It's been a while

Hey so brief intro to what's about to go down, I am going to put up a few blog posts today sharing some of the things I have written for school so far this semester.  Let me know what you think about them!

This first one is called "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner."

“Winner Winner Chicken Dinner”

This past week, a group of students here on campus had a contest, one apartment of men and one apartment of women, where the losing apartment had to make dinner for the winning apartment.  This challenge that was initiated by Nathan Lythgoe, a student and now family history enthusiast, consisted of indexing names on familysearch.org, and the winning team would have indexed the most names.  “It all started with a dream,” said Lythgoe, “as soon as I caught the spirit of family history, and knowing that I had the responsibility to help my roommates, I saw it as my best shot to be able to help us all do this work.” 

“I didn’t really get into it at first,” said Nea Aillery, a first time indexer, “but the day I finally just sat down and did it, I got addicted, and it was a ton of fun.  I’m not really into that kind of stuff, so I was very surprised when I actually enjoyed doing it.”

“Indexing is the process of converting hard copies of personal information records, into electronically accessible records,” said Brice Kaline, a ward indexer, “and this information is used to collect information for temple ordinances.”  During the week, both Kaline and Lythgoe were able to index well over 300 names.

According to the family search website, “there is a group of 2.4 billion microfilms that contain photographic images of historical documents from 110 countries.  Examples of these images include census reports, birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, military and property records, as well as other vital records held by local, state and national governments.” 

During this contest, which lasted for seven days, the two apartments were able to get over 1,100 names submitted.  Kodi Norton, one of the students involved in this challenge, is a new indexer; in fact, most of the students who were involved were new indexers.  “It was really fun,” said Norton, “we all just put on a movie and pulled out our laptops, and it was really cool to see all of the old records and talk about them together.”   

Now who won this competition?  In this epic battle of the sexes, the women defeated the men rather soundly, and for their victory, they were awarded a chicken dinner prepared by the men they beat.  “I was surprised that we won,” said Norton, “I thought the boys would win, when I found out we won, it was one of those ‘booyah’ moments…girl power!”  “It hurt my pride,” said Kevin Laughlin, one of the losers, “it made me want to do better next time!”  After the loss, Kevin set a personal goal to do more indexing in the future. 

“I was really nervous about the food at first,” said Norton, “I thought the chicken would be dry, but it was really juicy and delicious.  I was very impressed.”  This comes as a relief to Kyle Hoggan and Nathan Lythgoe who spent several hours preparing this meal.  “I like cooking,” said Hoggan, “and it was a great opportunity to bond with ward members, and I really tried to figure out what these ladies would enjoy, and even though I had never made mashed potatoes before, the dinner turned out alright.”  The meal consisted of grilled barbeque chicken, mashed potatoes, a salad, Asian pot stickers, and ice cold water directly from the tap.  It was a feast fit for a champ, and the champions truly had a meal worthy of their efforts.

These students are not the only ones who have caught the “Spirit of Elijah,” the entire 84^th ward here on campus is really starting to do a lot of family history work.  The students in the story above are all members of this ward, but there are many other success stories.  “We were seriously just indexing for hours upon hours,” said Brandon Sandall, “it was a lot of fun.”    In talking about another head to head competition that took place Stacie Peterson said, “for me it was easier [to do indexing] if I have something to work towards.  The week before I only did like 100 names, this past week I did over 1000.” 

In the 84^th ward during Sunday school each week, there is a class dedicated to family history work taught by a student, Tyler Beesley.  He is not an expert on the topic, but he is continually striving to improve, and to help the ward learn the importance of this work.  As a part of his class everyone to always remember to have indexing as a part of their life because he knows how much of a blessing it will be to members of his ward and to those who have passed away that are being helped.

Everyone that took part in this work was very excited to keep working on indexing and inviting everyone to join in this fun service.  If you have any questions, please visit www.familysearch.org, and you will be able to find all the information necessary to start the process.