May sees the Iversons say goodbye

Iverson Postscript . . . Thoughts as we complete our mission.

April 28, 2011

We can hardly believe our mission is ending . . . the time has literally flown by and we’ve enjoyed this experience more than we could ever put into words.  We approach our return with very mixed emotions and it’s more difficult for us to leave Scotland than it ever was for us to leave home.  We knew we would be returning home to loved ones there . . . we have no idea if/when we’ll see those we have grown to love here.
 
Lessons we learned as missionaries:
 
“Old dogs really can learn new tricks!”  Linda will shock her sons and sons-in-law with all her new computer knowledge when she returns and Ned knows more about digital imaging than he ever wanted to know.  Even at our ages, it’s still possible to learn! 
 
Other missionary couples we’ve served with will be eternal friends:  Jewkes, Westenscows, Buckwalters, O’Neals, Lees and Reids.  We have been so blessed to serve with these great people. Daily work in the archives could be tedious, but the atmosphere was never boring as we laughed and cried together and shared testimony and hopes and dreams for our lives and families.
 
Nothing is better than to have a “real” local Scottish couple serve in the archives with you. Jimmy and Margaret Reid were the first part-time service missionary couple to serve in the archives in the UK and we were fortunate enough to serve with them at the same time.  From Jimmy, the iconic Scotsman, we learned the meaning of “coorie doon” and every other Scottish term we ever wanted to hear or know and Margaret was our reference for anything we needed in Scotland.  We laughed and cried together and felt their testimonies daily.  They added a flavour and blessing to our mission for which we will ever be grateful.
 

Mike Mitchell is the most patient, supportive supervisor in the world.  Thank you Mike for putting up with our steep learning curve and setting such a peaceful tone in our camera room.  We appreciate your spiritual depth along with your great computer skills.  We love you and wish the very best for you and your family.  We’ll miss you. 

Reactivation work brings much joy!  Our after archive hours work in the Edinburgh Ward brought a few back into activity and added MANY to our list of beloved friends.  We won’t soon forget all those we worked with in the evenings.

YSA are truly the future hope for the Church in Scotland.  Our calling to teach the YSA Gospel Doctrine class in the Edinburgh Ward was perhaps the most joyous assignment of our entire mission.  Such great kids whom we love dearly and will continue to pray that they stay strong and faithful. 

You can become a part of a ward and stake in a very short time.  With our reactivation work in the ward and Ned’s call to the high council, we were blessed to know many people in both the ward and stake quickly.  There are great people wherever you go.   We loved and were abundantly loved in return!

The simple life is easier and good.  We think we can go home and dejunk our house after this mission.  It needs it after living there for 35 years!  And we hope to live a more simple life than the one we left after living out of two suitcases each for 18 months.  Good lesson to learn.

Time together as a missionary couple is a terrific bonus of a mission.  We have been on the “same page” for the last 18 months in every way and spent more time together than in all of our previous 42 years of marriage.  We dread going home to “separate lives” and hope we can serve, work and play together like we have as missionaries.

Blessings flow freely from missionary service.  We return home to FOUR new grandchildren we’ve never seen or met (making our total 20) and good things happening in our children’s and extended families’ lives.  We feel humbled by the Lord’s goodness to us while we’ve been gone and our testimonies and commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ have grown stronger through our service here in Scotland.

And now we move on to the next adventure in our lives (whatever that may be)!

Another cake.... another goodbye.....

Time flies! It seems like yesterday that the O'Neals came to the project. That was 18 months ago. Among other things JT found lots of new ways to "break" things!!! Fortunately most of not all I could fix! I hope he's not trained any one to replace him!! I'll still miss him, even for all that - he kept me on my toes. Now there is only 3 camera operators and over 3000 volumes to do in this set!

This is Mary Jo's last day of Quality Control.

JT's last report!

Let then eat cake..... As usual there is cake when a couple leave. I seem to remember that there would be a few NAS Staff to say good bye, but sadly there was very, very few this time.

2011.... the beginning....

Well it's been a while since I last put any thing here. I'm glad to say that the cast come off after 6 weeks just in time for a hernia operation! Well I 'm fully recovered and looking forward to my 2nd birthday as Bishop!


