BUSMAN'S HOLIDAY

Greetings,
      Max and Mary continue to be active workers at the Family History Library.  Often Mary is at the Welcome Desk or the Cash Register.  Copies or scans are 10 cents each or 5 cents for those who work there. The young missionaries come in to email and what they print up is free.  Also free are FORs which are family ordinance requests.  Then we help patrons by printing up cards for the temple. We also charge for flash drives and some classes ($20 to pay for the book that we print for them).  Most classes are free, and are mainly to help people with Family Tree or increase awareness of the sources and how to use them. Max is usually at the Help Desk which is the family history consultant.  Helping patrons is our major focus.  Max also is busy cataloging books.

Dick Lisle and the 15hp. Star 

     We can also work on our own family history when we are not busy.  Yesterday Mary googled "Star Cars" to see what was on the internet about Edward Lisle's Company. We know all his family worked in the business.  But she did not know that our Grandpa Dick Lisle was one of the main car racers and won trophies for racing cars.  Here are a few pictures of him :

Dick Lisle in his Comet outside the factory

     Some of the races were for over 300 miles or even 12 hours.  The 15hp. Star won a gold medal in the Wolverhampton Automobile Club's meeting on October 2nd, 1909. It also won the 1909 October Senior Handicap at Brooklands.  Dick Lisle was racing from 1909 to 1914 when Mary's mother was born, and possibly up until 1922.  And if you read the account, at one time he lost a race because he crashed into a bridge.  

Mary at the "Blessing the Animals" mural at the Pueblo

Union Station

     For preparation day this week, Max and Mary rode the Metro (light rail which turns into heavy rail) to downtown Union Station. We visited the Pueblo de Los Angeles; in the center of this Mexican place is Olivera Street where there are a lot of outdoor shops, museums and eating places.  Then we walked to the Walt Disney Center for the Performing Arts where the Los Angeles Philharmonic plays in the winter.  It is a very unusual-looking building designed by Gehry.  We also went to the main library which is enormous, covering 8 floors and saw their genealogy section.  Max says this is a busman's holiday to look at what we do all the time.

Walt Disney Center

Los Angeles Public Library

     On Sunday, Max substituted in Sunday School and gave a lesson on "Finding joy in family history and temple work". The high priest group leader came over last Tuesday to ask us to teach a series of lessons starting in January to acquaint ward members with the "Tree".  This was a direct answer to our prayers.  Most of the other senior missionaries go down on Sundays to help with a struggling branch in the Watts area of the City.  They have asked if we wanted to join them.  So, we prayed about whether we should go down and help them or stay in this ward close by.  Staying close by, we can more easily help on Sundays when the Hunts, who are now our Family History Center managers, leave.
     Also on Sunday we enjoyed going to the Artesia Ward in Torrance for a Fireside for the departing missionaries.  There were 13 young Elders and Sisters who bore their testimonies, including our neighbor Sister Bateman.  It was very inspiring to hear their stories. When they go home, there are many more missionaries that will come to fill their places and then some.
   

