I realized that this year is quickly coming to an end!!!

Dearest Family,     Happy 16th Birthday to Isaac!

    As I typed the date tonight, I realized that this year is quickly coming to an end!!!! Each week is going by so very quickly!

    We are so grateful for family this week!  We love you all so very much & appreciate the special lives you each live!  You are ALL the greatest! We spent time at the Grants on Wednesday evening, Nathan had just arrived home!  it was wonderful to see him, and the rest of the family!      Bo, McKenzia, Athena, Kenny, Rosie, & Lucy were all there also!  So it was great to visit. 

    Weather was blustery, & storms were predicted for Thursday, so we celebrated Thanksgiving with Allen, Amber & Family on Saturday.  Darece’s family came later in the afternoon for the piñata! It was a great day!

    We studied & prepared for a fifth Sunday lesson in Burlington 1st ward today!  We pray that we have inspired them to get involved in some of the many aspects of Family History. Went to Burlington on Friday to help the consultants in that ward & the Bishop & his wife.  They found names of family to take to the temple, that really turns hearts!  They also have a goal to teach their married family about all the parts of FH this coming year in their monthly FHE.  While in Burlington today, we also met with several HP Group Leaders to get them going in FH & help them learn how to get their wards involved! 

    We have also Skyped with a HP Group leader this week, set up several appointments to Skype leaders in Gillette and Cody stakes plus some in-home visits with others for this week!  We want to be available to some one every day if possible.

    There has been light snow several mornings this week and a couple below zero nights, yes winter is here! Our pump in the spring quite a couple days before the warranty ran out so dad called to get a replacement sent . . . the pond will be okay for a few days without fresh water.  Dad trapped over 200 minnows from Moncur pond so we have some to ice fish with over the winter.  Our greenhouse is doing good tomatoes and cucu’s going fine! When it got colder in October, we picked all the green tomatoes in the garden.  they have ripened & we are have about 10 small ones that we are just finishing.

    It has been a wonderful week & we have enjoyed it so very much!

Love, Mom & Dad

 

Sunday, we attended three wards in Burlington

Dearest Family,   

    Sunday, we attended three wards in Burlington, their sacrament meetings & Sunday School!  We visited with a variety of people, HP group leaders, consultants, & bishops. They are all just wanting to do this in their wards.  They know it is the Lords work, but just don’t know what to do next.  It was so amazing – each one, independently,  wanting to get going – ready to explode with desire! They are already doing some with old computers, limited internet & not a lot of exposure to the new methods!  We were asked to do a 5th Sunday lesson, next week,  set up a training session in one ward, and a Skype appointment with a High Priest Group Leader in another ward on Tuesday!  We determined their internet was a problem for them to properly hold Family History classes. This is a re-occurring issue in all the building we visit. Correctly placed internet access is one of  the biggest challenges we have and it can easily be corrected by the local FM grp but does take some time!   

    On Tues evening, we taught an Apps Class,  Family tree hints with descendancy, finding names thru Hints, then reserving the names and printing out the FOR form to be taken to the temple.  There is so much new that we can teach about this process! Everyone is anxious to learn. we had four students which is just about right for us to help!

    Much of our time this week has been spent in preparation & study!  Technology is great, but difficult for my old brain.  It needs many repetitions! Thursday evening was spent in Cody with the Stake Presidency, the High Council, & their wives.  We exposed all of them to the new process! Several found their first ever names needing temple work and reserved them to be printed out when they get home. Most were techy, so that makes it easier.  It is just difficult for us to help on the small format of a phone!  We were blessed to arrive safely home, driving all the way in a snow storm, with 2 to 3 inches of snow on the road, the first of the season! 

    Saturday was another great activity – we were invited to the Worland Stake Conference – the Saturday Priesthood leadership training session. We taught from 3 to 5pm; the HP Group Leaders, Elders Quorum Presidents, & some members of Bishoprics, & the Stake Presidency how to organize the work in their Stake & Ward councils, etc.  We were also able to help some after with the actual doing and eat supper at the church with those who attended and their spouces!

