My Mission Life

Lenora and baby

A pic of my great-grandmother, who died in the flu epidemic and left six children. Her husband committed suicide a short time later.

You may know me as a blogger, photoblogger, knitter, sewist, and wanna-be creative craftsperson. I’m also a service missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I work about 20 hours a week in the service of my fellow beings as they do family history research. I function as a sort-of tech support person.

As a child, I went with my mom as she visited relatives in remote places, drove up and down rocky hills at steep angles to look for country cemeteries full of lichen-obscured old gravestones. I have old files full of query letters she sent and received from distant cousins, back when the postage was mere pennies. I’ve got lots of family history compiled, but the more I look at it, the more I see that there is yet to be done. Where there seems to be a brick wall, I go through old photos and documents and try to clean up mistakes on my pedigree chart. I think the photos of my ancestors make them all so real to me. I found one old album my grandmother put together with rare photos of relatives I’ve never seen: her little sister who died before she turned five; and her father as an adult with his living brothers and sisters, all born during the 1860’s through 1880’s.

I’m coming up on the one-year anniversary of my mission. I’ve already agreed to renew my service for another year. The reason is, I cannot imagine not serving, I don’t want to stop having this association with Family History and helping people this way. I’ve come to know that each and every person who has lived and who will live, is of great worth to our Heavenly Father. I know He lives, and I know we live in an amazing time period.

[Continued…] At this writing, I’m coming up on the two-year anniversary of my mission, and I’ve decided to extend for another year: not a decision that I made lightly! But I feel that I haven’t done all that I needed to do in that capacity yet. Meanwhile, blogging in this format is about to come to an end, and I’m grateful for this amazing venue, WordPress, and all the fun times  reaching out to others in the blogosphere.

[P.S.] Coming up on the three-year anniversary of my mission, and this time I will accept my release date. I’ve certainly learned a lot and will miss the daily travail and the blessings and inspiration that I’ve come to prize. The older I get, the more significant little things in life seem to be. Hopefully I can still take pleasure in discovering these hidden treasures, hidden in plain sight, and delight in them with a beginner’s mind.