TEACHING

Hi everyone,
     Last week was quite cool, requiring a jacket on our walks.  But now it is back to sunny and beautiful weather.  We have also discovered another fruit that grows on the back fence.  It is orange, soft and about the size of an apricot, but with small red seeds inside.  It is edible, but having very little flavor.  So far, besides this fruit, there are figs, oranges, olives and a bunch of small bananas.  The figs are actually quite good.
     Last week we both had the opportunity to teach classes in the Center for the 3-day intensive course. Max taught the "getting started" class. Because one of the teachers couldn't be there due to her daughter being sick and needing her help, so we taught two of her classes. Luana Gilstrap had great power-points so we had to study them and maybe add our own insights. The death records class that Max taught was Luana's and Mary taught Luana's class on wills and probates.  The classes went well.   As Mary was researching and studying about wills, she thought she should use a couple of her own ancestors' wills as illustrations.  So she looked up on "The Genealogist" to find the will of James Wheatley which was written in 1825, but was not probated until after he died in 1846.  He mainly wrote his will to make sure his daughter Maria would be taken care of since she was a child born to them later than the rest of his children.  He doesn't mention any of the other children; they probably were already established or possibly got their inheritances already.  He also wanted to be buried in Bunhill Fields, a nonconformist cemetery in London (a nonconformist is anyone who does not belong to the Church of England).
     Anyway Mary also looked on "Ancestry" since they have a site called "England & Wales National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills & Administrations 1858-1966)" where you can find a summary of a will if you just type in their name; so she found "Joseph Rollings' will with effects under 100 pounds [proved] on 12 Feb 1866.  The Will of Joseph Rollings late of Monmore Green Bilston-road Wolverhampton in the County of Stafford[,] Miner deceased who died 12 July 1865 at Monmore Green aforesaid was proved at Lichfield by the oath of Benjamin Davis Rollings of Monmore Green aforesaid Carpenter the Son one of the surviving Executors." Joseph was the father of Sadie Rollings, her mother's grandmother.
     And while searching she found the 13-page will of Daniel Williams which she hadn't seen before, dated 20 September 1841.  There were pages with an inventory of all his books and which child would get them. He was a Baptist minister in Fairford, Gloucestershire.  He listed all 6 of his surviving children (2 had passed away).  His 2 sons-in-law were the executors of his estate. Earlier that year, in 1841, Daniel appeared in the census as an 80 (really 82)-year-old father living with his daughter Sarah who was married to Henry Gamble (also a minister).
     The sister missionaries next door asked us to help them teach Jonathan, a new member of the Church. They were going to teach a lesson about the first principles of the Gospel.  Even after baptism, it's good to continue teaching them.  So Max and Mary went to the Visitor's Center on Friday evening and helped by sharing our testimonies about faith and some scriptures.  It was good to remember our lessons we learned in the MTC.  We also have been teaching parts of  Lesson 3 in Preach My Gospel in prayer meeting since there is a nonmember who meets with us that everyone agrees could accept the gospel and be baptized.
     We also went to the Jewish Society and then again to the British Genealogical Society that meet in the Family History Center, none of whom are members.  We talk with them and help if needed.  We are also involved  on a planning committee for the Black "Discover Your Roots Conference" which will be held in March.  We might also be involved in teaching then: Max about Archives and Mary in teaching young people.  We need to work on these lessons, that's for sure.
     We often help patrons who come in to the Center:  helping them print cards to take to the temple, work with the Family Tree, and whatever they are trying to find.  Mary helped Sister Tucker, wife of the Institute director from our ward, to sort out who was her ancestor's mother, since the father had two wives. She had a great family picture.  She wanted to be accurate since she was making a book to give to each of her six children.  We found her answer on the Census and on Find-a-Grave.

Pat Nixon's tombstone

Richard Nixon's tombstone

     For our day off last week, Max and Mary went to the Nixon Library and Birthplace.  That is where his boyhood home is.  All the furniture had been stored and was authentic.  They didn't have electricity.  Even the dishes were preserved. Did you know he played 5 instruments:  piano, accordion, clarinet, violin and saxophone.  He also was on the cover of Time magazine 54 times.  There was a very good commentary on Watergate; in a film presentation was piece of an interview with Elder Christofferson of the Council of the Twelve. He had been a law clerk to Judge Sirica in Washington.  He said because of all the true and accurate testimony given, he was proud of his profession.  And we saw the helicopter that the presidents use around Washington and fly back and forth to Camp David.


   This week we went to Hollywood to see the stars on the Hollywood "walk of fame." Each star in the sidewalk has the name of a famous actor, singer, dancer, director, or producer. Nearby at the famous Chinese theater are performers' signatures with their hand and footprints in the concrete.  It was late in the afternoon so we took a tourmobile of Beverly Hills in the dark to see where movie stars live or lived.

Doris Day added hers the year Max graduated from high school.  Remember Red Skelton?