The group at the beginning of the year comprised of:
Back row: Mary Joines, Magaret Reid, Linda Iverson, Cindy Lee, Mary Jo O'Neal, Anice Nolen;
Front row: Jimmy Reid, Ned Iverson, Allan Lee, JT O'Neal and Mike Mitchell.





Mary Joines and Anice Nolen stopped over for a few weeks before going on to Belfast and joining the Finlays at PRONI (Public Record Office of Northern Ireland). They left at the end of January. They enjoyed their time in Edinburgh and even went to the Burn's Supper at Livingston Ward. Here is a picture of the Reids and the Lees. Jimmy looked wonderful in his kilt etc! People keep asking if they will see me in a kilt... I wouldn't say never, but I have survived for nearly 49 years with out wearing one.... need I say more?

Yet again the time has come to let a missionary couple go, and this time it's JT and Mary Jo O'Neal to go home. They have done a lot in their time here. They started in Livingston and served in Primary. After about 7 months and the return of the Buckwalters, they were asked to be the YSA Couple for the Stake, which meant they transfered to the Edinburgh Ward. It was a sad loss for Livingston, but they gained the Lees, and the work with the YSA is important. When they left both Daniel and Zac were part of the YSA. Both of the boys are talking missions, so watch this space. Little Thomas will miss them. Daniel started a new job today - a full time job with full time money, so that's exciting!

What a week at the Temple with the Youth of the Stake

It was a wonderful week that I had at the Temple with the Youth. Work must have set a new record - 5 and 1/2 hours before they called me with a problem!!! Any way the youth had a great time. They had a session at the Temple every day to do baptism. They all had a good and uplifting time. They even got to go to Alton Towers (a theme park in the north of England) and while they were doing that I got to be set apart as a Veil Worker. The Stake had the Youth in their own rooms and the leaders in theirs. I was sharing with Daniel, David Richardson (Livingston Ward), and Richard Moon and James Lyddall (both of Edinburgh Ward). Richard was on crutches as he had damaged his Achilles Tendon about 6 weeks prior to this. Every thing was going well, over 1000 baptisms by my calculations. On Friday afternoon, a BBQ with some wide games. Again all was well untill I decided to join the some of youth in playing touch rugby! I slipped and my ankle bent in a dirrection that the Lord hadn't designed! It was painful. The Temple security people found their first aider and he said that I needed to get it check out at the hospital, so off I went. Once there and following an xray, they decided that it was only tissue damage. So I was sent on my way, hubbling along - step, ouch, step, ouch, when the nurse came chasing after me saying she had spoken to a collegue and desided there was something else. She showed me the xray and point to what they felt was a hair line fracture, so the put my leg in plaster and gave me a set of crutches!! I'm not sure what Shirley thought - Daniel sent her a text to let her know what had happened and she sent one back saying "Ok, What have you done now?!" So I got to join Richard with my own set of crutches!

When I finally got home, I managed to go into work for an hour or so on Monday to fix what needed fixing and I then got an appointment with the local fracture clinic where they put a walking cast on or what ever thy call it. I managed to over do it on Wednesday (having let the plaster set) as I was doing a lot of walking around the house with out any crutches! Too much too soon. At least now that I have a walking cast on I can manage the stairs now with out having to go and down on my backside! These are pictures of my new cast and shoe! I have to wear the shoe when ever I go walking, even aroound the house.

If you don't mind the close ups, you can see the bruises!

What colours!

Fame at last!!

Finally, after much waiting, and much editing, Sis Westenskow's article was published in the British Insert of the Ensign. Below is the link to the virtual version found on the lds.org/uk web page:

www.lds.org.uk/liahona_pdf.php

Select the link for July 2020.

All change..... well for one workstation anyway....

After fighting with this workstation and it fighting back, it basically gave up the ghost and no amount of repairs would make it run any better. The Archives found another book cradle made by Ralf in a university in England and were able to purchase it. It had been unused as the university had run out of money and couldn't complete their plans for their own digital operations.

Here Elder O'Neal looks on as the crew dismantles the old, broken book cradle.

This is the new one waiting in the loading bay.

