GRAY MAY

Another month gone by. What did we do? Hmmm. No big adventures to report. We've been spending our P-days mostly preparing, not playing. As we mentioned last month, since the end of March, three senior missionary couples and one single sister from the Family History Library finished their missions and went home. That's seven out of the ten we once had. One single sister decided to extend for a month (thank you Sister Loveland!) and we welcomed one other couple. So with this greatly diminished crew, together with some Church service missionaries and volunteers, we've managed to get by. We will greet another couple later this month, and yet another in July.

In the meantime we keep busy. We have a one-day series of three classes that are taught about twice a month. Max teaches one or two of them, depending on who else is available, has not broken his foot, been called to be ward Relief Society President, or is moving to North Dakota (from LA?!).  [That's the case with three of the teachers].  Max was planning to teach the first class yesterday, when it got switched to the second time period and he was reassigned to teach the third class. Keeps you on your toes.

Mary has been called to teach primary in the Westwood First ward; she loves teaching these young boys. Max has four families to home teach. In a stake where 70% of the adult members are single, that means four people to teach. Our other activities continue as usual and as previously reported. Max enjoys his Thursday morning trips to Carson, San Pedro, and Palos Verdes to deliver mission mail. He is learning patience through the trial of traffic on the I-405. Mary takes that time for a water aerobics class. Life is good, but it's beginning to get hot; up into the 90s this week. We are anticipating what the locals mean by "Gray May."

We have some people who are regular patrons in the library. We wrote about one last month. Another one, a member of the Westwood ward, is a convert of about one to two years. She is an older Italian sister who came with her husband from Italy so he could receive medical treatment at the UCLA medical center. After he died, she joined the Church and remained. She understands English well enough, but has a very pronounced accent, so she is hard to understand. She works on her own family history research and also does indexing of Italian records, and she needs a lot of help with each. She had someone scan photos and help her add them to the Family Tree, but now she can't find the originals, so we keep trying to help her find them. Max was beginning to see her as a bother, looking for other things to do when she came in. But then he had a change of heart and decided to pray for her, first so she can find her photos, then then to help him be more kind, helpful, and understanding.  She has been to the temple to do baptisms for her family members, but has not received her own endowments. She wants to have the work finished for those that were baptized, and Max has been helping her get the names ready, but we don't think she understands what that means. Max recommended that she go to the temple for her own endowments first, and then she can go back and do the work for the sisters in her line. She doesn't have a phone (or doesn't accept incoming calls) so it hard for her to make a appointment with the stake president. Max has been facilitating that this week. He is also starting to feel a great deal of compassion for her and continues to include her in his prayers. He also was called up to the Visitor's Center one day when she requested a blessing and he did that for her. It is a little thing, and one that the young missionaries learn quickly and well, but it is a big change for hard-headed Elder Evans.

The young missionaries are having success in our ward. We have eight of them, a pair of single sisters and a pair of English-speaking Elders, as well as four Farsi-speaking Elders. We've had a lot of baptisms here, mostly Persians, but also a young English-speaking couple last week. We had a lot of Persian investigators here this morning, including a single man who is being baptized today and his friend, and a very nice and clearly very capable family of five. They have been to church several times, including the time we first met them at the Nowruz (Persian New Year) celebration in March. We feel wonderfully blessed to be "flies on the wall" to watch the hastening of the work among the Iranian people.

Mary walks home from her water aerobics class with a woman from Barcelona, Spain who she's hoping can get together with the sister missionary next door who is from Barcelona.  Cinta lives close to us and feels the peace that exists here when she walks around the temple grounds. She has been on a trip to Spain and will return home this week.

Mary and Max at work in the library

Mary also manages the schedule for the workers at the library which has become a challenge with new volunteers that need to be trained, but none of them coming very many hours.  She also is in charge of updating the calendar and posting classes.  Max does the marquée which helps to advertise classes and events.  We do have a new full-time missionary couple; they are very positive and helpful.  Boyd Dial is a former missionary companion of Mary's brother, John when they were young missionaries in Belgium; he has done a lot of indexing.  His wife, Nancy is helping with the microfilm ordering which is a large job here.  We have a new part-time Church Service missionary, Sandy who is being trained to do the once-a-month statistical report. Lloyd Reynolds, a Church Service missionary, helps maintain our equipment.  We have volunteers who help man the welcome desk and answer the phone.  When the Howcrofts come at the end of May, we hope that she can help with the cash register tally and financial reports we do every Monday.  And they both can ease the burden when people come into the library needing help. We get many new converts and others who need help getting logged in to the Family Tree, and members who need cards printed for temple work.  And there are a lot of non-members who come in who have been advised to come here for we have answers to their genealogical questions.

Along with helping patrons, Mary has been furthering her family line. She e-mailed someone who had a private-member tree on Ancestry.com and they sent back about 40 pages of very-detailed and sourced information on the Mills line.  There were five generations of men named Edmund Mills. Susannah Mills married William Louis Wheatley of whom Mary referred in the last blog.  Her father, grandfather and back were all named Edmund Mills.  The first one was born in about 1690, married Abigail Short in 1717 and was a sailmaker and lived near the Thames River.  Because of the data sent me, I researched the second Edmund Mills' mother-in-law, Lydia Nepar who left a will.  After transcribing it, Mary found mention of three grandchildren, Edmund, Spavin, and William Mills, who would benefit to the tune of £800.  She died in 1757 so that was a lot of money in those days.  It was to pay for their apprenticeships and their future.  Anyway it has been interesting to see that there are other persons today whose research matches mine with so much more detail and helps me to find so many more members of the family.

