Letters from our Mission

We have been here almost a month. Time is going quickly, although one day last week I had one of those bad word days BORED!! It was just doing the same thing over and over and over. So now I am trying to do a variety of things to keep from getting that way again. If I don't it's going to be a l-o-n-g mission. We are so busy every day and night and weekends. Today Dad helped Sister and Elder Hartman move about four apartments of of Elders and Sisters. I went to a Stake RS Enrichment Activity and luncheon with the Senior Sisters. Hey, if you get a minute go online to reddmountianretreat.com and look at that house up at Bear Lake. Sister Redd here said we could us it anytime for a Family Reunion. It has 6 bedrooms and beds for 20. She needs dad to build her some cabinets. See what you think and we will get it after we get back and ALL of us can go up and stay.

Dad has been doing some training on the camera here. It is a little bit different than the one at the MTC as it is faster and higher powered.We will start filming in April. We will be doing shift work so we will be going in a little later and staying until about 6 pm each day Monday-Friday. They are so far behind on imaging that we need to help in order to get caught up. There are 88 boxes "preped" with about 5,000 images in each one and there are 154 more boxes to do. So we have a lot ahead of us to do.

President Peterson gave all the missionaries a copy of the Book of Mormon for Christmas and a challenge to read it in two months. We weren't here but they gave us each one and we are going to start the challenge tomorrow, March 1st.

Here it is:

We invite you to join with us and read the Book of Mormon with the following objective, to find Jesus Christ within its pages. Each day, for the next 60 days, beginning March 1, 2009, do the following:

1. Write your name one the inside cover, for this Book of Mormon will be highly prized.

2. Read faithfully each day the chapters from the reading chart.

3. Circle each reference to Jesus by whatever name He is called ie.(Jesus, Lord, Emanuel, Lamb of God, He, Him, I etc.) At the bottom of each page, write the number of times Jesus is mentioned.

4. Highlight in one color all the Savior's words when he speaks or when He is directly quoted, such as when a prophet says, "Thus saith the Lord"

5. Highlight in a second color all the teachings and doctrines referring directly to Christ's mission, ressurection, birth, crucifixion, etc.

May you develop an even greater appreciation and love our Savior Jesus Christ. May you have and increased love for the Book of Mormon, and may you have a greater ability to testify of Him because you know Him.

Then he gave them a reading chart. If you guys would like to do this and want the list I am sending it as an attachment. Maybe we can actually get through all the way.

We sure miss all of you. Hope some of you get to come out. But if not we understand. Keep us up on your doings so we can sort of feel like we are there.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Went to church this morning. What a great Fast and Testimony Meeting. The spirit was so strong. Lots testified of doing what is right and being strong in what we know is true. One young girl told of going to her High school basketball teams overnighter on Saturday and when pizza and etc were served she told them No as she was fasting. They wanted to know what that meant and she explained to them how we fast for 24 hours for something special or someone and then give the cost of the meals we skipped to those in need. What a great thing for her to have the courage to tell them and especially to do what she knew and had been taught, was right. It is hard these days to do something different form the rest of the kids, but that's why we need to choose good friends and to be a good friend back in return. Sometime you may need that special friend to help pull you away from wrong things or maybe you will be the one to help your friends. I am so glad our grandchildren and kids have good friends and will always remember "Would Jesus want me to do this?".

No matter where you go the Church is always the same. Trying to learn everyone's names. Each week we meet a few more. Guess what?...............we GET to talk in Church next Sunday. Our subject is to tell a little about ourselves and on ways to keep the Sabbath holy. So that shouldn't be to bad. Don't know if it's scarier to talk to people you know or don't know.

Have a busy week ahead. Of coarse the archives most every day. A little break this week as on Wednesday morning at 6:15 am we leave and go to Kirtland. We will meet with all the new missionaries and President and Sister Peterson at the Kirtland temple for a tour and then go down to the visitors center at Historic Kirtland to the Newell K Whitney Store and the School of the Prophets. There President Peterson will tell us about the history of Kirtland in Church History and what revelations were given to Joseph Smith and the 12 there. Then he will dedicate our missions for us. Ought to be an awesome day. Wednesday night about 10:00 pm we will get two elders that are going home, to stay at our apartment. Then at 4:00 am we take them to the Presidents home to leave for the airport.Thursday evening we work at the Family History Center and Friday evening we are going out to a Polish restaurant with all the Senior Couples and Senior Sisters from here and Kirtland. Then Saturday I think is the day we are going to the Amish town of Berlin (pronounced Berlun) to see the "Master Carver" and the shops, Leahmans Hardware Store and the Knife store (that has really awesome kitchen knives. Expensive though). A paring knife is $60.00. Probably won't buy just look.

Well best end for the day as the Senior sisters and sister Olson (who has been staying with us for a little over a week) will be home from church and I invited them for dinner.

Love ALL of you!!!

Mom and Dad

Kirtland

The Savior on display in Kirtland.

Preparing the documents

The Documents we are opening to prep for filming. We put them in these boxes that have water in the bottom so that the moisture can help that papers from being so brittle.

Happy Valentines Day!

Mom is still able to entertain and serve her yummy food on the mission. They sure are all lucky

Fasteners

Different fasteners that we find on the documents from 1900's

This is where we Git R Done

This is the Archives where we do our record preservation every day.

Week Three

Well, here it is the start of our third week. My, but time flys when you are having fun. Our days and nights are full and even weekends. We don't seem to have found any spare time. We leave for the archives at 7:00 am and get home about 5:00 pm depending on whether we have shopping to do after we are done at the archives. Tuesday nights we have Institute class. We are studing Jesus the Christ and the New Testament. Our teacher studied in Jerusalem for several years and has a very vast knowledge of what took place there and of the Savior. She makes it come to life for all of us.