Look Ma, no base!!

Now we have one brand new book cradle, with smooth operations and bright lights.

Belfast Again......

Chris asked me to go back to Belfast to train a new missionary couple. Elder and Sister Finlay are a local couple from Belfast. I got off to a poor start on Tuesday when the plane from Edinburgh to Belfast had to abort the landing on final approach due to poor visibility. So back to Prestwick we went as the other alternate airports were also unavailable. Once there, we had to refuel as the plane didn't have enough to get back to Edinburgh because that was where the plane originated from. We finally got back there and lost about 20 passengers who obviously were only going for the day and it was no longer worth their going. Me on the other hand was going for the week, so I waited for the rearranged flight. Finally the new flight was called and I arrived at Belfast at 12:45 in the afternoon. By the time I got to the archive the Finlays had left for the day. I could hardly blame them.

So I set about doing some of the other things that Chris sent me over to do and when the day was done I set off to find my lodgings. It turned out to be a 15 minute walk just round the corner from the archives.

Wednesday I finally got to meet the Finlays. John and Elsie Finlay have served Church Service Missions before and have done much of there own Family History and are so excited to be working in the archives.

Elder and Sister Finlay getting to gripes with the computer and the camera!

Look out for you hand in the frame Elder Finlay!

I took the time in the evening to explore Belfast, so I walked into town and found that Belfast has some wonderful architecture and history. I guess I had expected the terrorists to have blown it all up!! There are also lots of colleges and universities. The most striking building I think was the City Hall.

It is surrounded by a good many statues, one even commemorating the Titanic.

This Queen's University

By Friday it was time to go. Time will tell about how good a job I had done! I tried to cover everything.

After crossing the Irish Sea 3 times I was glad that I had a nice simple, single flight home. It was good to be home!

The New Crew at Thomas Thomson House

TTH in June

New to the team: James and Margaret Reid, from Livingston. Those who were assigned to Livingston will remember them I'm sure. It was interesting for me to be their prospective supervisor and their Bishop. I got to call them, set them apart, and then work with them!

The Birthday girl, Cindy Lee and her Husband Allan busy at the camera

Mary Jo O'Neal and her husband JT, who was away sick when the photos were taken!

Linda and Ned Iverson had at work!

And lastly Mike trying to make out he's working!!!!

Happy Birthday to you.....

The Birthday Girl, Cindy Lee had her birthday today. She has lost her voice poor thing!

The gangs nearly all here!One Cake! Allan tried to make out he made it!!!

Remember Ann? She joined us for cake.Because you're all gone, look at the size of pieces we get to eat!!

You may all be home, but your presence is still felt.....

Just before I was due to leave this afternoon Ann came down with a problem. She was trying to look at a volume of Wills and Testaments through Virtual Volume and instead of seeing the wills she saw some Sasine entries! What had gone wrong? Time to turn detective!
I checked the log file database and found who was the culprit. Sorry, Del, it was you!! I don't know how you managed it, but it seems that you started imaging the Sasine, having completed the Wills, but didn't change the volume reference number in the meta data although you got every thing else. At least the original images had made it to the disk in one piece! Easy fix. One question remains: What did we send to SLC?

Changing cameras

Here is the old Atmel camera, now retired. They put in about 8 years of faithful service, I suspect close to 12 million images with our team and the back shift - a team brought in by the NAS to image the later collections of the Borough Sasines.
Along with the Atmels, dCAM 1.3 was also retired as the new cameras were installed. They are called Illunis and have 16 million pixels give or take the odd pixel. They work with dCAM 2.5. Although it's not the newest version, it is an improvement on 1.3. They are a colour camera and the speed of capture is something else! No longer do we wait for 8 or more seconds before we can raise the glass! With the right document and a willing hand, over 20 images a secomd can be captured.

The old and new, side by side. No RGB filter required either! Only 2 cables too! How things have changed.

The Return of the Big Books.....

After what seems like a famine of books, especially in March when some of us (mainly the missionaries) were on "short time" so to speak, the big books returned today! Below are just some of them.

"It's too heavy!! Where's the trolly?" Mike cries.

Who said it wouldn't fit??!!

Wish you were here!!