We are so blessed at having the Los Angeles temple so close.  Within five-minutes we can walk over and be at the door of the temple to enjoy the blessings of attending.  We feel the peace that work brings to our lives.  A few weeks ago, we took 5 men from the library and Lani Bucelli's grand-daughter to do baptisms for about 50 of Mary's ancestors along with a few of his.  Meadow did the female names and Max was baptized for some of the male names.  It was a beautiful experience.

TWENTY-SIX MILES ACROSS THE SEA

Wow! It has been a month since we last wrote. We've been busy. Our missionary force in the Family History Library is diminishing as elders and sisters go home. Since we came, from the eleven full-time missionaries at the library, we've lost one couple and two single sisters. Two more couples and another sister will leave within the next month. Fortunately, a new couple joined us just today, but the next couples are not scheduled to arrive until mid July. We do have several volunteers and a few Church Service missionaries who each work several hours each week, so we think we'll be okay.

We continue to be involved in helping our director teach classes. We have a three-day intensive course with twelve classes each month. Max teaches two of them and Mary teaches when some of the regular teachers are not available. We started another session starting today at 8:00. Max also taught two of three classes on the family tree last Saturday.

When we are not teaching, or preparing to teach, or cataloging books, or making up schedules, or working on the monthly calendar, or helping with the finances, then we help patrons. Many are non-members, and regulars at the library. We also have regular visits from members, and a large number of them, especially on Saturdays, come to the library to get name cards for the temple. A brother came into the library last week, saying he wants to become active again in the Church and go back to the temple, and he wants to find family names. He had done some genealogy a few years ago, but didn't know anything about the new resources. We helped him learn some basics and helped him learn how to find sources and attach them to the Family Tree. We told him to go home to work on it and to find documents, and to talk to his mother. He works on this a lot, and comes in a couple of times a week for help and to talk through issues and puzzles he encounters. He is very intelligent, and learns quickly. But he is also gentle and kind. He was born in Chester, the city in England where Mary was born. His story is one of dozens we see each week. It is a blessing to serve in this calling.

We also go to the Temple at least once each week (except for the two weeks in March when the temple was closed for cleaning). We've gotten to know some of the temple workers who live full-time in our apartment building, as well as those who come and stay for a week once a month. Each of these groups have a pot-luck dinner and a program on Monday night. We've been invited to join with the first week and the third week groups. Last night, after dinner, our program was at the Visitors' Center, where two children, a boy age 12 and his sister age 9, gave a piano and violin recital. We remember when our son Joe played one of the pieces, Meditation from Thais by Massanet. These children are truly amazing child proteges who have already won many competitions.

Santa Barbara Mission facade

Now, to our extracurricular activities for the past few weeks. We changed our P-day to Friday. One week we drove to Santa Barbara to visit the mission; one of Father Serra's Catholic missions, not one of ours. It is lovely, probably the best kept of all the historic California missions. It is called the Queen of the Missions. There is an Indian woman buried there who was left alone on an island for 17 years and was finally discovered and brought to the mainland. This was the story of Scott O'Dell's "Island of the Blue Dolphins", a children's book which we got from the library and both enjoyed reading.

A Mission garden

Passage from Church to cemetery.
Note the carvings above the door.

Memorial to the Isle of the
Blue Dolphin Indian girl

We also went to the beach and walked through the surf. We took the Pacific Coast Highway, a beautiful road along the shore and beaches, and relatively free of traffic. On the way to Santa Barbara we saw the large strawberry fields in Ventura County, so we stopped at a stand and bought a case of berries, picked that very morning. They were very large and delicious. We made a trifle, sliced them on cereal, put them in our salads, and just ate them fresh. Then we froze the rest that we still get out and use in our treats. It was lovely day.

Mary and Max walking on the beach at Santa Barbara

Another day we went to the county arboretum in Arcadia, near Pasadena.It has a wonderful assortment of trees, flowers, and other plants in a large park. Another nice peaceful day.

Max at the arboretum

Peacock crossing the path

Waterfall at the arboretum

View of the Avalon and the harbor from the mountain

On Conference weekend, since the library was closed Saturday and we had Friday off, we decided to go to Santa Catalina Island to spend the night. We took the 9:30 AM boat to Avalon and checked in to our lovely, old, quaint hotel, in a room with a balcony view of the harbor, the ocean, and at the night, the mainland. We walked around the town (one square mile only, but hilly), shopped, ate, and just enjoyed the atmosphere. However, we did not do the five-stage zip line nor the parasailing.

The casino (not a gambling hall) across the harbor

Mary on Via Casino

Mary  near the casino. Beach in the background

Sailboat in the harbor

A cactus garden

We returned to the LA harbor at San Pedro at about 4:30, in time for Max to get back to watch the Priesthood session of Conference. We listened to the morning session on Sunday, at the Visitors' Center, then we had an assignment at the Library in the afternoon. We watched the other three sessions on our computer this week. They were truly inspiring. We noticed that many of the leaders spoke directly or indirectly about family history.