Love to all,

Elder and Sister Evans

MISSIONARY EXPERIENCES

After General Conference and our following week's stake conference we realized that the theme is "Hastening the Work" -- that is, missionary work. In addition, we both just finished Clayton Christensen's book, The Power of Everyday Missionaries: The What and How of Sharing the Gospel. Yet, our assignment in the family history library actually forbids proselyting. Sure, we can and do help a lot of people who are not members of our faith, and we think that most of them have a good experience and leave with a positive opinion. If they have questions about the Church, we can answer them, but not to the extent of teaching them missionary lessons. If they express an interest, we are instructed to take them to the visitors' center upstairs where we can teach them, or better, introduce them to the full-time missionaries there, one of the six senior missionaries serving in the Visitor's Center or a pair of young sister missionaries. Nevertheless, we decided that the least we can do is pray for having missionary experiences.

We started doing this last week in our morning companion prayer. On Tuesday, we planned to go the the temple; we like to go once a week. We got off work at 5:00 and knew we needed to be to the temple for the 6:15 session. We went back to the apartment and got busy doing something else and forget to get dinner until 6:00, so we decided to eat after the session. We thought we would settle for fast food, and since we've never been to the Jack-in-the-Box, we decided to go to the one just a few blocks away. We like to go inside instead of eating in the car, but found all the parking was taken, so we went through the drive-through, placed an order, then drove ahead to pay and pick up food. As we waited, the young man at the window noticed Max's missionary name plate and with the name, "Jesus Christ" prominent. He asked us where we went to Church and we told him we are with the church that has the big temple up the street. "Oh, I know that building," he said, "My sister attends the middle school next to it. I wonder what it was, but I've never been there." He also said his mother is a member of an evangelical church and that he reads the bible every day. Max invited him to go to the temple grounds and stop at the visitors' center where he can learn more about our church. He said he would.

We know, this doesn't sound earthshaking, but it is exactly the kind of thing we are being asked to do and is, as brother Christensen says, "everyday" missionary work. And it shows that God answers our prayers when He can trust us to do what we pray for.

We are busy at the library this week, mostly preparing to teach some classes for the three day intensive course next week. Our director, Bishop McBride, asked Max to teach the first class. Then a volunteer who teaches four out of the 12 classes, called to say that a family emergency requires her to leave town for a couple of months. Our director will take two of the classes and Mary and Max will each take one of the others. We can use her PowerPoint slides, but we need to master the subjects. Mary will be doing wills and probate and Max will teach about other death records. We hope it will go well.

Among our many patrons at the library were a grandfather and his 13 year-old grandson. The grandfather came from out of state for a family visit and the grandson wanted to visit the library to see what we have. The older man said he was a Methodist and the boy is a Jew. Max sat down with the boy while the man watched and answered questions, but it was clear that this young man knew his family history. Names, dates, places in three continents, and  for three or four generations. Max showed him what is in the FamilySearch digitized historical records collections and what is in Ancestry. He also introduced him to the FamilySearch wiki and the catalog, the latter leading to microfilm. The boy know how to use the computer and was very quick to learn what was taught. He was amazed to find and view original census records for his family and to learn that he can do all of this (except Ancestry) for free at home. It was fun to see his excitement.

For our P-day Wednesday, after doing the laundry, getting a haircut (Max), and washing the car, we went again to Griffith Park, this time to go to the Observatory. It has wonderful exhibits and planetarium shows, a nice cafeteria with outdoor seating overlooking Los Angeles. We sat there for a gorgeous sunset. Then, at dark we got in line for a chance to view the moon through their 12-inch-diameter lens of the refracting telescope (The actual telescope fills the room of the dome.) The night was clear and the full moon was visible so we could plainly see the bright image of the moon with its craters with our own eyes next to the eyepiece.

LA looking south from the observatory

Looking west toward the Pacific Ocean

 The above photos were taken from the waiting line. The line ended inside the round white structure on the roof. Inside, a docent was telling about the telescope and what we would see. The photo below (from Google images) is what we saw through the eyepiece when it was our turn. But we saw a much enlarged segment of  just a fragment. It was awe inspiring.

President and Sister Weidman

This afternoon, after dinner, we attended a meeting of the committee to plan the 12th annual "Discover Your Roots" conference, sponsored by the Church and the local African-American genealogical society. We represent the LAFHL (Los Angeles Family History Library) on the committee, which also included the missionary couple assigned to public affairs, Sandy and Ken Hyer, as well as Black Latter-day Saints and non-members.  Mary and Max both expect to be asked to teach one of the classes at the conference, to be held in the Los Angeles stake center. It should be interesting.

