1 Nephi 4 :6 And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.

Hello Brandon, I got a letter from you this week. Yippee! Hooray! Thank you! I just finished sending this to my ministering families:

Hello ministering families:

R & J Whipple,

S & R Gibbs,

N & A Bird, (Flora, Lola, Ezra, Pearl, Hazel)

Did you feel oppressed by 9/11. I saw a display at the FSC that reminded me of more than I wanted to remember.

It has been 20 years! Teenagers today were not even alive! But that awful occasion made the world a much less safe place.

I had a couple come into the FSC and index 911 records. What a fantastic idea. And our ward was assigned to clean up the trail from the Webb Hill to River Road. What wonderful ways to show our gratitude to HF. Doing things like that can turn those oppressed feelings right around.

Our ward T&FH committee is up and running. So is our ward Mission committee. Lloyd Simpson and Duane Derfler are those leaders. I am grateful for them.

I may have shared the fact that our ward hosts the stake’s full-time missionaries to dinner and 3 lessons every 13 days. There are 13 wards in the stake and that is how long the rotation runs. Yes, Duane Derfler has his hands full!

McKay Bird announced in sacrament meeting today that there will be a ward indexing project kickoff on Tuesday Sept 28-Tuesday Nov 9. The last time the bishop did this it was only for a week and it was a competition between the young men and young women and their leaders. This time it will cover the month of October and includes everyone. Since I am the ward indexing specialist this makes me very happy. Our temple is closed so let’s serve by indexing!

Our new primary presidency were wonderful in sacrament meeting today. I have never considered PEACE as a goal. It made me ponder and analyze to consider it.

Sister Randalyn Hilton arranged the hymn the choir will sing next Sunday: Secret Prayer. I have woken up a number of mornings with it running through my head since we have been practicing it.

Darin Salmon will have his mission homecoming next Sunday. He is done. Congratulations Darin S!

Thank you for letting me share thoughts with you regularly. It benefits me.\God bless you.\Vern & Roger

So Brandon, 1- Shadow was being walked in the park in the dark last night by Dave and Katrina. Hace had to go sniff and say hello and then bark obnoxiously. I did not recognize them in the dark until I heard their voices. 2- Lloyd Simpson changed our T&FH committee time to 2 pm. I have been praying and in a turmoil about what to do since I read his email on Friday. That is choir practice time. And I so wish to be supportive of both organizations/ people. I did not know how to resolve the conflict. I don't want to tell Robyn Whipple because she will feel unimportant/ ignored/ unsupported if she finds out. After praying about it again last night I decided to  catch Lloyd Simpson before he left sacrament meeting. He tried to do the same! I walked him out to his car and we visited 10- 15 minutes. Do you remember that one of my favorite scriptures is 6 And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. It worked! Again! @@ I was so worried. After finding out what was on the agenda I asked Lloyd which he would rather have me there for, first 15 minutes or last 15 minutes. I knew this was a super important meeting. All 11 of us were assigned to capture a story from someone's life last month and we would be reporting today. Alex Gardine is our EQ rep/counselor and it was his proposal. Lloyd chose the first 15 minutes. He has a grandfather clock that chimed twice at 2 and then once at 2:15. The second was my reminder to excuse myself. I texted Robyn after church explaining I would be 15 - 20 minutes late, and I never had to explain why. She even texted me: Thank you for letting her know. @@ This was a big deal to me Brandon and I am so grateful that HF sort of helped me work it out. @@ GBY BLTPJS  LOVE VERN--

vern\live and learn\life is good\I am blessed\onward and upward

THIS IS MY STAKE. NORTH HALF AND SOUTH HALF. IT WILL SPLIT SOON. :)

The Tophams are awesome!

