TWO LIBRARIES

Hi everyone,
        It was so good to Skype with the family in Utah earlier on today.  Alex has lost a few more teeth and we wish we could have seen Hallie stand alone and hear Julia's piano piece she played for the Young Women to sing in church and taste those donuts Becky made.  But everyone looked good to us.  Amazing world we live in to view each other like we are in the same room.  I hear it's been pretty hot in Utah.  I hope you have air conditioning in your school classrooms.  We talked with Katie and Jennifer on the seventh, Katie's birthday.  Walter is becoming a football dad and was the emcee for Joshua's game.  And Jennifer wishes she could become a cheerleader.  Walter is gearing up for when he will be the coach for Carolyn's softball team in the spring.  Meanwhile Carolyn is under a mountain of homework for seventh-grade. The family went out to P.F.Chang's Restaurant for Katie's birthday. I remember going there when Matthew was baptized.  Well our family is just great!  And Emily, we wish we could be there to help you can those peaches.  I'm sure they'll be delicious.  And thank you, Jared for fixing the garbage disposal and the sprinkler in our Utah house.  We love you all.

        Well, what have we been doing here in California? You might think that we are on an extended vacation.  But we mostly go out and about on our one day off. The other days we work from 9 to 5 in the Center--helping patrons who want to find our about their family history.  Some people don't know how to use the computer very well.  You grandchildren are so much more technologically advanced.  Do you know there are family history games you can play and activities for children from ages 3 to 11 and teenagers from 12 and up--go to family search.org, click on search, then on the WIKI.  Type in "games and activities for children".  There are also a lot of videos you can watch on lds.org also.
        Other people we work with don't speak English very well, and their family comes from another country. Sometimes Grandpa spends so long helping people that he forgets about lunch. So we decided to take our lunch rather than coming home.  Then we can visit while we eat in the lunchroom with other workers or people doing research.  It always surprises me when the people we work with during the week attend our ward for church on Sunday or are in the hall.  (There are 4 wards that meet in our building, so it's a busy place.)  Bindy is one lady who comes to the center and also attends our ward Relief Society.  She wanted me to help her find a name to take to the temple, but try as we might her family members have done them all.  So she decided she would just continue to work on her PAF program.  She is here for six weeks at a time, and lives in her car.  She belongs to a gym, so showers there.  Sounds a bit strange, wouldn't you say?  There's also a couple of black people who are deaf and sign to each other.  They wear very lively colored clothing.  And there are groups of people who come once a week to meet with their buddies, eat lunch and exchange information.  A lot of people are regulars.

        We did have an interesting outing to the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.  They have the Air Force One airplane he and his staff used to fly around the country.  We walked through it.  The displays in the library are very well done and document Reagan's life.  Max and Mary went with the Livingstons.

Entrance to the Reagan Library

Looking over Simi Valley from the entrance

 

With Elder and Sister Livingston

Looking toward the Pacific from the grave site

Sarah Louisa Hobson

        We thought we would focus on one ancestor so you could get to know them better.  Sarah Louisa Hobson is Grandma Mary's father, Wilfrid Wheatley's grandmother.   She was born in Barton Mills, Suffolk, England on July 17, 1843.  Her father was a Baptist minister and they lived in London. Her mother, Sarah Maria died when she was 4 years old, so she was raised by her grandmother Gamble, her mother's mother.  Her mother's only brother, Henry Gamble was a Congregational minister who went to divinity school with Sarah Louisa's father, Jesse Hobson.  When she was 31 years old, Sarah married Edmund Wheatley on August 12, 1874.  They were married by her father in Salters Hall Church in London where he was the minister.  Sarah must have had a lot of courage because they went to live in Ningpo, China (near present-day Shanghai) where he was the harbormaster.  They would hold meetings in their home for the sailors to try to get them to stop drinking and believe in a spiritual way of life.  She had 3 children; one of them was Edmund Wilfrid Wheatley.  Edmund, Sarah's husband got sick and died; so, in 1880 she brought the children home to England and raised them there.  She not only raised her own children but also her grandchildren.  She died at the age of 94 in Worthing, Sussex, England on February 23, 1938.

Love to all.
Elder and Sister Evans