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.
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
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.
