Better Late Than Never!

Yesterday morning Tony and I went to our monthly inservice meeting for seminary and institute teachers. Brother Neeley who is the director of the Santa Monica Institute (and my superior) gave a wonderful lesson and taught us a new skill for bringing our students forward to teach the class. I really liked the idea because it was far different than any of the ways I've used my students to help present in my classes.

If you didn't know - I teach the New Testament class on Wednesday night at the Santa Monica Institute, and Tony is in his 19th year teaching seminary on Friday evenings for the home study students.

After yesterday morning's class in Santa Monica we headed back east to Rancho Cucamonga and attended funeral services for our dear friend Mary Hendrickson. Her family paid tribute to her fabulous musical talent as well as her eternal contributions to her husband, children and grandchildren. I feel so honored that Mary was my friend and will be happy to see her again when I pass from this life. She made such a mark on my life - I shall never forget her.

Mary was Miguel's first serious piano instructor, and one day after he had been studying with her for about a year she called me and told me not to send him over for lessons any more. I was devastated because I thought he had done something to offend her, but she reassured me that wasn't the reason for her request. She told me she had taught him all she knew and that he was beginning to teach her. We had a good laugh together over that. Miguel also sang "Der Ring" for her second daughter, Kristen's wedding reception, and Mary accompanied him. Miguel's God-given talent will always be credited to Mary's fabulous knowledge of music and her fine piano skills.

Then this morning I taught at the 9th Annual Roots Conference here in Los Angeles. I presented lessons/discussion on using the U.S. Census for researching family history as well as how to use community boards to further family history research.

I felt the Census class was a flop, but the community boards class was fun and informative and there was a lot of participation.

This is the first Roots Conference Tony ever attended, he said he learned some things in my classes, for that I was happy.