The ancestor we will focus on today is William Lewis Wheatley, Mary's 2nd great-grandfather who was born on 26 August 1807 in Bishopsgate, London, England, to James and Hannah Wheatley. He apprenticed as a haberdasher, a dealer in men's clothing. On a Court Day the 2nd of June 1829, he received papers for "Freedom of the City of London" and was made free of the Haberdashers Company and took the accustomed oath. That same year on the 7th of September, at the age of 21, he married 18-year-old Susannah Mills in the parish church at Saint Olave Hart Street, London, Middlesex. They both lived to be in their late 80s. William Lewis operated a warehouse on the Thames River for the St Katherines Dock Company where he received silks that arrived in boats from China. He and Susannah had 8 children: William Edmund and Mary lived to be just 1 year old and another William lived to be age 12. Their son James and daughter Catherine both married but didn't have any children. Their daughter Susannah married and lived nearby and had 6 children and their son Henry emigrated to Australia and married 4 times. William and Susannah's son Edmund loved the sea and sailed to China to be the harbour-master there. He married a minister's daughter, Sarah Louisa Hobson and they had 3 children while there. William Lewis retired to Worthing, Sussex and died there on 24 August 1895. His will refers to him as "gentleman".

KEEP ROLLING ALONG

Hi everyone,  Happy St Patrick's Day,
It is amazing how fast the time is going.  The weeks seem to just fly by.  Last night we went to the departing-missionaries fireside; 2 sisters and 11 elders bore their testimonies and sang beautifully.  The spirit was very strong.  President Weidman asked for all the people who had been taught or baptized by these missionaries to stand.  There was a large overflow crowd. 

Last week, Max was involved in teaching the beginning 3-day Intensive classes (8 AM to 5 PM Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday).  He was helping to acquaint those taking the class at the library with how to do research.  Our director, Richard McBride always tries to make it special for those in the class by providing them with a large binder with all the power-points.  And he also provides doughnuts, grapes, bananas and bottles of water.

 On Wednesday, although it was our P-day, we came in to the library for a quarterly Conference Call from Salt Lake.  Max and Mary are assuming a lot more responsibility now that JoAnn and Roy Hunt, our former office managers, have left.  Out of 10 full-time missionaries, 8 are going home before the end of May.  This  means that on Sundays we will be needed to open up the library and be there when any special groups or classes are meeting.

 On Sundays, Mary has been teaching the 8-year-old class in Primary about Abraham in the Old Testament. The ward building has murals on the walls of the Primary room and the Nursery.

Nursery room mural

Saturday, to celebrate the Relief Society birthday party, there was a luncheon with displays of things that the sisters have created.  There were beautiful paintings, quilts, handiwork, a formal table set in a Chinese theme, photography,etc. Mary brought her family history to display: a family history game (guess old-time occupations), a surname cloud, puzzilla (choose an ancestor and see his descendants that are on Family Tree), a fan chart, and a holder for family name cards.  There was musical talent also: a sister played her cello accompanied by the piano, a guitarist sang and Shawn King played 2 songs from her CDs. (She is the wife of Larry King).

A week ago Mary and Max went down to Newport Beach to visit Mary's sister Susan, her husband Robert and their friend, Joy who were on vacation there.  It was relaxing to walk on the beach and collect sea shells.  Max helped Susan set up Skype so she could talk face to face with her grandchildren.  It was a nice visit.   

Robert & Susan

Susan, Robert, Mary, & Max

Alisa Beach, Laguna Beach, California

And, finally, this morning at 6:24, we survived our first southern California earthquake, a 4.7 with the epicenter about 5 miles from here. It sounded and felt like a big truck driving down the hallway with the resulting shaking for 2 to 3 seconds.

MARCH RAINS

Hi everyone,
We are still here enjoying our mission and working hard with our own or helping others with their family history. Last month when we fasted, we prayed for rain, and now we have it. So much so that there are mudslides in some areas and water has seeped down the walls of the library so that we need a fan and dehumidifier where the scanners and microfilm readers are. The skies are gray and we need to bring umbrellas when we go out.  Hopefully, this will soon pass.



This is our Valentine's Day photo in the Library. The bouquet came from Max to Mary, but everyone enjoyed it.

Max and Mary are doing a lot of teaching:  In the 3-day Intensive, Max taught "Introduction to Genealogy" and the basics of "Family Tree";  Mary taught "Wills and Probates" and "Non-LDS Church Records".  We will be going to an all-day African-American "Discover Your Roots" conference on March 22 where Max is one of the teachers; Mary will help at the registration desk.  Then there is an outreach planned for May in Ventura, California where we have been asked to teach 2 classes each. Mary is going to substitute-teach Primary for the next 3 weeks while the temple is closed for cleaning.  The regular teacher is a temple worker and is taking the time off to go with her husband to visit their children in Missouri.  We also started an in-service program for the workers in the library.  To allow everyone to be able to come, the teacher does it twice a week for 1/2 hour each time.  We first had the Hunts teach us--JoAnn is really good at helping patrons from other countries and Roy then showed us how to solve some of the problems we might encounter on the Tree. (They have been the office managers here and will be leaving in a few weeks to go back home to Brigham City.)  Then Max taught last week how to find Census information if you have just an address on an envelope by using the Wiki or Googling Steve Morse.  This coming week, Mary will give an overview of "Research in England" using examples from documents of her own ancestors.  Each full-time missionary is going to take their turn to teach about something they are good at.