     One of our other challenges is tradition, the seasoned genealogist, myself included.  We are working with them, helping them have faith that it can be correct when done in this way & IT IS PROVIDED FOR US THRU INSPIRATION. The proper wording for this change from Elder Allan Packer is “We must become agents of change as leaders”

    Saturday a.m. It was great to be with the sisters of our stake at Stake Womens Conference and enjoy lunch with them before we went to Worland.

Friday was also nice, 5 sisters came & we quilted on Lindsay & Connor’s Quilt!  It is about 5 feet wide now!  The Temple will be the slow part! Dad did some more outside winterizing since it was a nice day. The deer are coming to his food plot but we haven’t determined when they come in yet. I have 2 more permits too fill before Dec 1 if we can.

    We love you all, have a wonderful week & CTR

    Mother & Dad

Dearest Family,

    OOPS, I forgot to wish Quinn a Happy 1st Birthday last Tuesday!  And Happy Birthday to Lindsay this Tuesday!   Have a great day!

   

    WOW!!! What a week!  Where to start--- Public Library is the greatest!   Five people that we talked to – one, an older Mother of a 2 1/2 year old- Bro Croft approached – & she stated that it was not her time. After looking at books with her daughter she stopped back by & was repentant - expressed an interest!  Maybe this week she will be back! When she finds her first name for the temple I’m sure she will be filled with the spirit of Elijah! Another, already loves FH, hasn’t seen all the new things – boy was she amazed.  An our age Sister – retired now & a convert of many years wants to get back to it & learn about all the new things. Then my regular non-member who comes to the Public Library then also works in the FHC. Can you see why we enjoy the Public Library so very much!

 

    Tuesday Visited in Greybull at their FHC, with the Director, several consultants & Dad talked to the High Councilor over FH.  They too had serious internet access issues preventing them from doing FH easily. Dad talked to the FM Grp and they are going to add more access points and up the internet to handle the use. FH Centers have to have the needed resources before any work can be done.  Also had a fun evening in the FHC, taught a class on using the Family Tree App, hints, submitting names & now even printing them.

    Wednesday – to Powell – teaching a FHC, we had already visited with her last week!  Bro Croft visited with Bro Checketts at the Institute.  He taught him and a young lady college student how to do Hints-Descendancy process on the computer and mobile devise. They both were finding new names easily and sourceing their trees at the same time! This will be the starting point in getting the young singles there doing more FH and Temple work!

 

    Thursday morning in Cowley, then the Living Center in the afternoon.   Our 98 yr old indexer there has indexed over 33,000 names.  He does it at least 2 hours a day.  It was also our first WebEx Training Meeting from FS in SLC, a quarterly meeting, with other Area Family History Advisors!  We are learning every day.  A couple we knew well in Laramie are also Area Advisors so that was awesome!! We don’t know where they live yet however?

    Friday A.M.  we cut up our first deer.  It was a cold blustery day out side!   Had ladies over to quilt in the afternoon – we are making progress!

We also try to do some prep every day- have been invited to do several presentations in the coming weeks, which is exactly what we want so we can teach the leaders how this great work can help everyone!

    We were blessed to get another deer Saturday a.m.  & I helped a lady in the afternoon for several hours! Dad did more winter time prep to be ready as it gets colder outside.

    Then today, left home at 7am and arrived in Tensleep at 9:00 a.m. to visit that ward, then met with the HP group leader & FHC director.  Traveled to Worland for lunch then went to the Worland 3rd Ward & again visited the HP group leader, a consultant, & Asst FHC Director.  We all shared testimonies of this work, both of them are converts & shared some amazing things. Had a wonderful time and supper with Al & Ambers family before coming home tonight!

 

   We would ask all of you to view the video by Elder D Todd Christopherson! He is an Apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ & gives powerful testimony to recent changes.  Ctrl-click to open.    http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/handbook-changes-same-sex-marriages-elder-christofferson?HP_FR_11-6-2015_dPAD_fCNWS_xLIDyL1-A_

    We loved each day – and are grateful we can be a part of this great work! 

