This couple of weeks has been one of discovery and affirmation of the path the Lord has set for me.

The Facebook and Twitter aspect of social media was not my favorite part of the last couple of weeks and they will be my resource of last resort. However I did love using FamilySearch Community and have shared that with others that are working on Family History.

I have learned so much about ways to search and an anxious to try them on breaking through some of my brick walls. I have also appreciated the help I have gotten from my classmates. I would have been lost without them, their help and feedback.

Doing the final project was a great learning experience in using RootsMagic and also in searching for a family. It was fun and showed me that I really do have a love of family history and the Lord knows me and helps me to figure out what I am to focus on.

This has been an interesting week. I started out hopeful that I would be able to accomplish the assignments that were due and be successful. As I a have brought up before Family History is not a passion for me, or at least that is what I always thought. This week has shown me that I do have a love of researching. Of course knowing that the information was out there was a big help but the search was fun and time passed so quickly that my day was done before I knew it!

I was also able to learn how to use the tools available to me. I loved getting more familiar with RootsMagic and will be putting more of my family history into my database.

I guess the Lord does work in miraculous ways and is telling me why He has directed me to this path. I really look forward to helping others on their journey of reuniting families forever.

This week was hard for me.  I did learn a lot about FamilySearch Community and for that I am grateful and will have fun with the resources available to me. I have already put a couple of Swedish sites on my watchlist and joined one. I also joined GenelogyWise and look forward to using that resource. Facebook and Twitter are not my friends and would be the last resort to finding information.
Since this is a gospel reflection post I am not sure the Lord would be pleased with my attitude this week and I will have to do some repenting. I know it is important to learn new things and be prepared for them to be hard. I struggle with the hard so hope I have learned a valuable lesson in being kind and patient with myself.

I have not spent much time this week thinking of finding family. I celebrated Thanksgiving with my in-laws. It was great to spend time with them, but also difficult. My father-in-law has Alzheimer's and my mother-in-law is 89 and struggling. It made me appreciate family and the ways that we can take care of them to the best of our ability. I hope to find ways to help those on the other side of the veil. 

"As you decide, remember that the names which will be so difficult to find are of real people to whom you owe your existence in this world and whom you will meet again in the spirit world. . . . Their hearts are bound to you. Their hope is in your hands. You will have more than your own strength as you choose to labor on to find them."

Henry B. Eyring, in Conference Report, Apr. 2005, 82; or Ensign, May 2005, 79-80.

This quote really hits home to me. There are brick walls in all lines of my family and I feel the push to find them. Getting my degree, in part, is so that I know how to search the records for the areas of the world where I need to look. I was disappointed to see the Scandinavian emphasis removed since I need to look in Sweden. I am looking forward to learning how to search the British Isles and hopefully find my 5th and 6th Grandfathers and back. They are pushing hard to be found. I know there will be great joy when that line is able to be sealed to each other.

"After you find the first few generations, the road will become more difficult. . . . You will be tempted to stop and leave the hard work of finding to others who are more expert or to another time in your life."

Right now, at this moment, I must confess to wondering if this is what I am supposed to be doing. I have had a desire to find my ancestors but never the driving ambition.  This quote from President Eyring has helped me understand that I need to be more committed to finishing the course I am on.

"Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead?”1 Corinthians 15:29

For those who believe that life ends at death it is easy to see why they would not see the need to baptize the dead. I could not live thinking that everything I have would be gone at my death. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we have the knowledge that life does go on and baptizing our dead is making sure that they are able to accept the covenant and be sealed to their families.

Almost a year ago I was able to be part of the new direction that made it possible that priests could now baptize for the dead in the temple. I was the Baptistry Coordinator at the time and what a special experience it has been to see these young men perform this ordinance for those who have passed. I have loved being a part of that most wonderful ordinance and the spirit is so amazing when patrons come and do the baptism for a husband, wife, or other close family members. That is one of the reasons I love doing Family History. Is to make that experience possible.

As I worked on projects this week my mind kept going back to 1 Nephi. It helps that I am 1) working on learning Spanish by reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish and English and 2) following the prophet's counsel to read it by the end of the year. Back to my point...it was so important for Lehi and his family to have a record of his genealogy and the scriptures that Nephi was commanded to kill Laban to get them. You can also see that those who did not have these records dwindled in unbelief. The Lamanites and also the Jaredites.

It is so important for families to be together and to know where you came from. More and more as I learn about Family History and work in the temple my testimony grows.The whole purpose of this life is to create eternal families. Working on my own line and eventually helping others, is becoming very important to me.

"You will be tempted to stop and leave the hard work of finding to others who are more expert or to another time in your life. But you will also feel a tug on your heart to go on in the work, hard as it will be." Henry B. Eyring

I am fairly new to Family History. It has not been a life long endeavor to find my family since so much of the work as been done. Now, under the direction of a loving Heavenly Father, I am learning how to find ancestors for myself and others. My experience with this quote from President Eyring is my 5th GG.  Thomas Curtis.   He is one of many brick walls that our family is hitting in England in the 1700's. However every time I sit down to see what I can do on another line, I keep coming back to Thomas. And I am not alone. He is yelling very loudly that he wants his work done and wants it done now. There is progress and but it is slow, however I do feel the tug on my heart to find him, verify the information, and get the work done for him and his family.

This has been an interesting week for me. I was planning on working on RootsMagic during my summer break so that I would have a heads up the the class. Dave had bought the book with his own version and I was looking through and becoming rather confused. I am glad that I decided to wait and see what the class would offer.

So far, in just the first week of working with RM I am very impressed. I thought I would be working in FamilySearch or Ancestry and transferring information to RM. Now I can see some the possibilities and am very excited. I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks and seeing what else I can learn.

This week as been a series of ups and downs. For some reason I cannot get the correct answers for Cloud Computing and am very glad that part of the course is over. It has brought my grade down to a B+ and I am not happy about it. But at least I am not failing so that is good. If we are able to drop one low grade I am going to make that C- my first choice!

The up side has been learning more about Dropbox and how I can edit and change and share. I have mostly used it for storing and being able to pull up files on my phone when I am out and about.

In posts on school Facebook posts everyone says this is a fairly easy class. I am not so sure I believe them! I am not a tech person and am definitely out of my comfort zone. But I also know that the Lord will be a comfort and a help if I rely on Him and seek his help. One of my favorite sayings is that God does not give us anything we cannot handle...with His help!