At the Torrance Stake Center. Note the decorative tile around the entrance.

For our day off this week, we went to the Autry Museum in Griffith Park which has a lot of Western Art and memorabilia.  Someday when we have grandkids with us,we would like to go again to Griffith Park to see the Los Angeles Zoo or Travel Town, which is an outdoor display of railroad cars and engines. We also want to go to the amusement park on the Santa Monica pier.  On our time off, we also have to get laundry and shopping done, clean the apartment, and maybe go to a session at the temple.  On one P-day this past month, we went to a Zone Conference in the Torrance Stake Center.

Last Monday the senior missionaries had our monthly social in the Library training room. We all bring food, pot luck. We were in charge of the activity. We handed out questions for the others to answer. As they did, we discussed each one. Mary had a list of 19th century occupations that they were to define. They all came from her ancestors' jobs. Max had a temple trivia quiz with a dozen or so geographical and historical questions. Everyone had a good time and enjoyed good food.

Mary has had some trouble with her back muscles and after going to a doctor was told to rest, take Advil, and not do anything for all weekend. Also alternate the use of a heating pad and ice packs. She needs to take it easy and not try to do too much. After taking his advice, she feels a lot better.

For a spotlight on an ancestor, Mary would like to tell about her search for Lydia Bingham (FamilySearch Family Tree KDSN-KQN).  Lydia is the wife of the first Jesse Hobson who lived in London most of her life, but the Census gives her birth in Cirencester,Gloucestershire.  According to her age in the census, she would have been born in 1800. She outlived her husband who died in 1850; she died in 1867. Her children were Jesse Hobson who married Sarah Maria Gamble, and after his first wife's death married Maria Louisa Statham;  Edmund Carey Hobson who married Mary Ann Scarlet;  Sophia Hayward Hobson who married William Carpenter; Emma Hobson who married Thomas Crowder; Mary Carey Hobson who married Samuel Liptrot Findley; and Louisa Hobson who married Thomas Sing.  One child didn't marry, Milton Hobson a daughter who was living with her mother, Lydia in 1861.

I didn't have any information about Lydia's birth or her parents.  Upon looking in Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org, I found nothing; so I looked up Cirencester, Gloucestershire in the catalog and ordered a film. I did not find her christening on it. Searching for other clues, I noticed the middle name of Carey was given to two of the children. Carey was her husband Jesse Hobson's mother's maiden name. I wondered if Hayward was the last name of an ancestor.

When Lydia was married, she was very young, only 18 years old, and had to get the consent of her parents. Her husband was 8 years older than her and was a widower; his first wife, Elizabeth AnnWhitaker, died at age 24 without any children.  In looking at the witnesses on their marriage certificate, one was William Gittenson, a deacon in Maze Pond Baptist Church in Southwark, Surrey; the other was Sophia Elizabeth Hayward (since they named one of their children after her, she must be a relative or very close friend). So I looked up her records and found she was 1 of 4 children, two of them having the middle name of Milton. Her parents were Thomas Hayward and Rebecca Milton. Remember, Lydia's daughter was also named Milton. That must be a family name.

Then I found a newspaper announcement in the Times or London about the marriage. It stated that Lydia was the niece of William Gillman, Esquire. On the microfilm I had ordered, I found him to be born on August 28, 1761, and his siblings and parents were listed. So how does Lydia fit in? Yesterday I was looking on Select Marriages from 1538 in Ancestry.com, entered Bingham, the place and approximate date and found the marriage of Daniel Bingham and Ann Milton in Cirencester, Gloucestershire on 6 May 1787. Wow!  If that's Lydia's mother that explains Milton. Then I researched more and found on FamilySearch.org the marriage record of William Gillman and Lydia Milton on 26 June 1785!  That answers the question. The newspaper reported that Lydia Bingham was Gillman's niece. In other words, Lydia, Gillman's wife, was the sister of Ann Milton. Sophia Elizabeth Hayward's mother, Rebecca Milton Hayward was also a sister to Ann, who married on 11 October 1792.  So the witness to their marriage, Sophia Elizabeth Hayward, is Lydia's first cousin. Looking in the records of Nonconformists, I found the burials of Daniel and Ann in the Baptist's Burying Ground in Cirencester.

It is great to find Lydia's parents after searching for months.  I still haven't found her birth date, but I have enough information to link her to the right parents and get her temple work done.

Max wants to add this comment: Wow! A solution worthy of Sherlock Holmes! Or at least Columbo or Miss Marple.

Love from Sister Grandma and Elder Grandpa

MALIBU

Tuesday, a week ago, Max went with five of the senior Elders from the mission office, public affairs, and visitors’ center to North Hollywood to pick up new Toyotas for the mission. They went together in the mission van and then each drove one of the five new cars back to the office. We went to the 6:15 session at the temple that night. 