Then, this evening at 7:00 we attended a "Why I believe" fireside at the visitors' center. President and Sis. Weidman spoke. A quartet of young elders sang the opening song and they were joined by a quartet of sister missionaries for the closing song. It was very spiritual. Afterwards, we visited with people, including a new convert, a young adult man from Iran, and an investigator and her 12 year-old son. They had watched Conference last week and were very moved by the fireside. The work continues.

Our ancestor of the week is Max's great-great-grandfather, Abel Evans. The following is from the life sketch on FamilySearch Family Tree (KWJC-W24):

Abel Evans was born on June 17, 1812 in Carmarthenshire, South Wales. His parents were Samuel Evans and Anne Hughes Evans, who were living on a farm, Castell Dragnog, when Abel was born. Abel was christened in either the Hennlan Amgoed or the Llanboidy Independent Chapel on October 20, 1812. Abel and his parents apparently moved around considerably while Abel was young. Samuel Evans was a farm laborer at the time of Abel’s birth. Sometime between 1821 and 1826, Samuel and family moved to Merthyr Tydfil in Glamorganshire. 

After the family moved to Merthyr Tydfil, Abel spent his boyhood and early life in the coal mines of the area around Merthyr Tydfil. In those days children of the working classes started to work at a very early age. In 1840 Abel heard the Gospel some place in Glamorganshire, and on February 10, 1844, he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Elder William Hinshaw. Previously Abel had never joined any of the religious denominations but he was known among his fellowmen as a moral and honest man. Abel Evans was soon ordained to the priesthood and spent the following six years traveling through Wales teaching the Gospel. He was a man of great faith and during these years in the ministry he baptized over 2,000 Saints, 700 of these members in Merthyr Tydfil alone. Along with his wonderful faith, he possessed the gift of healing to a remarkable degree. 

In 1849, Abel Evans was put in charge of all the branches in North Wales and assisted President William Phillips of the Welsh Mission. He was ordained a High Priest at Liverpool, England on February 7, 1849 by Orson Pratt and Dan Jones. Abel Evans left Wales for America in 1850. 

According to the History of Lehi, while Abel Evans was crossing the ocean in 1850 he became acquainted with Mary Jones, whom he married after landing in America. They spent the next two years in Council Bluffs in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, where Abel was called as a High Councilor. 

A great many of the Saints were working to obtain an outfit for their overland journey to the valley of the Great Salt Lake or awaiting the return of fine weather before starting across the plains. In June of 1852, Abel Evans and his wife Mary left Council Bluffs with ox teams in Captain Morgan’s company. Their team consisted of one yoke of cattle, one cow and a two-year-old heifer. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in September of 1852 and went directly to Lehi, where they made their residence. Shortly after their arrival, Abel Evans was called as second counselor to Bishop David Evans of the Lehi Ward. In 1863 he was called to serve as the first counselor in the bishopric. Abel also served as president of the high priest’s quorum at one time. 

He married Martha Morgan some time before June 15, 1857. A son David Morgan Evans was born to them. Abel also married Jane Davis. They had one child. He was elected as a member of the Lehi City Council on March 6, 1854 and served until 1861. 

He was appointed Marshal of Lehi City in 1863 and served until 1865, when he was called to serve a mission to Wales. During his mission to Wales, he served as a traveling Elder and then as President of the Welsh District, where he labored. In May of 1866, Abel contracted a cough and cold. He struggled against this cough and cold until his death in November 1866. 

We love you all and hope you have a great week.
Love, Elder and Sister Evans

BUILDINGS IN CALIFORNIA

 Hi everyone,
       Last week we were able to see all the sessions of General Conference either on the big screen at the Visitor's Center or on our computer.  It was wonderful to see live the leaders of the church and hear their messages. And then to see our grandson, Lincoln in the choir at the Priesthood session.