Thursday nights we work at the Family History Center. We had our first staff meeting last week and will actually begin our hours of 6-9 every Thursday this week. We will be able to do some of own research and work then, too. Have missed doing that. Need some more names to work on.

We have a couple of wood projects to do for down at the archives. Dad can't stay away to long. There is a guy in one of the wards here that has a shop that we can use. He said that dad could use it as long as the guy could look over his shoulder and learn a few things. We went out Saturday to find a Lowe's to see what kind of wood they have available, etc. Now we can go and "Get er done".

Boy! are some of these records fragile. You can hardly touch them that they don't fall apart. Sure wish they knew about archival paper back 115 years ago. It's a good thing that we are capturing them on images as they won't be around for much longer.

Found a neat quote the other day. "A life that is not documented, is a life that within a generation or two will largely be lost to memory. What a tragedy this can be in the history of a family." How so very true. It is so important that each family has their families history and geneolgy. For where will you get it if you don't have your own? And your kids need to know their ancestors. And so do you. Even if all you work is done, supposedly, it's not.

I am going to send or at least try and send some pictures of our trip to Kirtland to see the statues of Christ, some Amish things, picture of the different fasteners that we find on the documents (we are going to make a shadowbox out of them) and a picture of Soba a girl from India that Dad got to go help and teach and that got baptized on Saturday. She is really a neat person.

Well don't know what to tell you except that we miss all of you and you are in prayers daily. But we are enjoying serving here and doing what we are doing. Love, Mom and Dad

We're almost there

Well, we are in Ohio, but not quite Cleveland. We should be there before noon. What a couple of weeks we have had. We had a fantastic two weeks at the MTC (Missionary Training Center). What a place to feel the spirit and closness to Heavenly Father. The first week was spent learning Preach My Gospel. If you don't have a copy in your home you should get one. Great source for Family Home Evenings and also to prepare your sons for their missions, as this is what they will be learning and teaching from. We found out through prayer you can do anything as long as you do your part. We can DO IT!!! If you know couples in your ward or family who are retirement age and needing something to do, encourage them to put their papers in and get going. They need them out here in all areas that are availiable. We met couples who were on their 3rd and 4th missions. It's cheaper than staying at home and WOW what rewards and blessings you receive and your family,too.

The second week we spent from 7:30 am-5:00pm every day learning how to digetize (image) old records to be put into the Family Search program for indexing and for people all over the world to access for their own personal records. This was so very interesting and our old minds still work. We had to learn how to calibrate and focus the camera. The circle you see on the page is called an LSI or line segment indicator. You have to find the "thinnest" line on each batch of documents and then focus on it either horizontaly or vertically, find the "pixals" (they can't be more than 4 in a single line), then focus as good as or better than the original document then start imaging. The "gray scale" lets you know that the image is focused in another way. Both have to be used every time you start a new "folder". Boy! look at all these computer terms we know. Now just to remember how to do them. Where is a grandchild or child when you really need them? Just kidding! Mybe we will finally learn how to use our camera and computer.

We spent a couple nights in Denver with Grandma and Grandpa Evers. Was so good to see them and to see Grandpa doing so much better. (That's one of those blessings we have recieved in our family from the mission.) We hope he continues to do well. They are going to look seriously at selling their house and getting a townhome. So when we return in a year they will probably be at a new location. Saw Ron/Laura, Terri/Darrell and Sara. Didn't get to see JT this time. We also spent a night with the DeRock's. They are such good friends.

Wednesday, we spent the evening in Hastings,Nebraska, and visited with Charles and Eleanor Buss, This is a cousin of Grandpa Evers. He is a very avid geneoligist. He asked to see if we could find some information on his mothers side. He knows every bodies geneolgy, who, where and what about them. He has information and pictures to go with them all. Very interesting to spend time with them. Eleanor looked better I thought than in July when we saw her. TO BE CONTINUED and pictures to follow. Wait for me to send them tomorrow or Sunday and more info. Love Mom

New email address

We have changed our e-mail address for those of you who would like it. It is kbe4ever@gmail.com
It is pretty much the same as the old one just don't forget the (e).

Our first week

Well, We have just about made it through our first week. We get up at 6:00 am and have breakfast at 7:00 am and then we start classes. We go for an hour and then have a fifteen minute break. Then start up again. We study a lesson every night of two or three chapters in “Preach My Gospel” then the next day we put the lesson into a situation like we were teaching an investigator or to an inactive member. We finish at 5:00 every evening, eat dinner and then go to computer class until 7:30 pm then come home and study for the next day and to bed by 10:00pm.

Long Days!! But what a special place to be. The Spirit is so strong and so special here. The people we have met are so fantastic. We learn from them and hopefully them from us. We have had some good feedback on some of our situations and it makes us feel that we are not totally dumb.

Prayer is such a special tool we have to receive help and inspiration from our Heavenly Father. It has been a big help here in our studies and then to have prayers answered that Grandpa Evers is doing better and that Brett got a permanent job and that all of you are being watched over while we are gone.

Pray sincerely and really think about the things that you are thankful for each day and the blessings that our Heavenly Father has sent your way and then ask him for things that you really need for in your family. Remembering that we need to do our part and then Heavenly Father will do his.

We are anxious to learn how to use the digitizing camera next week so we will be able to help out in that area in Cleveland. Say a prayer for us that we will learn quickly and then remember what we learned. We always pray for the missionaries…..now we are one of them. WOW!!

Great people work here. What special leaders and teachers. To think that in just a few years Travis, Derick, Tyrel, Tyler and Trevin will be here. These Elders look so young. They are nice to us “Seniors”.

Oh yeah…..We don’t have twin beds!! What a relief. I took a picture and will send it and one of us in front of the world map.

Love you all