Summer at Headquarters

Hello Friends and Family!

I hope this letter finds you all well. The summer craze up here is really starting to die down. Summer is definitely one of the busiest times of the year for us with all the tourists and available families. So, being halfway through August, it was no surprise when the amount of Patrons dropped. However, things keep moving along.

There are a lot of changes coming up for the Family History Library. Due to budgeting as well as proceeding carefully, changes don't come terribly fast. But, that's really with most things in the Church. We are however, starting to see modifications to the main floor. Such as, adding photo scanners like we have on the 3rd floor. This way people can still scan photos when it's the only floor open on Sunday. As well as new signage. The Family History Department is also working on new standardized training for all the missionaries in the library. That way, everyone can be on the same plane.

So, with the Help Services Zone. We're actually having our zone being consolidated. Not in the manner that it's going to go away. But, that the U.S/Canada Zone on the 2nd floor is going to be combined with the Help Services Zone to just be the one big U.S./Canada Zone. They're going to keep our Assistant Zone Leaders on our floor. However, the Zone Leaders on the 2nd are going to be over both floors.

On Saturday night my Companion and I went and did Baptisms for the dead. I did a lot of Great-Grandma Helen's adoptive family. Apparently her mother's parents died when her mother was very young. Making it really really hard to find them. I have a fathers name. But, it's so common it's hard. But, I have her siblings. So, it's been very special to do their work.

Elder Slack was a missionary that I lived with during his training week at the beginning of my mission. It was my second month and they lived with me and Elder Whiffen. He started asking me on Monday if I could be his gym partner most mornings Tuesday-Saturday. So, we've been doing that. 5 AM Every morning. But, it's still a lot of fun. My weight has started going down, again. I've been keeping off what I lost pretty good. There's just still a ways to go. But, I'll get there.

As a matter of Patrons, we're still averaging one group per missionary a day. Which is pretty slow. But, it's still something. This week the people I've helped have ranged from Wisconsin to California and they've all been great. I actually had one man who came in from Wisconsin. Almost his entire tree was German. As, well as one line of Irish. We found quite a bit of his ancestry going really far back. He had already done some genealogy. But, the tree was able to find stuff he didn't know. He was fairly pleased as he went down to the main floor to print off a wall fan chart.

I have one thought from my studies that I would like to share with all of you. I was reading in the 6th chapter of Mormon concerning the destruction of the Nephite civilization. Almost the whole chapter focused on the slaughtering and extinction of his people. However, after describing this terrible event, Mormon chose to end the chapter with these words:

19 O ye ^afair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have ^bfallen!

20 But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return.

21 And the day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality, and these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become ^aincorruptible bodies; and then ye must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, to be judged according to your works; and if it so be that ye are righteous, then are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone before you.

22 O that ye had repented before this great ^adestruction had come upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, ^bknoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his ^cjustice and ^dmercy.

This I believe is a powerful example of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Even though this people where ripe in iniquity, unwilling to turn back to their God even to their obliteration, they still have a chance to repent. As the scripture says, God knoweth their state. And, even though in their iniquity they where taken to the other side, they will still have an opportunity to repent and to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, righteous. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is all-encompassing. On this side and the other. There is a great amount of missionary work in the spirit world. Bringing spirits back into the light that is found in Christ. This is in every way applicable to all of us. Christ will never give up on us. No matter what mistakes we make or what we're going through, if we turn unto Christ he will heal us. It may not be easy sometimes. But, he will always be there helping us.

I hope we may all take part in being a little bit better everyday through the Atonement of Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

From,

Elder Hall