If you thought I would just type it out in one simple sentence you forgot who is writing this--LONG winded Ingermanson!! There has to be an explanation you know. . .
We spent the first 2 weeks in the Training Zone. We had a personal trainer whose job it is to help each new missionary in the Family and Church History Headquarters Mission learn to do genealogical and family history research. Yes, it is true that there are people assigned to serve in this mission who know NOTHING about doing genealogy. For those of us die-hard researchers, it is hard to believe that there are people in the world who do not eat, drink, sleep and breathe family history. Some of them are in total shock and even a little disgruntled to be assigned to such a mission, while some of us feel like we have made it to heaven WITHOUT even dying!!!!!
If a new missionary is pretty proficient in their genealogical skills, the trainer usually looks to make sure that their information in the software database is pretty accurate with the places in the correct format--smallest to largest--i.e., Tucson, Pima, Arizona, United States. Another thing they are pretty adamant about is that all the information has a source. "Where did you get this place and date?" Very important when trying to prove that your information is the most correct.
Len, on both missions, has been released to do his own research by Day 2 of the 10 day plan!!! His database is meticulous. His entire maternal line is from Finland (his mother was born there and her family arrived in America on her 3rd birthday) and his entire paternal line is from Sweden. Every name and every date and place has the farm or village in Finland or Sweden, then the parish, then the county, then the province, the type of record it came from and the page number. This may not be exactly his format but you get the idea--it is all "sourced". There really is nothing that his trainer can do. I am not that good. That will be in another post.
Here are a few pictures of the Training Zone while we were there.
Sister Speidel was my trainer and she was such a great lady!! We had a fun time teaching each other little tricks of the trade.
At the end of the two weeks we were given "our assignment" or the place we will be working during our mission. On our last mission, we were assigned to work in the Family History Library (FHL) on the US/Canada floors. I kept saying that I had been locked in the "Candy Store" for a year. It was my dream come true and my "Disneyland Vacation"!! Len was not quite as happy because he has done almost NO research in the United States. His dream assignment would have been to work on the International floor of the FHL.
This time, working in either the US/Canada area or on the International floor would have been a nice place to serve or maybe even as trainers in the training zone. We decided that it was not up to us to decide but we would serve where we were needed and where our Mission Presidency were inspired to assign us. The ONE place I did NOT want to work ( I am not sure how Len felt) was in the World Wide Support Zone. This is really a glorified name for "The Call Center" or "Customer Support". I was not interested in answering phone calls from unhappy people. Well, guess where we were assigned? Yep, you guessed it---World Wide Support!!!!!!! We got our assignment on Friday, 17 Aug. and we were to start training on Monday.
I have been assigned to the Family History Center Support team. Len has been assigned to the Product Support Team. My job is specifically to train Family History Center Directors in English speaking countries but with time zone differences it almost always is Canada and the US. Len is working with newFamilySearch for a few more weeks and then Family Tree, which will be released VERY soon. I will have Len write another post just about Family Tree. It is going to be a great improvement, once people get over the shock of another way of sharing their family History.
Len has always been really good at helping people learn and use new.familysearch.org. I won't bore those of you who have not done genealogy what all that is. Just know that he was the person to call if there were ever questions using the website. He will be really good helping people with the new Family Tree!!
I have been humbled ONCE AGAIN!!! I am right where I need to be and where I LOVE it!!!! I work with 5 other full-time missionaries and 3 Church Service Missionaries and 4 Family History Dept. employees. Church Service Missionaries (CSM) are volunteers who live in the SLC area and donate about 12 hours per week. They are a great group to work with and we have really become good friends in just a month of working together.
I get to sit on the phone, doing one-on-one training for family history center directors. I install a program (Team Viewer) on their computer so that I can see their screen and I take them through all the resources that are available to them as directors of a family history center. I don't think I could have picked a more perfect assignment for myself if I had been able to choose any place to serve. When will I ever learn to trust Heavenly Father's plans????
So, if you come to Salt Lake City, you will not find us working, this time, in the Family History Library. Instead we work on the 3rd floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (JSMB). That building I wrote about in the last post--THE most beautiful building to work in. We would love to visit with you if you are here. We work Mon-Fri, all day but we do have a lunch break and evenings off. Please email me if you are going to be in town. My email is pam438 at gmail dot com (I do that so that web crawlers don't pick up my email address). We look forward to seeing you when you come to town!!
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