Week 6 - June 3-10, 2018

The big news this week is that we finished our level 1 training for work on the international floor.  We now have our blue lanyard and are working on the floor as helpers with guests.  It has been a very busy first week with guests.  I am learning a lot as I attempt to finish level 2 training and help guest who visit the library.

Elder Koberstein also finished his Basic training for the family history library.

This week Elder Koberstein and I had a nice bike ride on our preparation day, Tuesday.  We biked from Bountiful to the LDS Hospital on 8th and C Street for my routine INR blood test.  This ride was an easy down hill ride to Salt Lake City and then a big climb for the test.  The picture is Elder Koberstein waiting for me with the bikes.  Riding to the hospital we had debated going over capital hill to the hospital but decided against it.  There was heavy traffic on 89 and no cross walk which would make it unsafe.

When I finished the test we looked down one of the cross streets and saw  the capital building in the distances.  We decided to bike over and home that way.

This is what we saw at the end of the road.  It is a beautiful view of the capital building but there is a very steep deep canyon between us and it.  We later leaned that we were looking at City Creek Canyon.  This canyon has city creek at the bottom as one would guess because of the name.  It definitely was not bikeable or even very easily hikeable to the capital building from our view point.

Elder Koberstein looked up City Creek on Wikipedia.  I was impressed about its importance to the settlement of Salt Lake City.  It is still used today as the water supply for parts of the city.  This picture is overlooking City Creek Canyon toward temple square.  If you look close you can see the spires of the Salt Lake Temple.  It was a beautiful view.  I think a ride up or down City Creek Canyon is on my bucket list of thinks to do in Salt Lake City. 

"City Creek is a small but historically important mountain stream that flows from City Creek Canyon and across part of Salt Lake City, Utah, and into the Jordan River which empties into the Great Salt Lake. City Creek's head is about 8 miles (13 km) up City Creek Canyon northeast of Downtown Salt Lake City. The entire stream measures only about 14.5 miles (23 km) long. Melting snow from adjacent mountains provides most of City Creek's currents, but the stream flows year-round because of natural springs at the head of the creek.
Until 1882 City Creek served as the city's primary water supply, and it continues to provide drinking water to The Avenues and northern parts of Salt Lake City.

History
Vanguards of the first Mormon pioneer settlers of Utah camped by the mouth of City Creek Canyon July 22, 1847. This area is now about the intersection between State Street and North Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah. The stream originally forked into a stream heading south through Washington Square and the primary branch flowing west, toward Temple Square and approximately down North Temple Street. Both forks emptied into the Jordan River.

The vanguard, led by Orson Pratt, diverted the stream to soften the soil and plant crops. By July 24 when Brigham Young's party arrived, five acres (20,000 m²) of potatoes had already been planted. Young named the creeks in Salt Lake Valley on August 22, 1847, calling City Creek such because it was in the heart of the city that the pioneers planned....

In 1909 the creek was placed in an underground conduit down North Temple Street from outside of Memory Grove to west of the State Fairpark where the water exits into the Jordan River."

The afternoon was spent in Provo, where we visited the BYU bookstore and Elder Koberstein shared a bench with Cosmo for a few minutes.

We attended a session in the Provo Temple.  When Elder Koberstein and I were students at BYU we were asked to contribute to the building fund for this temple.  It was not dedicated before we left BYU and we have not had the opportunity to attend in its walls even though we have attended the MTC on two different occasions.  It was a fun afternoon.  To my surprise a roommate from Ricks Colleg, Gwen Lund, was working on Tuesday afternoon shift.  What a tender mercy.  It has been many years since we have been together.

We finished our preparation day with a visit with Rex Ivie.  We miss our neighbor in Antioch and friend in the gospel for over 30 years.  Had a sonderful visit.  He is keeping active and serving other in the home he now lives in.

 

Saturday evening John and Evone treated the Johson family to dutch oven pizza party. 

They were wonderful with homemade dough for the crust and lots of choices for toppings.

Week 5 - May 29-June 2 Week 5

One morning this week we arrived at the Family History Library 30 minutes before prayer meeting.  I decided to take a walk on temple square.  It was beautiful there.  This week I would like to share my walk with you.

As I entered temple square and turned to walk toward the visitors center this bush was in bloom with beautiful white star shaped blossoms.  I had never noticed it before.  Does anyone know what type of bush it is?

I love the beautiful views of the Salt Lake Temple that I saw as I walked.  You will also notice the tabernacle on the right of the picture.

This is another view of the tabernacle.

Another view of the Salt Lake Temple through the trees on temple square.

I love the colors of this unusual poppy growing there.

Another view of the Salt Lake Temple.

 Lots of birds singing and these pigeons were feeding under a tree.