Stained-glass windows and stenciled walls in the Stake Center 

      Today was Stake Conference which was held at 2 different buildings:  the Stake Center yesterday for the adult evening session and the Vermont Building today, which is much larger and can accommodate more people and more parking.  They are very distinctive architectural designs; the Stake Center has high cathedral ceilings with stained glass windows and looks like a Catholic mission.

Courtyard at Stake Center

Inside the chapel of the Stake Center

We carpooled with other missionaries.   In the meetings today, the hymns have 3 numbers listed in the program so they could be sung in Spanish, Korean and English.  Elder Packer, our Area Seventy spoke along with President and Sister Weidman of the mission, and Stake President Bragg and his counselors.

Vermont Avenue Meetinghouse

   
For our day off, it rained for the first time since we have been here.  We went to the Newport Beach Temple which is small, but very beautiful.  Inside the doorways are arches and there is a mural of the beach in the session room.  The outside fits well into the surrounding area and is reddish rather than white.  As with all temple grounds, there are beautiful flowers and trees.

Newport Beach Temple

Mary at the entrance to the Newport Beach Temple

Max at the temple grounds

     A week ago last Wednesday we went to the Getty art museum and gardens.  We must have walked miles up and down steps and got a great view of the city from an upper balcony; we could even see the spire of our LA Temple in the distance.

Max and Mary on the tram to the Getty

Mary at the gardens

   

One of the museum buildings from the gardens

View of the city and the ocean with the gardens in the foreground

     We continue to be well and healthy, and work most days in the Family History Center.  Sometimes we come back and help with visiting wards that need instruction in the evenings.  One Sunday we helped the members of the Jewish Genealogy Society who had come in and needed help.   Max has been asked to teach some classes and Mary is thinking of doing a class in British research.  But that will not be for awhile.

Love,
Elder and Sister Evans

CATCHING UP

Dear family and friends,

Pool at the Getty Villa

We have had a busy two weeks. On our P-day, Monday September 16, we went to the Getty Villa. This is not the more well-known and larger Getty Center, but is at the site of J. Paul Getty's Pacific Palisades home. As it filled with his private art collection, Getty opened an adjacent gallery. Quickly running out of room, he built a second museum, the Getty Villa, on the property down the hill from the original gallery. The villa design was inspired by the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum near Pompeii in Italy and incorporated additional details from several other ancient sites. It opened to the public in 1974. After the completion of the newer Getty Center, the Villa was remodeled and dedicated to the exhibiting Getty's collections of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities. The Villa is a wonderful work of architecture, with marble floors and walls done in the classical style, gardens, courtyards, and a wonderful ocean view. It is very peaceful and beautiful. The collections are priceless and are exhibited in ways that make the museum both educational and interesting. It has a very nice restaurant where we had lunch, and a Greek Theatre. It was a nice day.

At the Villa

Mary with the statue of Mercury

In our stake are three Spanish-speaking wards; we were invited to the Hollywood building where they had a Spanish fiesta on a Saturday night.  The food was from Ecuador, Peru and Mexico and was delicious. The entertainment included the members wearing beautiful costumes as they performed in typical Hispanic dances. The emcee spoke only in Spanish.

Mary with Peruvian dancer

Work in the FH Library continues as before. We still enjoy helping people and teaching them the basics of family history research and of the FamilySearch family tree on the Internet. That week our stake had a temple day. We did baptisms, confirmations, initiatory work, and sealings for some of the people in Mary's line that she continues to find, and attended a chapel meeting. 


We also follow the directions received in a recent zone conference to read the Book of Mormon again and mark it with colored markers. We have a study schedule indicating which chapters to read every day (about 1-4 each), and to finish before Christmas. We are to mark the passages that relate to faith in Christ, faith in his atonement, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We have kept up with the schedule so far and find that the focused approach helps to increase our understanding and testimony of the gospel. 

We left here Friday afternoon to fly to Salt Lake City for a quick weekend to attend Nicholas Gillen's funeral. It was sad, but hopeful, knowing as we do, and as Nick's family does, of the plan of salvation, certain of our faith in a life after this one, in the resurrection of the dead, and that we will all again be together again.

