wisdom teeth our this week and was pretty sore and swollen. He reported that he and friends had gone to Deaver Reservoir to campout and fish but it was still ice covered. They had a nice night however. We checked Horseshoe Bend web cam and saw the ice mostly gone off of it. This is the latest date for it to be ice free for many years! Dak and the boys helped us load so we could  haul our last two file cabinets and a soil grinder home. Thanks men!!!

    Daeja met me at the door when we arrived announcing that she had her LDS account! (When youth turn eight they can get one) We spent the next hour looking at her tree!  She had already added some pictures & we were able to link them! We had fun!

    What a blessing it was to attend the first ever all Women’s Broadcast in SLC for every sister 8 years old and up!  I had two great companions,  Kenya & Daeja!  So many special principles shared, it is hard to pick one which really stands out in my mind.

    Love to all of you & CTR    Bro & Sis Croft

We have worked & planned for months

March 23, 2014

Dearest Family,

    We have worked & planned for months & now it has come & gone!  Saturday was our Stake Family History Fair!   What a wonderful day!  We were up & at the church at 7:30 a.m. doing the final setup of TV’s, computers & the digital equipment!  We have had such great help with all the planning, registration, etc. & it all went so smoothly! We feel so grateful & blesses!  There were at least 130 who attended & many expressed their appreciation for a great day!  Blimpies Sandwiches for lunch, then back to classes.  Seventeen different classes were held, with 4 going on at a time. We had people of all ages, including youth thru out the day! Classes  included such things as Family History & Facebook, FH & Blogs, Doing FH in your Sleep, 10 things I learned from my couch, Heidi Swinton & Stories, Using an ipad for FH, Search Techniques, just to name a few!

Open time in the Family History Center

yummy lunch & social time

    Sunday evening was a fun night, two youth in the Family History Center!  One, 12 years old, had attended the FHDay, by herself yesterday, then tonight was setting up her acct & connecting her tree.  She got so excited about the pictures! The other one has been in a SS class for the past 5 weeks & loved it, commented tonight that she wishes she could continue in class, she didn’t want it to end.  She has been coming into the FHC every Sunday night the past few weeks, sometimes bringing Mom, she said tonight that Dad wanted to come next week with her. Tonight, using Puzzzilla, we found a family with 6-7 children who all need temple work done!   Boy was she excited!     Several weeks ago, her Mother was doing some searching in findagrave.com.  She was looking at the headstone for the employers of her grandparents.   In the background she noticed the headstone of her grandparents.  And on it, the maiden name of her Grandmother, spelled differently than she had spelled it!  Results were finding several generations of family using this new spelling!  That “Spirit of Elijah” sure has a way of helping everyone!

    Wednesday was a nice day in the FHC covering in the morning!  I helped a patron & Bro Croft was able to do training with a consultant, helping her become more familiar with new lesson material. It is always great to have some one on one time to help them. 

    We have been in several new homes this week, that is always fun to help people get started!  In most homes in our area that includes a call to our internet provider, most are not receiving the service which they should. Our Sunday was great also, 2 youth & 1 adult class, open library time.   It was just a great day!

    We got finished in time on Sat to run to Powell to hear Daeja and Kenya play the piano at their recital with Mom as their teacher. Joy really enjoys her piano students and they all did great. It was a quick trip but very special to be there!

    When ever we have a spare 30 minutes or so we do some yard work now the snow is gone. Mom even cleaned out the greenhouse of the grass and weeds that grow in it every summer. We plan on getting pipeline rural water in the next few weeks so we want the line to come into the greenhouse that they lay by horizontal drilling 6 ft down. It is solid sand  rock so drilling is the only way to go and not make a huge mess. We will keep our well going for the lawn and our emergency water supply.

Love you all Bro & Sister Croft

It has been a wonderful week!

March 16, 2014

Dearest Family

    Happy Birthday,  Dak & Tchae!!!!!

    It has been a wonderful week!  Isn’t that what we always say!  We have a new FH consultant in one of the wards!  We have worked with her three times this week. Her tree is interesting, with 3 of 4 non LDS lines!  She is 50’ish, a convert & has never done much with FH.  She has computer experience. That makes it easier. She is mainly learning about FH, it is fun to work with her, different than many we help  & she is very excited!

    This week we had a very choice experience with a brother, the only member in his family, who has been in Iowa, caring for his dying Father. He so wanted to share this spiritual experience with us & we felt blessed that he would!  He talked of giving him a priesthood blessing just before his passing, & the great love he felt for his Father! He also came home with a car load of memorabilia, letters, pictures, etc.  that he continues to sort & add to Family Tree.  He also has a tree full of Green arrows, the ones that indicate ordinances needed. Many of his ward members are involved helping him with the ordinances!

    Our classes today were filled with a variety of ups & downs!   The downs, internet crashing at times in all the buildings!  There is always several who have forgotten their user name & password. We expect that!!! The ups..... A 13 year old young lady, just getting more & more excited each week, adding pictures, learning about searching records – she started out angry about doing this in Sunday School. Some one’s tree connecting the first time she went into it!   A big class – in a ward that is just getting started. Several young people excited about seeing an original record about a grand parent!  Witnessing a Youth class, in a ward that has been doing the FH thing for 3- 4 years.   3 consultants, 2 youth consultant helping 6-7, 12-13 yr olds learn about their family, some finding temple names, some finding a story for trek! It was a special day!

