Elder Renlund Devotional, Convention, DNA, and Helping Patron

Hey Friends and Family!

This week has been on the busier side of things. So, a lot's gone on. I'll try to include some highlights.

Last Sunday, we as a mission were able to watch the Elder Renlund YA Devotional in the Salt Lake Stake Center Chapel. We watched it on a delayed basis as a lot of us had dinner appointments. It was a really amazing devotional. There were a lot of great insights, and I would highly recommend all, YA or otherwise to watch it.

On Monday we had a Book of Mormon Class by President Fenn, and it was a bit different than the others. Instead of following the chronological pattern of the class, he asked for favorite chapters from the audience and we had discussion based on them. It was really spiritual and very informative.

I also went down to the Discovery zone for lunch on Tuesday for a Farewell Luncheon for some of the Senior Missionaries going home. It's honestly a little weird seeing the Discovery as I knew it filtering out and new faces filtering in. We've already had quite a few of the ones that I worked with leave, and then a few more are leaving now. It's really the way of the mission. There's no constant on the people that work in the mission. It was great to be able to say goodbye, and seriously the amount of food Discovery provides is crazy.

This week from last Monday to this next Monday, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy is having their convention, and that means that the library has gotten a lot busier. Earlier in the week, I know that the 3rd floor was insanely busy. However, the third floor is usually the preliminary that leads to our floor. So, around last night, we really were able to see the business on our floor pick up, and I think it's continuing to rise. They had their official "Night in the Library" on Wednesday so that was really interesting. There were tours, study groups, classes, and lots of resource use. It really was a great evening.

I've also pretty much finished training in DNA, just short of passing it off. The DNA training was not required for the pin. But, it seems really useful to know. So, I decided just to go for it. It had some really good insights into the Genetics, Biology, and Chemistry behind the testing, and how to use various scientific approaches to analyze the results to best find relatives. It was a lot of reading. However, it was really interesting to learn.

Beyond that, my week has pretty much been helping patrons. Which is the whole purpose of the U.S. / Canada Services Zone. From mid morning to mid-nighttime helping people with Family History. It really is quite invigorating and I really enjoy it. It is a bit of a switch from researching in the Old World. However, it is very interesting, and being able to have all the film at our fingertips really opens up a lot of doors.

That's pretty much it for this week!

From,

Elder Hall