We went to church in our home ward on Sunday and had dinner at our house with David and Becky, Joe, Laura and Jared, Emily, and the grandchildren that could come. We flew back to LA on Monday, our last P-day. We arrived early enough to do the laundry and go to the grocery store. We started again at the library on Tuesday and learned that our P-day has changed to Wednesday. Now we can visit the Getty Center, the Griffith Observatory, and the Newport Beach Temple, all of which are closed Mondays.

We went to the Temple again this week and on Saturday attended a Mission zone conference at the Westwood building here next to our apartment house. It was the last of three zone conferences in our mission and the last of seven days touring three missions by Elder Kent F. Richards of the Seventy. Elder and Sister Richards taught the missionaries important, fundamental lessons about how to teach the gospel: keep it simple and brief. Teach President Hinckley's four essential truths: (first) faith in Jesus Christ, (second) the first vision, (third) the Book of Mormon, and (fourth) the priesthood. They left early to catch a plane back to Salt Lake City and President Weidman took over. It concluded with the vision for the stake by our stake president, then with a lesson on the "eye of faith" by Sister Weidman. It was all very well done and inspiring. We ended with lunch with the missionaries in the cultural hall. Since Max has a cold, he spent most of the rest of the day relaxing and resting. We did take a walk in the cool of the evening.  

Elder and Sister Hurley, Elder and Sister Chandler, Sister and Elder Evans, Sister and Elder Dorius

Also on Saturday, Mary went to the Visitor's Center where she could view the Women's Conference on the big screen.  It was very inspiring to hear the Relief Society leaders, the message from President Monson, and the wonderful sister missionary choir.  Today was fast Sunday in our ward, because of General Conference next week and our stake conference the following week. It is also the fifth Sunday, so we had a lesson on families from our bishopric. We have been resting the rest of the day, hoping Max will feel better tomorrow.

The ancestor we want to focus on is Edward Lisle, Mary's mother's grandfather on her father's side.  He was the developer of the Star Motor car in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England in the 1890s and 1900s.  He started out designing bicycles and tried his hand at airplanes, then settled on a touring car.  Most of his children worked in the business (He had 12 children).  

Edward Lisle

1920 Star Car

1922 Gold Medal winner

Love you all,
Elder and Sister Evans

  

OBSERVATIONS

The Observatory

We had a busy P-day Monday. We cleaned the apartment, Mary got her nails done, Max got a haircut, and we went out to lunch (at Subway, of course). Then we headed for Griffith Park, a 4,300 acre nature preserve in the middle of Los Angeles. We went to the Griffith Observatory, but it is closed Monday's. However, we got a great view of the entire LA megaurb and the famous Hollywood sign. It was quite hazy that day. We learned that the Los Angeles Zoo, the famous Autry Museum, and the Greek Theatre are in the park. Definitely a place to return to. We took the long way home, through the San Fernando valley, then did our grocery shopping for the week.

Mary - Hollywood

Hollywood - Max

A small slice of a very large city

Downtown LA. LA invented the word SMOG

Beginning Tuesday we had three additional days of training in family history research and using FamilySearch.org, so we can help the patrons who come in. The young sister missionaries who work in our ward and in the Visitors' Center, our next-door neighbors, came for dinner Wednesday. One is from Saratoga Springs, Utah, and the other is from Barcelona, Spain. And, as is our routine now, we went to the temple Wednesday evening.

We had very sad news from home Thursday night. Mary’s sister Ann’s son, Nicholas died on Wednesday. It is all so very devastating. He had just started a new job that took him and his young family to Kentucky. We are praying for Ann and Darrell and her children and especially for Nicholas’ wife, Brita and their three young daughters. We are very sad and distressed about this.

We took time off from our assignment on Friday, at President Weidman’s invitation, to attend a zone conference with the young missionaries. He has two zones meet at a time. This conference was with the Downey and International zones and was held in Downey, about 40 minutes from here. The International zone has missionaries who teach in five languages: Chinese, Korean, Tongan, ASL, and one other, French, we think. The President said that more languages will be coming with the next group of new missionaries. The other ten zones teach in English and Spanish.