    Family History Day is fast approaching, this coming Saturday & more registrations were turned in today!   We have been planning & preparing for months & this time next week we will be reporting on it’s success! 

    Rob came to have dinner with us on Monday evening while Michelle and Krysta were gone to New Mexico. We enjoyed visiting for awhile!  Dad and I did an outing on Friday morning out to Bighorn Canyon to see the sites since the weather has been so warm. There were a lot of Bald Eagles near the Causeway on the ice, such majestic birds of prey! We are also doing  some spring yard work now our snow is gone . . . . .after almost 4 months of white cover.

   It has been a great week – just remember – each day you are making family history! 

 LIFE IS FAMILY HISTORY! ! ! !

CTR – we love you all

Bro & Sister Croft    

Warm, in the 50 degree range,

March 9, 2014

Dearest Family;
    Another wonderful Sabbath day - - - and week!  Warm, in the  50 degree range, plenty of  mud, slush & water in various places! We are enjoying the warmer days, tho! We had wonderful meetings today, & great classes & open library time – with great people coming in to work, youth & adults both!

    Dad did a TV interview on Monday a.m.  A lady from Cody does shorts about various topics for several TV stations in Casper & Billings.  She had done one several years with Dad about Big Horn Lake & wanted to do another now on this high snow pack year.   We did hear from friends that it was on the Casper TV sometime last week, but we didn’t see it our selves. 

    Wednesday was a busy one, with preparations for a Consultant training meeting & two youth groups after the Meeting!  A YW’s group about 12 of them & a YM & YW group of 25 from another ward. 

     We just use different rooms in the bldg & have one group bring their own computers.  They are getting ready for Trek, finding a name for the temple & a story about an ancestor.  We had several in the FHC tonight working on the same projects.

    Friday was a wonderful day in Billings.   Was so great to be in the temple!  It was a busy day there with a full session even at 10 a.m. We surely enjoyed it. We also visited with friends from UW days & Bro Croft discovered that a man (now retired from the USBR) whom he has worked with over the years doing Lake Stuff is a member & was in the temple!

    Dad washed the car on Saturday, it was a mess with all the dirty melting snow on the roads. The snow here at home is melted down to only a few inches from the almost three feet we had a week ago. All the fields have large ponds in them since the ground is still frozen. Ice jams are causing flooding on most rivers in our area plus the Yellowstone River at Laurel yesterday was really plugged up at the refinery bridge and flooding, but by afternoon, it had moved down river leaving 10 ft ice walls on the land. A field at Bridger also was covered by large ice chunks over 3 ft thick. Bighorn Lake has risen 3 ft in less than 48 hours with all the low elevation melting sending high water into it.

Ice jam in Worland causing flooding
(Allen took this photo)

    We have a busy schedule this week again and it will be very warm too. Final prep is being done for our Family History Day on March 22.  Each day, as we have helped our patrons, we witness the spirit bearing witness to them of the sacredness of this great work. This happens whether they are indexing, preparing names for the temple,  looking at, reading or adding photos an stories.

    Love you all, have a great week!

        Brother and Sister Croft 

Still winter!!!!!!! Even had a snow day!!!!!

March 2, 2014

Dearest Family,

    Still winter!!!!!!! Even had a snow day!!!!! We awoke to snow again on Monday!  6” We canceled our time in the Public Library & did prep things, reviewing videos, preparing for upcoming Family History Day, some research for a patron, indexing, & I did some quilting – then that ever present snow shoveling project!  Surprise - another 4” on Saturday .  The temps went to well below zero 4 nights with a low of –16 below on Wed night. The weatherman sayes it is to be a warm week – above freezing nights and high 30’s days – we are sure praying he is right! I guess I am almost ready for some mud again!

    It has been a week of lots of variety!  On Wednesday afternoon, we helped with an Activity Day with young ladies – it was their second time. Several brought in pictures to scan & add to their tree! What great young ladies!  Went to Byron to help YW  - they were all going great – then the inevitable – the internet crashed!  They are always so patient about it!  On Friday we worked on it again & have decided it is an equipment issue when we heard it crashed again today (Sunday).

    Today was the first day with all the new wards – lots of changes for everyone.  The Bishop of the Second ward is David Briggs with Ryan Mangus & Jack Carpenter as counselors!  It was fun to hear about the members of our old second ward being called to various callings in their new wards.

    FH classes continued, with three youth classes & one adult class this week! There were new people in the various classes because of the changes in boundaries.  We had open library in several other wards.  We are extra busy now after all the ward changes getting people registered for the Stake FH Day on March 22. There will be so much awesome information given we want as many as possible to benefit from it!

    It is great to see an increase in the patrons on Sunday & Tuesday evenings!  Both days were busy this week – we love it!

    Al and Ambers family came early Sat so the boys could work on their 2 Pinewood Derby cars and visit. We enjoyed being together for lunch and  those afternoon hours before the reception!

    The Lovell Lanes bowling alley was a buzz on Saturday evening as friends and family gathered for Bo & McKinzea’s open house! Everyone had a great time visiting, bowling and eating all the yummy goodies. At 7:00 pm, on the PA system, Bo thanked everyone for coming and said  “ the parties over! It was very cold outside but so warm and friendly inside! Mom helped the ladies keep the food area supplied while I enjoyed the people!

We love you all!  CTR!

Bro and Sister Croft