   Love to all of you

It is hard to believe it is November already

Dearest Family,

    My how time does fly!!   It is hard to believe it is November already – another year has quickly passed!  Have thought of Chalin so very much today – he is on his way to his “field of labor” We know he was so excited to go!  We had a wonderful day in Worland today.  Neil Allen Croft was blessed by his father  and we were so privileged to enjoy it with them.   We had a wonderful afternoon with them also – it is always great to visit with Amber’s family! On our way home we stopped to visit with Leona & LaVon in Greybull.  They are staying together, LaVon’s home.  While there, their family Doctor stopped by, just to check on them! We didn’t know there were still Doctors who did that! With the help of VT’s, HomeT’s, great neighbors, many extra miler’s they are able to stay together, in their home, this winter!

 

    While in Worland we were able to visit with the Stake President, Carl Cottrell & also the director of the FHC in that building. Dad worked with her & had a great visit. There was also a new FH Consultant in the center being trained by another Sister. The three of us worked together & it was great also.  We’ll go back there again next week! 

    Each day was a busy one, with new experiences!  We visited the Cody & Powell FHCenters  one day!  Also kept busy studying new training material & reviewing info we have used the past 3 years. 

    Our Area Manager, Bob Smith, visited with us via phone, then again via Webnx (like Skype) for 1 1/2 hrs another day.  Technology is great!  We feel so blessed to live in this time when there is so much good available at our fingertips to use.

    Wednesday afternoon we were doing a final review for a FHC training meeting that evening. It was about attaching the hints using handheld devices & smart phones. Much to our surprise, we discovered that one could now request temple ordinances on the devices!  You only need a PC to print our the FOR form now – more than likely soon the app will do print outs too.

    Friday turned out to be an ‘at home day’  so I decided to call a friend to help quilt!  By about 10:00 a.m.  our needle were flying!  And by 3:30 we were rolling both sides!   It is so wonderful to have that much done!   It was also so a great day to visit with this special lady. Now there is room to invite more ladies next week!  While we were busy quilting, Dad was busy outside & inside with lots of things.  About 5 p.m. he was eating an early supper, when I looked out the window, standing right there in the field behind the house was a deer!  He slipped out, went into the orchard, & shot our first deer of the season!   How blessed we are to get this great meat!  One day, we were able to have our first visit with lil’ Lucy Grant! She slept thru the whole visit – we enjoyed visiting her & Rosie!

    Saturday was another home day, laundry, etc. It’s the day we get ready for Sunday!  Enjoyed having Rob here for awhile! Dad appreciate Rob’s help on some outside chores too! Dad is going out in the morning and afternoon to get another deer, usually out about 11/2 hrs. He is seeing some bucks but not many does yet.

    We were talking the other day on how the Lord knew our up coming need to travel when our white Rav died. We’re grateful to have our new RAV to drive!

 

We love you all   & CTR 

Mom and Dad    

a call from Elder James Evanson of the Seventy . . . . .

Dearest Family!   

    Congratulations to Kenny & Rosie & Lucy Elisabeth born October 23, 2015 weighing in at 6 lb 13 ozs!   We feel so blessed that Mother & Baby are doing great!

    We have a wonderful, mostly normal week!   Our usual visits to Sisters, helping in Cowley, at the public library,  our morning at the FHC. It is just so very special to serve & help one another & the saints!!! Monday was a trip to the dentist for me & Bro Croft spent time checking out the computers in the church, things are just not going right.  Later in the afternoon the H Councilor over computers came in so they worked for awhile together & also with Technical people in SLC.   Problem still wasn’t corrected today.  Hope to get it fixed this week.

    Brother Bob Pratt passed away & we were able to attend his funeral on Monday, so many talented & beautiful voices in his family. It was great to end the day with a FHE in a Bishop’s home.  Wednesday evening we taught the YW of the Cowley 2nd ward about using Advanced Descendancy to find names for the temple.  The Laurels have scheduled another time in December so we will be able to work one on one!  That will be great!  On Thursday, it was great to help a Sister from Moorcroft, who was visiting her daughter.  We had a wonderful time in the Temple on Friday!   It was a beautiful day to travel, the temple was busy.  What a blessing it is to have it this close!   We were also able to visit a Family History Center there. Saturday I attended the Super Saturday in our ward & Bro Croft Went biking with Rob!  We both had a very special day.  It has been great to visit with some of you during the past several days!