It built our faith to see these 18-21 year-old missionaries speak and to respond to the challenges President Weidman gave us all. One challenge is to re-read the Book of Mormon by Christmas and to look for, and mark, evidences of faith in Jesus Christ, faith in His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We have a daily reading schedule that we each use to accomplish this. We are having good discussions of these principles in our daily companion study. President Weidman is truly inspired and most kind and loving. It truly lifted our spirits, which were in much need of lifting.

In honor of Nicholas, we would like to tell about his third great-grandfather, Nicholas Wood:

Nicholas Wood (1795-1865)
Painted by Hermann Schmiechen

Born: 24 April 1795, Ryton, County Durham, England
Died: 19 December 1865, Greater London, England
Nicholas Wood was a well-known English steam railway pioneer.He was born and educated in Durham and joined Killingworth Colliery as an apprentice, rising to be manager. The colliery engineer at Killingworth was George Stephenson and the two men worked closely together on the development of a miner's safety lamp and the building and testing of early steam locomotives. He wrote an influential book called "A Practical Treatise on Rail-roads" based on his experiments and experiences which advocated the benefits of steam locomotives.He was one of the three judges at the Rainhill Trials in 1829 where the locomotives for the new Liverpool to Manchester Railway were selected. He became very influential through his many investments in local mines and railways. His interest in mine safety and education led him to be elected first President of the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers and to campaign for a College of Science in Newcastle. In 1865 he was created a Fellow of the Royal Society.

All our love,
Mary and Max Evans

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

NINE to FIVE

Our mission has us working in the Los Angeles Family History Library Tuesday through Saturday from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Here is a summary of what we do each day:

• Arrive at 8:45 for prayer meeting (except Tuesdays, when we arrive earlier to help with a "deep cleaning" of the library). Someone gives a thought, we review the scheduled visits by groups for the day, discuss any issues, and have a prayer.
• Next we check our assignments. Mary and I are assigned mostly to the "help desk" or to "help," meaning to be aware of people who need help or to consult with people as they come in. Mary is sometimes assigned the cash register (The center charges for copies, thumb drives, and registration for classes) or reception. The receptionist answers the phone and counts people who come in, determining whether they are non-members (visitors) or if they are members of the Church. If so they are asked what stake they are in. We also note if this is their first time in the library. All of this is recorded. We both have been assigned to the film desk where we help people with microfilm, including helping with scanning a few frames.
• Helping people is very rewarding. Max thinks it's fun. We have people who don't know anything about family history and others who know nothing about using a computer, and a few who know nothing about either. Others come with various levels of skills and experience. Some need no help at all. Yesterday Max helped a couple whose daughter was at the temple doing baptisms. The wife knew only a little about her grandparents and wanted to know more. He helped her get into FamilySearch. She was shown how to do records searches and found her grandparents in the census. She was thrilled. Max also helped a mother and daughter from Peru get the mother's sister's name for the temple and showed a brother how to find work to be done and to get cards printed. Mary has had similar experiences, for example, helping a sister who attended our ward today get names for the temple. When she saw Mary in church today she hugged her and said that she and her husband had done all the work this week, except for one endowment.
• Max is part of a team of people working on getting the books in the library that belong to the Jewish Genealogical Society of Southern California into the the Family History Library. Cataloging is something he hasn't done for many years, but he is the only one on the team who has done it for before the mission. We use the Church History Library's web-based catalog system. This is part of a larger project to identify and catalog the books in all family history centers, so we get instruction from the catalogers in Salt Lake City. This is what he does when not "helping."
• We both work on our own family lines when we are not otherwise busy. Max and Mary are both finding sources for their ancestors and adding them to the family tree. Mary is extending her line by searching for additional sources, either online or on microfilm. She was able to search the microfilms for St Peter's Church in Wolverhampton because the films are in the cabinets in our library here in Los Angeles.

We have been praying for the ability to be better helpers and to extend our own lines. We believe our prayers are being answered.