We had nothing special planned for Wednesday's p-day, but Elder Kelly asked Max if he would go again with him and three more Elders to pick up four more cars. When they arrived at the dealer, we learned that only one of the cars was for our mission. Max drove that one back and the others returned in the van. We did our preparation day stuff, and then went to see Saving Mr Banks, the movie about the making of Mary Poppins, starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as Mrs. P. L. Travers, the book’s author. We thought it was very good. We did some shopping at the mall. It was a quiet, peaceful day.

Thursday was our late day at the library. It is the day Max would deliver the mail, but the scheduled was changed because of zone conferences.

Last Sunday was busy. After fast meeting and priesthood meeting, we went to the ward family history class, but no one came. We visited with Bro. Shurtz, the teacher, and then came home for dinner. Max spent most of the afternoon working on revising a talk he gave last year. He added some powerpoint-like slides to his iPad to illustrate the talk. Sunday evening at 6:00 pm we opened the library for a class our center director, Bro. McBride, gave. We stayed until 9:00 pm.

Monday evening, at 7:00, Max gave his presentation on the Joseph Smith Papers project to the first-week shift temple workers’ family home evening. They stay in the apartments the first week of each month, from Monday until they check-out on Saturday. They work at the temple Tuesday through Saturday. His talk went well. There was a light buffet supper afterwards.

Also Monday was the day twenty-five new missionaries arrived. Only four will be going home this week and one later this month. We went to the temple Tuesday evening.   

Wednesday we went to Malibu to the Adamson House, Malibu Lagoon State Park, and Surf Rider Beach. The Rindge family owned all of what is now Malibu, where they operated a 17,000 acre ranch. After Mr. Rindge’s death in 1905, his widow, Rhoda May, built a short-line railroad to keep the Southern Pacific railroad out. She also opposed the state’s plan to put in a coastal highway through the property. A court battle continued for 24 years, but was eventually lost. What became the Pacific Coast Highway was built through the ranch. Not wanting to sell the land for development, she looked for new sources of revenue. Discovering high-quality clay on the ranch, she established Malibu Potteries, which became a supplier of custom and suppliers’ tile during a period of great demand for architectural and decorative tile.

Mrs. Rindge hired Merritt Adamson, a lawyer who was raised on an Arizona ranch, to run the ranch. One of Rhoda May’s daughters, also named Rhoda, married Mr. Adamson. Mrs. Rindge gave the newlyweds the property that now includes the beach front property from Malibu pier to Malibu Colony, including Malibu Lagoon and the site where the house built by Merritt and the second Rhoda. The house is famous for its tile and is preserved as a house museum for that reason. The Adamson’s had three children, including a third Rhoda and a second Merritt.

Malibu Colony was one of Mr. Adamson’s enterprises. It is now a gated community on the beach, famous as the home, or a get-away, for Hollywood stars, directors, and producers. Another of his enterprises was a dairy farm the sold milk with the label Adohr – Rhoda spelled backwards.

We enjoyed our short visit there.  Then we sat on the beach while the wind was very blustery. There is a bird sanctuary nearby; we saw egrets, pelicans, sandpipers and sea gulls, along with a whole colony of baby birds.  

Mary above boathouse

Malibu colony with lagoon in foreground

Beautiful tiles on the porch

Max with the pier in the background

The ocean where Malibu creek (front) ends

FARSI BAPTISMS!

Dear friends and family,
Today was a special Sabbath day. Max opened the library at 7:30 am for a meeting of the multi-stake public affairs councils. We attended sacrament meeting at 9:00 and heard very moving testimonies from a young couple in our ward who have faced an extremely serious and very rare health problem. He had to have surgery a year ago in a hospital in North Carolina, the only place in the country to perform this surgery. Their faith and courage in the face of this trial is very moving.

We missed our other meeting to open the library for a meeting of the British Genealogical Society of Los Angeles and for a Sunday School class for one of the wards that meets in our building.

This evening we attended the baptism of two new converts from Iran who were taught the gospel by the Farsi-speaking missionaries serving in our ward. They had another baptism two weeks ago. Many Iranians attended and the proceedings were simultaneously translated for them. The spirit was very strong as the new members were warmly welcomed into the ward.

Other than that our week was mostly routine. Mary started a water aerobic class on Tuesday evening. The second session is Thursday morning, the day we work at the library from 1:00 to 9:00 pm. Max started Thursday morning delivering mission mail to four districts in two zones. He drove to Carson, San Pedro, Palos Verdes, and Torrence, dropping of and picking up mail and supplies. They said it would take about two hours, but it took more than three. He believes he can do it faster next time.

Wednesday, our P-day, in another busman's holiday, we drove all the way to the family history library in Orange County to see some microfilm Mary needed. The film was there, but mostly illegible, so it as a bit of a bust. However, we turned it into a nice afternoon when we went to Newport Beach and walked along the ocean in a light fog and watched the surfers. We don't have photos, but we did bring back a bottle of sand as a souvenir. We also had dinner at Mimi's, a place we enjoyed in Salt Lake and were happy to find here.

Max is having a bout with his allergies that turned into a nasty fever one evening and Mary is feeling the effects of her new exercise class, but we both are otherwise very healthy, happy, and humbly grateful (better than grumbly hateful).