    Well we came home on Wed for supper and received a call from Elder James Evanson of the Seventy in Lethbridge, Canada. He wanted to know if we could Skype with him that evening. We said we would be happy to, but were doing FH training with the C2 YW  until 8:30 pm. Since we were busy, the time went by fast and soon it was 9pm. (A little about Elder Evanson, he is a dentist  46 yrs old, he was released as Stake Pres in April 2015 and called as an Area Seventy. That area in Canada and a stake in Nauvoo leads the church in FH and people taking their own names to the temple. So he knows the import of FH in the lives of the people) Well after the usual hello’s he extended a call to us to be Area FH Advisors in the Montana Billings Wyoming Area. He said the brethern want you to do what you have been doing in your stake with the other 6 stake in your area. These stakes are Bozeman, Billings, Billings East, Gillette, Lovell, Cody and Worland. We’re aware of your service the past 3 years and the results in the Lovell Wyo Stake. Your Stake President gives you his highest recommendations. Go out and offer your services to these stake presidents, don’t wait for them to come to you! You can start tonight. We told him we wanted to do this full time and he said that is great and wonderful. He invited us to an Area Coordinating Council meeting in Billings on Nov 14 to bear testimony and to be set apart by him. He told us we can contact him at anytime by phone or email.

Here is a summary of our responsibilities:

Consult and inform Area Seventies and Stake Presidencies on Family History

Provide training in temple and family history to stake leaders and others within the stakes and wards

Keep local leaders informed on changes in temple and family history

Inform Family History Dept of local needs

Encourage Family History mission opportunities

Help with public affairs dealing with temple and family history

He reviewed the call process for us.  After gathering names and prayerful  pondering he submitted our names to the 7 Pres of Seventy. On the Sat of Gen Conf Elder Dale Renlund then a newly sustained member of the Twelve approved our names and authorized Elder Evanson to extend a call to us to serve. There was no time period given for the length of our service. We’re grateful to continue to serve full time at this time of the Hastening of the Lord’s work. We have really seen every week this hastening get faster in FH!  This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we know it’s true and love to serve and live it!  

May you all live it too is our daily prayer for each one of you!

Love Mom and Dad

   

   

Great – Great – Great!

Dearest Family,

        Great – Great – Great!  Brother Croft & I had a FHEve with a couple this week,  He reviewed indexing with the Brother & the Sister has had some health issues & wasn’t up to much heavy concentrating, so we just visited – We both agreed, it was so great to just visit!

    Wednesday evening, a group of 6 Priests, their leader & Bishop!   They caught the vision of Descendency Research & Hints.   Then to top it off we showed them the newest feature in the Family Tree App! It has a list of hints for the first 6 generations in your tree. You can link them to people or add new people to the tree where ever you are with Wifi or data plan!  So fun!  How to find the new feature: Apple ck the 3 lines menu in the upper left corner - Android ck the 3 dots menu in the upper right hand side and ck on the Hints list item. You will get a list that you then ck on a name to see all the hints for that person. Remember that hints are being added everyday so they just keep showing up! ! !     

    And speaking of Hints – one evening I was helping a lady & we had looked & looked for a certain Census for this family – it was no where to be found.  I had tried searching for it so many different ways. I went to one of the family members person page & in her hints it was listed.    The last name for the family was Davis & was indexed as “Da*s” because they couldn’t read it when they were indexing.  But the hints found it by matching all the other info about the family!  Very Cool.

    The plague of this week, at least twice, was the internet, especially today – so slow in all the buildings! So Dad will be working hard tomorrow to solve the problem with the Church and the Wifi company? ?

