Loading

Quarterly Newsletter October - December 2022

Areas

Africa/europe

“No Other Success…”

by Matthew K. Heiss

Europe/Africa/Middle East-Africa North Areas Manager

On the road to Mbukoni, in the Chyulu Hills area of Kenya

Khumbulani Mdletshe, Jared Feller, and I spent three glorious and life-changing weeks in Africa this past November. It taught me so many important lessons.

Early in my career I learned this great truth: “No other success can compensate for failure on the road.” (Apologies to David O. McKay.) Travel gives us so many important opportunities, such as forming and nurturing critical relationships, in-person training, taking the Church History Department out of obscurity through sharing activities, associating with Church leaders and members, and doing what I like to call “real work” – acquiring (and processing!) records and recording interviews.

This year, I had three opportunities to get out on the road. In March, I had an amazing and very successful trip to England, Germany, and Albania with Christian Fingerle. It was awesome to see Christian in action, to record interviews, to work with the Andersen's in the UK RPC, and to be with our team’s “prodigal son” James Miller (who was in the midst of his expat assignment).

Norbert and I had an exciting trip planned for June, but it turned into a COVID fiasco. After a very strong start, which included several oral histories and three successful Church History Fairs in Ivory Coast, Norbert and I got COVID. I had to hunker down in a hotel room for a week, and Norbert wound up in the hospital. Gratefully, he has fully recovered. But what an awful way to spend time in West Africa!

Because of the way that last Africa trip ended, this most recent trip had a lot riding on it. Khumbulani Mdletshe, who was just back from serving as president of the Kenya Nairobi Mission, was tasked to put together a very complicated itinerary for two HQ Global Support Group Managers – myself and Jared Feller. And he did an amazing job under shifting and challenging circumstances.

Our objectives were as follows:

1. Document the beginnings of the Church in Kenya and Tanzania

2. Train Khumbulani on how to successfully accomplish an extended acquisition trip and on workflow - how to webcat and process lots of acquisitions

3. Participate with Khumbulani in sharing opportunities

4. Meet with key partners in the Africa South and Africa Central area offices

5. Record “exit interviews” with two released African General Authorities

6. Do field work with our Kenyan and Tanzanian CHS

7. Give Jared Feller a different perspective on an acquisition/area office trip

Here are a few highlights:

Document the beginnings of the Church in Kenya and Tanzania

We recorded 43 with 103 people, including Futhi Mdletshe, a newly called Area Organization Adviser; Elder and Sister Golden, emeritus General Authority and wife; Elder and Sister Sitati, emeritus General Authority and wife; and Francis Kazeh-Anfo, Africa Central Area DTA. We interviewed in major cities (Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam) and in very remote and rural areas in Kenya.

Recording an interview at the Tanzania dedication Site
I am standing with Japhet Kiiza, who was in the first group of people to be baptized in Tanzania – he is pointing at the photo of himself on that historic day
Jared interviewing under a tree somewhere in the Chyulu Hills. (Awesome bike, by the way!!!)

Khumbulani training

We had regular training meetings with Khumbulani, and also trained by osmosis on such topics as

– RPC issues

– Oral history preparation and projects – tracking and workflow

– Webcat

– Recording oral histories in other languages and through translators

– Interactions with local priesthood leaders, area office staff, and area leadership

– Appraisal

– Interactions with Church History Specialists

– Country and locality-specific documentation strategy

Webcatting with Elephants

Sharing Church History

On October 30, we participated in a YSA Fireside in the Soweto Stake

Jared Feller at the pulpit

And did I mention Jared Feller?

What a joy it was to travel with Jared. Khumbulani commented to me many times that Jared brought a good spirit to our work. He was certainly a positive balancing factor to my Germanic OCD ways (sorry Christian, but what does the bottom of this bus look like?). I’m only sorry about two things: (1) That we did not do this earlier, and (2) That this will be our last trip together.

Hmmm, what is the message here?

We also experimented with mobile digitization:

• We shot a few photo collections during our oral histories

• We also set this up in the office and realized that the light tent was overkill and made it uncomfortable to digitize

• We learned some good lessons

• We left the set up with Khumbulani

And we made one final discovery. We soon realized that a chapel can’t really be an LDS chapel unless it has a basketball court.

The Nthongoni Branch meetinghouse – complete with basketball court!