Our small pleasures include reading the scriptures, going to the temple, taking walks together holding hands, knitting (Mary), reading good books, and watching movies. We also discovered a new (to us) delight. We have kumquats growing on a tree just behind our apartment. They are now ripening (but not in iniquity). We'll sometimes go pick and eat a handful. They are citrus, but small, the size and color of an apricot. They are eaten like a grape, skin and all. Spit out the seeds or crunch 'em down. Delicious; tart and sweet at the same time.

Love you all.
Elder and Sister Evans

JANUARY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Hi everyone.
      We had regional Stake Conference today with a televised meeting in many different locations to accommodate about 50 stakes here in the Los Angeles area.  We went to our ward building; there were talks by Sister Linda Burton, Elder Arnold of the seventy, Elder Neil Anderson and President Henry Eyring.  Elder Anderson told of a time in Rio de Janeiro when he was driving Elder Eyring to a large missionary gathering and he wasn't familiar with the area.  A large bus stopped and to his surprise, the driver rolled down his window and asked if he needed help with directions.  After telling him the location of the church, Elder Anderson began driving, only to see this same bus on the corner.  The driver opened his door and said he would block traffic and again guided him as to his route.  They made it to their destination and it was a very memorable event for many missionaries that day. Elder Anderson said that the driver was like an angel.  He said the Lord is involved in the details of our lives.  Elder Eyring today spoke of how even little children can feel the spirit and need to be taught about the nature of God.  As we teach others and bring them back into activity, they will need humility as a little child to help them make changes in their lives.  This is a scripture from the Conference to remember as we serve others:
     "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face.  I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." (D&C 84:88)

Korean dancers

Korean drummers

     Last night, for the adult evening meeting, after some talks by the Stake President and a few others, there was a demonstration of some lively dances with the dancers in the native dress of Korea, Peru and Mexico.  They represented some of the Spanish and Korean wards and branches in our Stake.  Here are some pictures.

Peruvian dancers

Mexican dancers

    

Mary in the sculpture garden

Max at the sabre-tooth cat exhibit

     A week ago last Wednesday Max and Mary went to the La Brea Tar Pits, a museum on the very site where they found a lot of animals that had perished in the Ice Age - woolly mammoths, saber-toothed cats and dire wolves.  They must have stepped in tar and their bones are preserved and are now on exhibit.  We had a couple of docents who explained this well.



    A missionary broke his foot so President Weidman assigned him and his companion to spend their time while he recuperates in the family history library.  As well as doing indexing, they took the classes in the 3-day intensive and are, hopefully, now up to speed in doing genealogy.

     We love to walk around the temple up and down the walkways and see all the beautiful flowers and trees.  The gardeners use burlap to lay on the ground and then throw all their trimmings in; then they gather the corners to  throw the refuse away.  They are trimming the tall palm trees now the lights are down.  They always edge the lawns.  Most of the flowers are perennials.

     Mary is going to take a water aerobics class.  While she is in class on Thursday mornings, Max will do a mail delivery of packages to four locations in two zones which the elders will pick up at their local church buildings. They are some distance from here and it will take him about 2 hours.  

    The ancestor of Mary's that we will focus on today is: James Wheatley.  He was born 9 May 1770 in Norwich, Norfolk, England to his parents, James Wheatley and Sarah Lincoln.  When he was 4 days old, 13 May 1770 his parents had him baptized or christened in Saint James Pockthorpe Church.  James served in the military; he was a sergeant in the 15th Regiment of Light Dragoons.  After he got out of the military, he married Hannah Rogers on 4 March 1799 in the parish of St Mary, Marlborough, Wiltshire.   They moved to London and had 4 children:  James born 18 April 1800 and christened on 25 Nov 1805, Catherine born in 1802, William Lewis Wheatley born 26 August 1807 and christened 16 Sept 1807 in the parish of St Botolph Bishopsgate, London, England.  (He was our ancestor) and Sarah Maria Wheatley born 4 July 1814 and christened in Saint Leonards parish, Shoreditch, London, England.  James made out a will in 1825 and left everything to his wife, Hannah and provision made for his daughter Sarah Maria who was still young.  His occupation was listed as fruiterer.  He also stated he wanted to be buried in Bunhill Fields, London which is a nonconformist cemetery.  He died in 1846 at the age of 76 in Shoreditch, London and was buried 1 Nov 1846.  His wife Hannah died in 1849.  Hannah and James appear in the UK Census in 1841 with their daughter Sarah Maria, her husband Thomas Chote and their son Thomas James Chote living with them.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What did we do to celebrate? New Years Eve was the day we drove from St. George back to our mission in Los Angeles after our Christmas break to visit family in Salt Lake City. We (meaning Max) drove for about 7 hours, then we did a little grocery shopping, unpacked and put stuff away. To celebrate we went to bed at 9:30. We don't go to bed that early on a regular day, but as a kind of reverse celebration, we did.

Float from Indonesia, stuck behind broken-down float

Why? Because we had to get ready for New Years Day! We got up at 4:00 am, got dressed and ready to leave in the mission van with a group of senior missionaries at 5:00 am. We went to Pasadena, to the 125th Rose Parade! We needed to take our reserved places at the Pasadena City College Institute of Religion building on the parade route by 7:00; the parade started at 8:00. Pasadena is not two hours away, but we took nearly that long, most of the time getting off the freeway and making our way through city streets to our parking place. It was a fun thing to do. We had a wonderful location. It was cool at first, then warmed up a lot as the sun came up and out from behind some shady trees.