I woke up yesterday morning and looked out the window and saw this sight! It's May 12th - what's with the snow!!!

Fortunately it didn't last. Any of you remember snow in May while you were here? Nothing would surprise me this year after the winter we have had!

Where's the sun??

The Mary Celeste.....?

It felt like the Mary Celeste, often mistakenly refered to as the Marie Celeste, today. I managed to get in and out with out my pass okay. I'll make sure I have the pass tomorrow!

The front of the room.... no one here but the supervisor!!

The lights are on but no ones home...

Only managed 1850 images today - not bad considering that my book had lots of blank pages, light and dark pages, and the need to slip sheet every few images to block the page numbers from the next page!!!!!

All quiet at the archive front......

All the missionaries are attending a Zone Conference with Elder Hinkley today, so I'm left on my own like "Billy no mates"!! Seriously it's nice that they can take time out of the archives and meet with the other missionries and listen to visiting General Authorities.

I remember on my mission when we were visited by such people as Marvin J Ashton, Neal A Maxwell and Paul H Dunn, to drop a few names.......

Hopefully I'll get at lot of work done with every one gone.

Today is not the day to have left one's pass at home....... I'm sure it was in my pocket when I left home.......

The Traveller returns

With a bright and early start, I left Edinburgh behind for a day trip to Belfast. A cloudy overcast day turned into sunshine as the plane broke through the clouds. About 45 minutes later I landed at Belfast City Airport, to find no taxis and a long queue at the taxi rank! Finally I arrived at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

This is David Brown, the colleague I came to help. Spent the morning sorting out the problems and helped out in other areas. Hopefully I've done some good.

Belfast is the city where they made the Titanic - not the movie, the ship! Here are the cranes that mark the shipyard. I'm not sure if these cranes were there when the ship was made or not, but can you imagine the ship towering over the city?

Chris, having made sure that I had plenty of time to help David booked me on a late flight out of Belfast. That meant I had lots of time to watch the planes land and take off. The plane flew over Livingston and I could see the chapel from the air. It looked different. It was too dark to try and take a picture. When ever I fly over Livingston I try to see my house, but the flight path is directly over it. Never mind!

It's good to be home.

Farewells and Hellos

Welcome to my new Blog which I hope to use to keep every one who is interested up to date with the going ons at the archives. I hope to be able to add the History of the project too.

This is the group at the start of April, including the couples who are passing like ships in the night....

Left to right: Jimmy and Margaret Reid, Ray and Carol Westenskow, Ross and Dorothy Buckwalter, Ned and Linda Iverson, Allan and Cindy Lee, JT and Mary Jo O'Neal, and Mike Mitchell.

Work was progressing well at the start of 2010 and 10 million images was soon to be achieved, but in March there was a small disaster! We had become a victim of our own success with the new cameras helping us speed our way through the volumes so fast that before we knew it we had nothing to image except a few Kirk Sessions. This small hiccup lasted till mid April, but I'm happy to report that normal service has resumed.

April has seen more changes in FamilySearch staffing at the archives. Ray and Carol Westenskow left before the new books arrived but not before Carol had submitted an article for inclusion in the British Isle's insert of The Ensign. Just days before they left word was received that the article would be published in July. Unfortunately it had to be edited down to about 200 words, but I'll post the full article for you all to enjoy. Their replacements, after a few false starts, are Jimmy and Margaret Reid from Livingston. They are so excited to be on a mission. They have been called as Church Service Missionaries. Ross and Dorothy Buckwalter have had a special assignment from Chris Norton for the last few days of their mission - Chris asked they they travel the UK and give a presentation to the missionaries at TNA and the other employees of the department. They leave in a few days, going home via Paris so they can visit their son and his family who live there. Ross has set a record for the number of images one camera operator has achieved - 3/4 million images!! Those of you who in the past set records, please note that our new cameras can take pictures as quickly as you can hit the "F2" button!! It would be fun to get all of you together on the same cameras for a bit of friendly competition!

With Chris in Australia and New Zealand, I've been asked to go and help David Brown, one of the employees, in Belfast tomorrow. The team are concerned about how they'll manage with out me!! I have every faith in them.