    And by the way, we have a trick light here in the family room!  Sometimes is works & sometimes it doesn’t! The last couple of days it has been working, but tomorrow, who knows?   We do have a new ballast to replace in it so that should help! Deer season began this week and we checked out Snell’s bean field but none came out that night. They are threshing the beans now so we’ll have to wait a few days for that to finish and the deer to move back into the area! Dad and I enjoyed another Friday morning boat fishing at HS Bend, didn’t get any fish big enough to keep but had a great time together! Dad put in a new threshold in our front south door too. Our green house is doing great all the plants growing nicely! Still no killing frost in our area yet as of Oct 18.

 

Held a wonderful Youth FH Consultant meeting this evening to show and train them in the latest in Family Search, They get so excited about all the new stuff for mobile devises! Bro Crosby came to invite them to serve in the FH Center on Sunday nights when their schedules allow.

 

We love you all & appreciate all your prayers, & good works!    Our Love,   Bro & Sis Croft

 

This has been a fun & exciting week!

Dearest Family!  

       This has been a fun & exciting week!    I think I’ll just mention several of the highlights. 

 

         Wednesday after helping a couple, we returned home to prepare for an evening with a HP group Presidency & I to help one of their wives.  Bro Croft went into LDS.org to review some videos which he was going to use.  Much to his surprise, everything on the site was in Spanish!  There is a place to change the language & it would change to any language listed, but each time we selected English, it would return to Spanish!  We checked both of our tablet, both computers – all the same.  We tried using other browers – still just Spanish!  We had Darece check her’s – Spanish. The next option was to call a help line, but who do we call?  We didn’t have a help number for LDS.org – so.o.  FS it is!     The missionary on the other end of the line (in Utah)  just didn’t know what to do.  We asked her to go to LDS.org, which she did. Guess What?   Her’s was in Spanish also!   Next step, she contacted her supervisor (in California).  She checked her’s also.  It was in English.  Very interesting!    We were given a number for more technical support & he couldn’t replicate the problem. While on hold with this gentleman, the first song we heard was “I Need Thee Every Hour” them “Put your Shoulder to the Wheel”. He said he could do nothing.   (His was in English, in Utah)    We persisted, and finally he sent the problem to his supervisor.   About a half hour later it returned to English!     Thank goodness the video’s we needed for that evening Bro Croft had downloaded prior to the Spanish!

 

        Friday Afternoon,  we helped the Elders.   Elder Hunter has a line, non-member, which he was stuck on!   I had worked on it prior to our appointment & just felt very uneasy about some parents we were going to add.  I felt inspired to go to Ancestry.com, look in the public trees to see if anyone else was working on this family and they were!   It was wonderful to share with him & help him do it, to discover several more generations of his tree.  The first parents were not the right ones & there were several marriages, etc with the correct ones.   There were three Elders together & two had an appointment to give a discussion to a Sister who is becoming active now.  We helped the third Elder while they were away.   At the end of their discussion, they were holding it across the hall from the FHC, the Sister pointed to the FHC door & said, “Can I go in there?”  They were excited to bring her in, & now we have an appointment to help her this week!

       

        About a month ago a HP group leader in Cowley talked to us about giving a presentation in their Priesthood mtg sometime. Of Course, we were willing, just let us know when. Today we decided to attend Priesthood & Relief Society in Cowley in between the two Sunday School classes that we help in.  Bro Croft went to the Bishop before Priesthood meeting to see if he could just say a few things about FH at the beginning of the meeting?  He discovered that they were expecting the FH presentation today!  The Lord does have a way of putting people in the right place at the right time!    We were there to fulfill this assignment – when we needed to be, even if we didn’t know it!

    

        Other activities, in addition to FH appointments – Fishing on a calm & beautiful lake Friday a.m – Friday night Lovell Football, Dance team & Swing Choir.  Saturday Afternoon we went to Allen & Amber’s to visit all of them! We had a great time making some treats & loving our newest Grandson, Neil Allen Croft – what a precious little guy he is!

 

    It’s been an awesome week with lots of spiritual moments and the goodness of the people we help is wonderful! They pray for us, thank us and give us food items all the time! We’re so grateful to be able to serve the Lord thru all the people in our area. We did service work at the Park Visitor center this week too! Had some special time there informing folks of this area and what is available for them to enjoy. 

 We love you all and may God Bless,

 Bro & Sister Croft