All of these animals are antimated!

We were tired when we got home, so after a rest we went out to dinner with Brother and Sister Shakespear, one of the senior couples who will be going home in a couple of weeks. He is the Visitors' Center director, and he was one of Max's college roommates at Utah State, 1965-1966. That was our P-day.

Thursday was the day we do the evening shift, so Mary did the laundry in the morning while Max shopped for and bought a storage rack for the kitchen, and put it together. It was quiet at the library that evening. Friday is usually quiet as well. We went to the Temple Friday evening for dinner and for an endowment session. Saturday was pretty busy. Max was helping people right up to closing time. We keep busy when we are not helping people. Mary makes the staff schedule and handles e-mails and the calendar of classes, and Max catalogs books and keeps the electronic marquee up-to-date and fresh. We each work on our family tree. Mary finds names for the temple and Max tries to find sources and tries to fix problems in his line.

This morning, Sunday, we went to sacrament meeting at 9:00, then came to the library to open it for a Sunday School class on family history that was to be taught. The teacher didn't show up, but neither did the students. We missed our second and third hour lessons. We had dinner and a relaxing afternoon, then we opened the library for an evening class. This time, both the teacher and some students came.

We are having a good time here, working together, enjoying the weather and the people. We had a great time at Christmas visiting with family and friends. We miss you all. We had Laura's family for supper Christmas Eve and went to their house Christmas Morning. We went to David's for dinner Christmas day, but missed Sam's Skype session. The report is he is doing well and looking good. We love his weekly e-letters. Joe performed at the cathedral Christmas eve and day, so he and Mari came for supper in the evening. We also visited with Joe again on Saturday evening and David's family came over for games on Sunday, the day before we left. And of course, we saw a lot of Emily, when she wasn't working.

We also had dinner with Max's sisters and their husbands and another evening with a group from the old Church Historian's Office from 40 years ago; lunch with one of Max's high school buddies, Wayne Clark (they share ancestors; see below) and his wife; and did a sealing session and had lunch at the Jordan River temple with our children and their spouses and Mary's brother, John and his wife, Kathy.

Our trip to St. George and then to LA was, thankfully, uneventful. So here we are: busy, blessed, and blissful.

Love you all,
Sister and Elder Evans

Here is Max's answer to the unasked question, "Tell me about your ancestors."

William Clark and Jane Stevenson

Most of Max’s Mormon pioneer ancestors were born in Britain or northern Europe. The only exception is Jane Stevenson, born 5 December 1820, in Upper Canada (Ontario), daughter of Samuel Stevenson and Sarah Lusk.

Samuel, Jane's father, was from Upper Canada and her mother, Sarah, from Sussex County, New Jersey, where they met and married in 1808. Jane was the fourth child in a family of seven, including three older sisters, two younger sisters and a brother, all born between 1810 and 1826. An older sister and the brother were born in Sussex County; the others were born in Canada.  Jane’s father was born either in Canada or New Jersey; his ancestors lived in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. Jane’s mother and her family were from New Jersey. Given the date of Samuel’s birth, 1785, and if it was in Canada, then it is possible Samuel’s father was either a loyalist, or a Quaker, who fled the United States during the American Revolution (1776-1783). New Jersey was a hot-bed for loyalists and the family lived in what seem to be Quaker communities.

Whatever their motives, they clearly had close ties to family in New Jersey as well as business or family interests in Upper Canada.

Jane Stevenson

Jane Stevenson married Steven Weeks Ross on 2 March 1836, in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, where they became parents to five children, each born between 1840 and 1850. The family story is that they met Mormon missionaries and joined the LDS Church and that Steven became a local branch president in New Jersey.  Church records show that Jane was confirmed a member of the Church in January 1840, shortly before the birth of her first child. The record does not show her husband’s baptism. The two youngest children, born in 1846 and 1850, died in New Jersey in 1849 and 1850.

Some believe that Steven became disenchanted with Mormonism and left the faith. Steven died in March 1849, not long after the death of his fourth child. By November 1851 Jane was in Council Point, Pottawatamie County, Iowa, shown in a list of Latter-day Saints willing to depart the next year to join the Mormons in Utah. She is listed as "Jane Ross, 4 in family, 1 hog, 2 young stock, United to Wm. Clark.” William, a widower, married Jane soon after, on 29 January 1852, at Council Point.

William Clark

William Clark was born 26 June 1825, in Worcestershire, England, to John Wheeler Clarke and Mary Hill. William is the second of five children, each born between 1820 and 1833. William married Emily Knowles Bryant 20 September 1842, in Hartlebury, Worcestershire, England.

William Clark’s youngest sister, Martha, joined the LDS Church on 30 December 1844; William on 1 July 1846; and Emily, his wife, on 1 January 1849. William’s parents apparently also joined, because they were with William and Emily in Missouri in 1850. William’s mother, Mary Hill Clark died in Lehi, Utah Territory, August 1953.