The Assembly Hall is the next building I walked past.

The columbines were in blossom by the Assembly Hall.  My mother loved these flowers.  They grew wild in the back country in Wyoming where I grew up and were beautiful there also.

This is an early morning group of tourists from Asia taking a walk on Temple square.

The tabernacle was getting another coat of paint by a crew.

 Crossing the street from Temple Square to the Family History Center.  What a fun 15 minute walk.  I will have to do it again some day.

One last stop before heading to prayer meeting was the log cabin next to the Family History Library.  It has been fun to watch the garden grow.  I wonder who gets to pick the peas.

Being in Salt Lake City and working at the Family History Library on BI ,International floor, has been an amazing experience.  Elder Koberstein and I have completed our Level 1 training and earned our blue lanyard which means we can now help guests.  This coming week we will be working on the floor with guests from around the world.  We love the work of family history.  I feel overwhelmed that I have been given the opportunity to serve here.  I know that I will need help from on high to serve the guests that come.

Week 4 - May 19-28

Guess who is working at the Family History Library on the BI International floor with us?  Sister Cook, who we met in Kumamoto.  She came both summers we were there. She was visiting her family.  It was a sweet surprise for us.

Friday evening after work at the Family History Library on Temple Square.  Elder Koberstein and I drove to Logan Utah to visit our son's family.  We went to the temple and had an enjoyable evening there.  It was fun to visit the temple we were married in many years ago again.

This blog post has taken longer to put together than I anticipated.  I beleive it has been for me, not my readers.  It has been a study of my ancestors as we visited the graves of many of them.

This weekend was Memorial Day weekend.  We had a three day weekend so we visited graves of ancestors in Garden City, Fish Haven, Montpelier, Afton and Idaho Falls area.  This is something I have not had the opportunity to do in many years as we have always lived far away from family graves and family members.

Our son and his family drove to Garden City, Utah and Fish Haven, Idaho with us on Saturday.  We visited the following graves in Garden City. 

 Lydia Luetta (Lettie) Cook and Joseph Weston Gibbons, my grandparents on my mother's parents.

Lydia Ann Nelson and David Savage Cook.  My great grandparents and parents of my Grandmother Gibbons.  My mother spent a lot of time in her Grandmother Cook's home as she was growing up.  It was walking distance from her childhood home.

We then went to Fish Haven, Idaho where we found my great great grandparents, John Lowery Nelson (Johan Lalurits Neilsen) and Susannah Cutler.

The highlight of the day for the grandchildren was eating at the restaurant that was once my Grandpa and Grandma Gibbons home in Garden City, Utah.

Sunday found Elder Koberstein and I in Montpelier, Idaho where we visited graves of Elder Koberstein's family members.

We stopped by the graves of James Jensen and Naomi Phelps, Elder Koberstein's grandparents.  They are the parents of his mother.

On Memorial Day we went to the Afton cemetery with my brother and visited family graves there.

We visited the grave of my parents Charles Hale and LaThel Gibbons.

My Grandparents Benjamin Walter Hale and Susan Idella Cazier.  These are my father's parents.

Charlote Cooke Hale who is my great grandmother,  She married Aroet Lucius Hale and was his fouth wife.  Aroet is burried in Utah.  When my father was growning up she lived across the street from his childhood home and had a great influence on him during those years.

My great grandparents, Charles Gates Cazier and Susan Bingham.  They are the parents of my Grandmother Hale, Susan Idela Cazier.  My father received the name Charles from this man and his father.  My dad was called "Charley Hale" to tell the three Charles apart.  When he was growing up all three Charles lived in Afton.

My great great grandparents, Charles Drake Cazier and Harriet Gates are the parents of Charles Gates Cazier.  He was the first bishop and patriacrch of Star Valley and Harriet Gates was the first Releif Society President of Star Valley.

Phineas Wolloctt Cook is my great great grandfather on my mother's side.  He is burried with his fourth wife, Irene Churchill in Star Valley.

 I am a decendant of his second wife, Amanda Polly Savage who is buried in Garden City, Utah.  We missed her grave at the cemetery in Garden City but found the headstone picture on Find a Grave.  Isn't family history intersting?

Our final stop was to graves in Idaho Falls, Idaho area at the Annis Little Butte Cemetery.  We visited the grave of Elder Koberstein's mother (Juanita Naomi Jensen Koberstein) and step father Dee Lawrence Gray.

 Elder Koberstein's full brother Michael Koberstein is buried next to his mother.

  We had the privilege of meeting our son and his family at Annis Little Butte Cemetery.  They showed us by example how to clean the graves.  Next trip, I think we may go prepared to clean up the grave site as they did.  I am always learning.  Thanks for the example kids.