 Hello Brandon, Today is fast sunday and I did not start fasting until midnight. I take a steaming hot bath to help acclimatize to my lack of air conditioning at home. I try to soak and sweat for 30 minutes. I think Morgans came and harvested while I was in the tub this morning. They were very quiet. Testimony meeting was slow to start with. We had a full 30 minutes for testimonies. Since I am on the stand on one of the 10 closest people to the pulpit I am very aware of what the pulse of the ward is like. The Gardines believe in giving each of their daughters a world exposure experience before they leave home. Joni Gardine and her daughter went and served at a couple of refugee centers in Jordan this summer. Alex Gardine and a different daughter went and served in an orphanage in South America a couple of years ago. What a visionary goal/aim/objective! Joni bore her testimony last today, even after the time was up. Something Greg Walker had testified had touched her and reminded her of an impression to share a story earlier this week. Story: The day before she was leaving Jordan the refugee center director called her into her office and gave her a bundle of beautifully wrapped little presents. Joni told her that she had not served there very long since she had had a previous assignment at a different center and that there must be some mistake. She didn't deserve those presents. The director got close to her face and said, "you are LDS, these are for you". The director went on to explain how much the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had done for their refugees. Joni said how grateful she was to belong to a church that does/acts/lives the gospel of Jesus Christ and blesses non members all over the world. Even though there probably are not even 24 members of the church in Jordan. Brandon, I don't know the difference between a muslim and islam or even if they are the same thing, but religion is not a barier to kindness and service. @ I completed 35K indexing records in August. Usually I do 3K or 100 a day. These US Business Directories have been a fun break. I would love to reach 200K total indexed records. I reached 160 k total this week. When the new month started I had to decide which to do this month: Italian birth records or US Business Directories. I think I will continue racking up my numbers. @ Both Nancy Topham and Marshal Topham called me by name in a friendly way this week. I love that. Sister Nancy puts out our newsletter every Tuesday. I am including it next. Since it was in one narrow column I deleted the [return/enter]s and put a \ in its place. That way it will go the whole way across the page when it prints. With my focus on indexing numbers I have not felt like writing as much as I did a few years ago. And my ability to inspire and share spiritually uplifting messages has diminished. And yet my ability to feel the potency of others uplifting messages has increased. I have shared Nancy's message with you before. Since I am working at their FSC every day I feel these messages belong to me to some degree. So I hope that sharing them with you reminds you of the work and service many retired saints are offering God. I associate with them every day.

Hello everyone!
How has your day been? Did you work at the center?   Did you visit a family member or check on the neighbor next door? Maybe you went to run an errand and ran\into an old friend. What did you see?” Think about that.\Before I do the newsletter I always pray for guidance.\I figure if someone takes the time to read this, I\better have something important to say; something of
worth. I opened my email to look for dear Sister Neil’s\Tip of the Week and Sister Brinkerhoff’s article she\kindly sends hot off the press. In the many emails I\scanned my eyes caught the phrase “Learning to Hear\Him through Others”. I thought that sounds\Newsletter worthy.\I ended up watching a YouTube video called “Pray for\Eyes to See as He Sees.” It is taken from Sister
Michelle D. Craig’s conference talk she gave in October\of 2020. I want to share some of what she told us we\needed to do.\“There may be times when you ... find yourself\struggling to see how God is working in your life—\times when you feel under siege—when the trials of\mortality bring you to your knees. Wait and trust in\God ... you can trust His heart with all of yours. But
there is a second lesson here. My dear sisters and\brothers, you too can pray for the Lord to open your\eyes to see things you would not normally see.\Understanding how God sees us prepares the way to\help us see others as He does... Jesus Christ sees\people deeply. He sees individuals, their needs, and\who they can become... Even in our busy lives, we can\follow the example of Jesus and see individuals—\their needs, their faith, their struggle, and who they
can become.\As I pray for the Lord to open my eyes to see things\I might not normally see, I often ask myself two\questions and pay attention to the impressions that\come: “What am I doing that I should stop doing?”\and “What am I not doing that I should start doing?”\As with all gifts the Father so willingly offers, seeing\deeply requires us to ask Him—and then act. Ask to
see others as He does—as His true sons and\daughters with infinite and divine potential. Then act\by loving, serving, and affirming their worth and\potential as prompted...\Through the power of the Holy Ghost, Christ will\enable us to see ourselves and see others as He does.\With His help, we can discern what is most needful.\We can begin to see the hand of the Lord working in
and through the ordinary details of our lives—we will\see deeply.\In the center, there is so much going on around us all\the time; problems to solve, paper to buy, machines that\won’t work, masks that are annoying to wear ---- but\hopefully we can look past all that and see how God is
working in us and in our center. Wouldn’t it be amazing\if we all could pray for the Lord to open our eyes to see\things we would not normally see? What kind of a day\would that be? Unimaginable, as Elder Uchtdorf would\say.\Thank you for your patience and your support!
Sincerely, Elder and Sister Topham

Brandon, I attend a prayer meeting before starting my morning shift every friday. If I am ever asked to share a spiritual thought I won't be able to do what the others do. They usually inspire us to value family history. My thought will just be to inspire faith in Jesus Christ and his gospel. There is a binder of stories called "Elijah Moments". Here is a recent one from our FSC.

We would like to invite every missionary,

volunteer and guests to participate in

contributing to the Elijah Moment binder.

Our Elijah Moments binder is still an important part

of the SGFSC. Many of you have experienced

spiritual experiences while helping guests, please

share with us. These faith building testimonies would

be used in the center to read, share and ponder as we

anxiously engage in this great work. FORMS are in

the back of the binder if you would like an outline to

help with your response.