We usually have lunch around noon for forty-five minutes, unless we are in the middle of helping. Sometimes we take a sack lunch or on other days we walk back to the apartment for lunch. Evenings are free to do what we want. This week, as last week, we went to the temple one night. We also went to the Hammer Museum of UCLA one night and saw beautiful art by some of the European masters and a great exhibit of the work of A.Quincy Jones, an LA architect who helped create a local style. We went to the public library branch one night and signed up for a library card. And we sometimes do P-day stuff in the evenings so we have more time on Monday. We went to the grocery store last night and did our laundry here in the apartment building one other evening. We also enjoy cooking together.

Our mornings are settling into a routine. We arise and say our individual prayers; then Max goes for a brisk walk and then reads the scriptures. Meanwhile Mary showers and gets ready for the day. We have breakfast together, then Mary reads while Max showers and dresses. We have prayer together, then walk to the library. We also study together Preach my Gospel at night and read and study the scriptures associated with its lessons. Sometimes we do "tai chi" in the morning and sometimes at night.

We attend the Westwood first ward that meets here on Temple Hill from 10:20 to 1:20. Tomorrow we are going with Elder and Sister Livingston to the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. It's outside of the mission, so President Weidmann gave his permission. Last Monday P-day we went to Santa Monica and walked on the beach.

Amusement Park, Santa Monica Beach

Mary on the board walk, Santa Monica Beach

Pacific Ocean waves, Santa Monica Beach

We are having a wonderful time together and enjoying our mission.

We love you all and miss you.

Mary and Max

TRAINING TIME

Monday is our regular P-day, but since the LA-FHL was closed for carpet cleaning that day all the senior missionaries decided to have an all-day activity. We drove in two vans to Long Beach harbor for a 45 minute harbor cruise, a visit to the Aquarium of the Pacific, and lunch at Bubba Gumps. The visitor's center was also closed so their missionaries had the same idea, but they chose the three-hour whale watching cruise. We had a good day. Not much to see in the harbor except the Queen Mary, the second largest shipping docks in the country, and some man-made islands for oil wells. All pretty industrial. But the day was nice, as it is every day, and we got a nice view of the the Long Beach skyline. The Aquarium was very well done. We had been to the Scripps aquarium in June and this one compares favorably. The food and the service at Bubba Gumps was very good. It was a good time to get better acquainted with the other missionaries.

Our group on the harbor cruise

With the Queen Mary in the background

Near the aquarium

We had what our library director calls intensive training for three days, from 8:00 to 5:00, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. These classes are for library staff and for anyone else who wants to sign up. We had two classes each morning and two each afternoon, taught by our director and a couple of part-time missionaries. It was very good, but a bit much to absorb in three days. However, we will get the beginners' training later and then will repeat the intensive in a few months. One of the classes was repeated on Saturday and Mary took it. We are learning a lot and enjoying it.

Friday and Saturday were spent working in the library. In the slow times (Friday) we can work on our own research, practicing what we learned in the training. But when it is busy (Saturday) we help the patrons. Max spent a couple of hours with one man in the morning and then just before lunch started another couple on searching FamilySearch and Ancestry, and came back with more help after a quick lunch. He found it very stimulating and a lot of fun. One researcher wanted to find more about Jewish emigrants from pre-war Austria and about his Norwegian ancestors. The couple wanted to trace their ancestors back to the antebellum slave plantations in Louisiana and Tennessee, and to post Civil War Texas. Max helped them find and use the US census slave schedules.

Max has been able to get up early and walk around the neighborhood for two or three miles each morning this week. Mary and one of the single senior sisters have started doing Tai Chi together. We went to the temple on Wednesday.  It is beautiful, even majestic.  We went to a farmers' market in Westwood Thursday evening and found a lot of nice, fresh produce. We walked back to Westwood, about a mile away, on Friday evening to visit the public library branch, but found it closed.

We did our laundry Saturday after our shift so we can be unencumbered tomorrow, our P-day. We attended church this morning. Great speakers and lessons. And we went to a "Why I believe ..." fireside at the visitors' center this evening. The sister missionaries sang and played hymns, and we heard from a professor from Pepperdine University who is a convert to the church about his conversion and mission and how he came to have his testimony.

We are both well and having a good time.

Love from

Elder and Sister Evans