Tragically, William Clark's first wife Emily Knowles Bryant Clark and her new-born baby girl died on the way to Iowa, 20 September 1850, at St. Joseph, Missouri. William’s father, John Wheeler Clark, died nine days later at the same place. They may have been victims of one of the many cholera epidemics that raged on the Missouri River at that time, and that took the lives of many Mormon immigrants.

Two lines about the entry on the company list for Jane Ross mentioned above is this one for “William Clark, 3 in family, 1 horse, 5 cows, 2 hogs, 3 young stock, Went on.” The three in the family would be William and his mother, and …perhaps his sister, Martha. Or did his first wife, Emily, have another child not listed?

William and Jane together raised the three Ross children, seven of their own, and one adopted. Their third child, Martha Geneva Clark married William Samuel Evans whose sixth child was Hyrum Clark Evans, Max’s grandfather. William Clark took three more wives in polygamy; two of them bore him three and two more children each.  William supported his large family as a farmer. The 1870 census shows he owned $800 in real estate and $700 in personal estate. Jane died 21 September 1895, in Lehi, Utah, at the age of 74. William died 7 May 1910, also in Lehi when he was 84.

William Samuel Evans

Martha Geneva Clark

Hyrum Clark Evans

GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS

This is a festive time in LA, especially on Temple Hill. The Visitors' Center has a Christmas concert or devotional every night this month. Some nights, twice. They usually fill their multipurpose room and have overflow viewing in other smaller rooms. (They really need to have a large auditorium, as they do in the Washington, DC, Temple Visitors' Center.) We went to a concert by the Torrance Stake Youth Choir last night. They were quite good, with children from about eight to eighteen.

Looking to the Northeast

The back of the Temple

The Christmas lights around the Temple are very beautiful and interesting, especially the lights on the tall palm trees. Here are a few photos we took last Tuesday after we went to the Temple.

Sister Evans is in this one

The Family History Library was closed on our P-day on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so we went with another couple and the three single senior sisters to the Los Angeles Science center. They have the last of the Space Shuttles, the Endeavor on display there. I made this picture. It is actually three shots stitched together to get it all.

The Science Center has a lot of great exhibits and films. We saw a 3-D IMAX film, The Flight of the Butterfly. It was beautifully done; very educational and entertaining.

One P-day was spent mostly Christmas shopping. We were going to walk on the beach, but it was too cold. The weather here is generally very nice, so we can't complain.We went to the Skirball Cultural Center last Wednesday. It is a new museum of American Jewish history, built above the Getty Museum in the mountain pass between the LA basin the the San Fernando valley. It's close to where we live. It has a well-done exhibit on the history of Judaism, especially in the United States. It also has a permanent children's exhibit, Noah's Ark, which is a lot of fun, even for old children like us. The also have a temporary exhibit on the works of architect Moshe Safdie, who designed the Skirball and the new Salt Lake City Public Library, as well as many internationally important buildings. Sorry, no pictures.

Like everyone else, we've been having parties. We had a Thanksgiving party with the senior missionaries one Monday night. There was a pot-luck Thanksgiving diner with those who were staying in the Patron Apartments, followed by a left-over dinner on Friday. We had our ward Christmas party. Since our ward is the center of missionary activity among the Iranian people in the mission (in the United States, actually), a Persian restaurant catered the dinner. It was delicious. I was sitting with the Farsi-speaking missionaries and some Iranian investigators who had been the U.S. for just 20 days. They said the food was very authentic. We also had a Christmas party with the Family History Library missionaries and volunteers. One volunteer is Jewish and she shared with us the history and traditions of Hanukkah. Everyone brought a pot-luck dish. Sister Evans went to the Relief Society Christmas party at a member's home high on the mountainside in Bel Air. It was outdoors, but in a heated tent. Elder Evans worked the late shift at the Library that evening. Mary and the Sisters from the Library got together with the Senior Sisters from the Mission Office to learn how to make miniature Christmas trees. They are made of hangers, lights, and garland, with an angel on top.

Our Christmas tree and Nativity

We are making plans to make the long drive to Salt Lake City next week. Let's pray for good weather as we travel. We will be home for a week while the Library is closed for Christmas and will return in time to go to the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena on New Years day. We are looking forward to seeing everyone.

Has anyone seen the movie, The Sarakov Approach, yet? We want to see it when we are in SLC. It doesn't open here until January 10. The producer, who also plays the part of one of the kidnapped missionaries, is in our ward.

You must think we play all the time. We don't really (just as much as we can). But we also work in the Library five days a week. Sister Grandma is amazing at finding sources for her family and keeps extending the line. The young Elders and Sisters are busy finding, teaching and baptizing, but Sister Evans just finds and baptizes - in the temple. We make it a point to go to the temple every week. Elder Grandpa is busy cataloging the Jewish Genealogical Society's collection of books and periodicals, which we keep for them. He also is getting ready to teach classes at the Library and at the Roots conference in March. President Weidman asked us if we have time to help the office Elders with organizing the referrals. We will start that after the new year. The most fun we have, however, is helping patrons one-on-one, both LDS and visitors, find family members. It is often a puzzle and sometimes we don't succeed, but we never fail; We just learn what doesn't work. We do enjoy the challenge and the patrons are all so very grateful. The days and the weeks go by quickly.

We love you all and wish you a Merry Christmas,
Sister and Elder Evans