A Special Elijah Moment

St George Family Search Center

Written by Sister Colleen Hales

August 20, 2021

I had the coolest experience on Friday. We had a

group of fifteen scheduled to come into the Discovery

Center around noon. I happened to be outside watering

the flower pots when their van pulled into the parking lot.

They were making a great deal of noise, so I was

wondering who they were. As they entered the gate I

realized they were a group of adults—mostly men and a

few women—who looked as though they all belonged to

a motorcycle gang! Seriously, these were some scary

looking people! One guy went inside the center while the

rest waited outside, so I greeted them and finished the

watering. They all seemed to stare at my name badge

with curiosity, but they all went inside. I put the watering

can away and came around the corner by the front desk

to find them all heading down the hallway into classroom

A. The receptionist told me they were all non-members

so they had to complete the sign-in stuff online before

they could use the Discovery Center.

I went back to my office, but I was having a mental

argument with myself about helping with all the sign-in

stuff—I knew the missionaries needed help. So, I finally

went into the classroom and randomly chose one of the

men along the back row and stood behind him to help get

him through the process. He had tattoos on every inch of

his hands and forearms, long hair and a beard, and had

multiple skull rings on his fingers...seriously scary-looking

dude. He made it through the sign-in process rather

quickly—most of the other men along the back row where

having all sorts of issues just getting signed in. I explained

that he needed to connect himself to his nearest deceased

relative and I was surprised when he knew all the names

of his grandparents. When his grandfather came up, he

was connected to generation after generation of people!

When I commented on that, he looked at me sorrowfully

and told me, “I was a member of the church a long time

ago.” Nevertheless, he was getting very excited about all

the people he was connected to on FamilySearch.

I showed him all the memories that had been

entered—the photos, the documents, and particularly the

stories—and urged him to read what had been entered

and put in some of his own memories. He found an old

photo that had been uploaded of his parents, his

grandparents, most of his uncles, aunts and cousins, and

even himself as a child from a family reunion—that got

him really excited. We pulled up his fan chart and seven

generations of ancestors and to my amazement I saw he

had Campbells on his mother’s line. In fact, he had Benoni

Campbell, the brother to Benjamin Franklin Campbell, my

relative that died at Haun’s Mill. We are cousins!! The

Spirit was really strong—I was getting goosebumps and

his eyes were shining and he couldn’t stop smiling.

He wanted more! So, I showed him how to add

sources from the hints. I also showed him how to add his

ex-wife and his three children—living people. He told me

his father was adopted, so we were able to add in his

father’s biological mother to the line. That was when I

saw he was typing in Bountiful, Utah, as their place of

residence. We couldn’t believe that we grew up in the

same town and went to the same High School—years

apart, of course. He kept exclaiming to his buddies around

us that we were cousins and grew up in the same town.

One of them commented that his brother was “LDS”. That

prompted the question from a huge American Indian—

about 6’5” and 250lbs—what “LDS” means. So I was able

to explain the name of our church. The same guy asked if

he was “Brother _______” and I was able to tell him that

our church believes every person on earth are brothers

and sisters, so he was definitely “Brother _____” just as I

was Sister Hales.

I then asked him if he wanted to go into the

Discovery Center and see famous people he was related

to and he could hardly contain his joy. He spent the next

hour and a half there pulling up screens of information,

taking photos with his phone, and sending them to his

mother. I watched as this person without much light in

his countenance, become someone who was thriving on

the Light of Christ he was experiencing. He had

remarkably felt the Spirit of our FamilySearch Center and

was reveling in what he was feeling. I learned the next

day that all those non-members had come from one of

our area’s substance abuse recovery programs.

It was time for my shift change, so I made sure to

announce to all the new missionaries coming in at Prayer

Meeting that those in the Discovery Center where non-

members seeking for a close encounter with the Holy

Ghost. I made a point of talking to this fellow one more

time before I left for the day. He was still busily involved

in Discovery Center screens. Although with the COVID

restrictions in place, I wasn’t supposed to touch anyone,

patron or missionary, I couldn’t help but extend my hand,

which he shook warmly, and told him how happy I was to

meet him that day, and pleaded with him to never stop

doing family history. He exclaimed, “I won’t!” I really

wanted to hug him tightly, but didn’t. What a huge

blessing he had been in my life that afternoon!! When I

checked my Instagram when I arrived home, there was a

quote from a general authority saying that the people we

encounter in this life are never a coincidence. I couldn’t

agree more.

--

vern

live and learn

life is good

I am blessed

onward and upward