Training Ends. . . We GO FORTH TO SERVE. . .

Finally— we came to the end of our 2nd week of Training!! It was exciting to know that after we had been interviewed as a couple by each member of the Mission Presidency and their wives— that this Presidency would then come together as a group and after having a prayer and asking for GUIDANCE and INSPIRATION, they would share notes and feelings and with that inspiration they received, they would make RECOMMENDATIONS as to our place of Service.We had our “culminating Training— GO FORTH TO  SERVE” Friday morning where we received our area of service assignments. Let me just say, Pres Fenn, Our Mission Pres, is dynamic!! And has so much to do and so many to shepherd. He is a Book of Mormon scholar and has already taught me so much about that book and WHY I need to study it WAYMORE than I have!! His wife is Sara McConkie Fenn—youngest daughter of Elder Bruce R McConkie. She is a LOVE!! But between the  Senior Couple Missionaries and Single Sisters, the 100+ young Elders and the Service Missionaries who live at home and come to serve somewhere in this Mission 2-3x week—they have oodles to take care of. So I don’t think we’ll have too much one-on-one with them. (But—we have already been blessed to meet with him 3 times at the front of our Mission—and 1 of those was a one-in-one as he interviewed us about what we have liked as we  have been going through our Training). Well, he conducted the Friday morning meeting and took the time to have us stand— Couple by Couple and then single Sister by Sister and announced where we would be serving and had our Zone leader stand so we could identify him and his wife and after the meeting we could find them at the “Honey Butter Social” and get to know a little about our new assignment.  Well—we have been assigned to the CHURCH HISTORY LIBRARY—Collections Floor and our Zone Leader is our next-door neighbor (#407) and the very first person we met the day we moved in!! We have just returned from dinner in their apartment and LOVE them both already!! After 2 days of Training next week—we know our first assignment will be to go to work on Oral Histories from Samoa (in English luckily) and not sure what all that will entail!! But it sounds like a fascinating place to serve!! There is a link to the Church History Library site. If it works—find the video “The Story Lives Here” and watch it (15 min—worth every second) and see why I loved that place the minute I walked through the door the 3rd day of our Training here.  So—we are excited to “Go Forth to Serve”

The Church History Library as taken from across the street on the corner of South Temple and Main Street In Downtown Salt Lake City, Utah

 

This is “OUR” Building

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Elder Johnson and Sister Johnson are the first persons we met the day we moved in!! We have just returned from dinner in their apartment and LOVE them both already!! After 2 days of Training next week—we know our first assignment will be to go to work on Oral Histories from Samoa (in English luckily) and not sure what all that will entail!! But it sounds like a fascinating place to serve!! There is a link to the Church History Library site. If it works—find the video “The Story Lives Here” and watch it (15 min—worth every second) and see why I loved that place the minute I walked through the door the 3rd day of our Training here.  So—we are excited to “Go Forth to Serve”

In front of local media, and After 15 years of planning, four years of construction and a million artifacts moved, Elder Marlin K. Jensen fromThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints placed the last historical item on the shelf in the new Church History Library.  There are many facets of Church History that are housed in that place. .” Elder David O.  McKay’s world tour took him 55,000 miles to such countries as Australia, France, England, Italy, Switzerland, Samoa, Palestine, India and Egypt to survey the Church’s missions. One photograph captured a moment in Egypt with Elder McKay and his traveling companion, Hugh J. Cannon, both sitting on camels in front of the famous Sphinx. Elder Jensen was joined by President McKay’s grandson, Alan Ashton, when the journal was placed in one of the many vaults of the Church History Library.

Some “history” about the many reasons for the Church to go to great lengths to “Preserve Its History”:
With the encouragement of his son-in-law, Joseph J. Daynes Jr., Church President Wilford Woodruff, in March 1897, spoke into a phonograph and recorded his Otestimony. His words, preserved as a three-inch wax cylinder wrapped in cotton batting and stored in a cardboard tube, are only one of the unique artifacts contained in the historical special collections

HERE WE ARE WITH OUR WONDERFUL “NEW TRAINERS AND ZONE LEADER—

Elder and Sister Johnson (they are also our “Neighbors in #407)

From the “ALOHA DINNER” Saying Hello to the New Missionaries . . . And Good By to those who are RETURNING H OME

Our  excellent Training Leaders—from Oregon , Elder and Sister Hill. 

of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Special collections inventories both document and illustrate the history of the Church.

“Archived records are one of a kind, not like published records.  Archival records are unique and, therefore, irreplaceable,” explains Matthew Heiss, archivist in the Church History Department, though Heiss emphasizes that  nearly every record  is preserved on microfilm so the content will always be available.

Such valued items tell the stories of Church members and events. “Without the collections in the archives, we would have a very limited recorded history,” Heiss said.

. “We would be like a people with amnesia, but because we have records, we have a memory.”And what we have here gives a sense of belonging to each member of the Church,” adds Bill Slaughter, supervisor of reference and consultation at the Church History Library. “We are a private special collection for the use of the Church and for others studying about the Church.”

Included in the vast collection of historical items are “ official documents of the Church, books, pamphlets, audiovisual productions, diaries, correspondence, photographs, art and artifacts,” says Sarah Sorenson, collections development specialist at the Church History Library.

The minute book of the Cape Coast Branch in Ghana, for example, contains an account of the 1978 baptisms for numerous people who had made a previous, but not yet official commitment to the Church.  An oral history recorded by Heiss with Yuri and Ludmila Terebenin describes their conversion to the Church while vacationing in Hungary in 1989.When they returned home to Leningrad, they were the only Latter-day Saints in that large Soviet city. Shortly thereafter, however, missionaries arrived in Leningrad. The Terebinins had prepared some of their friends to hear the gospel, and
 on 11 February 1990, the first branch in Russia was organized in their apartment. Other records provide anecdotal and statistical information about the Church organization in 
locations worldwide.

A broad collection of photographs illustrates various periods and events in the history of the Church. An unusual example, dated 1866, depicts a wagon company arriving in Coalville, Utah, that year.Every edition, every translation, every revision or retranslation of the Book of Mormon lines the shelves in another section of the library. Several unique copies of the scriptures include a volume signed by Joseph Smith and another signed by one of the Book’s three witnesses, David Whitmer. OiBound 
volumes of patriarchal blessings, a collection near four million strong, recorded in stakes throughout the Church, fills another spot in the library. Such records go back to the first blessings offered in the 1830s and 1840s, but also include the 1857 book of hand-written blessings given by Isaac Morley, the first patriarch in the Salt Lake Valley.

Many other documents cover the early history of the Church and the State of Utah.  An entry in Brigham Young’s 1845 journal underscores the emphasis Church leaders placed on preserving the history of the Church.   “I called on Elder Willard Richards and found him engaged on the History,” Young wrote.

Working drawings of the 1840s Nauvoo Temple can be found in another section of the archives. “The nail holes in each of the corners evidence that this particular drawing
 may have been posted someplace near the construction site,” explains archivist Heiss. “There are measures and scale markers on the sides and drawings that would have been used by those building the temple.” A facsimile of the drawings is exhibited in the Church History Museum.

Selection criteria for inclusion the archives collections are based on historical significance of the item, the origin of the record, potential use of the item and its physical condition, according to collections specialist  Sorenson. 

With nearly 50 miles of archive storage space and the convenience of a self-standing library in the newly constructed facility, the special collections inventory will be even more accessible to Church and public use.

“It’s our task,” Slaughter concluded, “to collect vital information, properly preserve it and then provide public access and customer service to the library. We preserve and share the treasures of the Mormon experience, more than just the official word, but documentation of the gospel impact in the everyday lives of its members and 
associates.”

There is so much to learn—but we know we have wonderful people ready to help us “GET STARTED!!