Lessons Learned:

• We have a ways to go before we find a really great mobile scanning solution

• It’s all about relationships

• We can record interviews and process them on the same day – thereby being very LEAN and avoiding backlog

• Not everyone is interested in basketball

• The prophecy of Daniel is being fulfilled in remote locations

• This is the Lord’s work and He opens the doors and gives us our success

asia/pacific

Multi-area manager seminar

In October, multi-area managers visited Salt Lake for a seminar covering an immensely broad range of topics dealing with the work they do in their areas. We were very excited to have Melanie Riwai-Couch travel from New Zealand to attend, and we all enjoyed time together building relationships, understanding different roles on the team, workshopping solutions to problems, and making plans for the future. Though we all appreciate our ability to collaborate remotely from all over the world, being physically together during the seminar was a special and important experience for our work together. For our processing archivists who were able to sit in on some of the sessions, we were impressed by the breadth of responsibilities our multi-area managers juggle and grateful to feel their wairua (or spirit, as Melanie taught us) in their work.

Goodbye to sister debra dixon

In October, our team said a hard goodbye to Sister Dixon, who served with us for the whole 12 months of her mission. It is not an exaggeration to say that Sister Dixon was known (for good, not notoriety) in all corners of the Church History Library. In addition to serving as the assistant zone leader for the Collections Zone, Sister Dixon contributed to our team by:

  • Creating and maintaining a system to track our processing tasks, which has improved reporting (she's truly an analytic and report wizard)
  • Finding and keeping track of unprocessed collections
  • Mastering the AV digital-first workflow for our expansive AV backlog
  • Helping establish organization on the team after our multi-divisional reorganization
  • Making awesome food like angel pie, mud pie, divinity, and cowboy caviar
  • Laughing in her infectious way that kept us motivated through long days

Just like many aspects of our Church history work, Sister Dixon's service on the Asia/Pacific team was miraculous. To learn more about Sister Dixon, you can visit her bio on SharePoint.

Left to right: Ina Samuel, Clint Christensen, Debra Dixon, Jared Feller, Steven Dinger, the Halls, the Olsens, Mickey Burgess, Ashley Smith, Korben McBride, Michelle Pollock

welcome to Sister kathy jones

In the wake of our loss of Sister Dixon, we were extremely fortunate to have Sister Jones our team in October! Sister Jones has been juggling a lot of roles since she started her missionary service--she serves with our team on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays; with card access services on Tuesdays and Wednesdays; and as an assistant zone leader. We've already noticed many wonderful things about Sister Jones that many other missionaries have likely noticed as well:

  • She loves to share the holiday spirit--whatever holiday it may be
  • She throws awesome birthday parties
  • With her English teaching background, she has a way with words

Sister Jones helps us keep on top of the processing tasks tracker so we can continue our reports, assists with checking in unit annual histories, and is becoming a master of the digital workflow. We're so glad Sister Jones is with us!

Africa trip

Jared was able to join Matt Heiss on his trip to Africa in November, participating in and learning about the Church history work in that part of the world. As our division is adjusting digitization practices and responsibilities, Jared is bringing back to our team his experience with some of it from this trip that will help us move forward in 2023.

Tokyo Japan RPC trip

In December, Korben McBride and Ashley Smith traveled to the Tokyo Japan RPC as the culmination of a long-term project to process the Japan RPC backlog. The RPC moved to a larger space earlier this year, and in the wake of COVID-19 travel restrictions that had limited our ability to instruct and collaborate, this project and trip enabled our team to process the known backlog, give instruction on arrangement and housing, establish a new workflow for acquisition and processing, and improve physical and intellectual control of all the collections. Korben and Ashley were able to work closely with Japan Church history country specialist, Yokoyama Yoshikazu, and two volunteers, Sisters Toma and Enomoto. Every day, Korben and Ashley had great experiences learning about Church history and Church history work in Japan, and soaking in what they could of the Japanese culture. Since they are preparing a report for Q1 on their trip, please stay tuned for more or reach out to our team if you have any questions!

Left to right: Korben McBride, Ashley Smith, Sister Toma, Sister Enomoto
us/canada

Idaho Church History Specialist Seminar

Branding irons in the Farnsworth TV & Pioneer Museum, Rigby, Idaho, USA

In late October Scott Christensen, Joshua Bullough, and Liz Heath were invited to provide training to the Church History Specialists in Idaho at the Aspen Grove Inn at Heiss Bridge, Rigby, Idaho, USA, hosted by Church history specialists Sharon and Steve Parry. It was a beautiful setting and we enjoyed some of the last beautiful fall days of 2022.

We provided training on annual histories, discussed the new oral histories guide, and collecting records. One of the Church history specialists asked us to appraise a large collection for the group to demonstrate how we think through the significance, provenance, and historical relevance of records to the Church history, which was a highlight of the training.

The group had the opportunity to take a fieldtrip to the Wagon Box Prophecy Monument in Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA where Donna and Jody Denning facilatated a discussion about the importance of basing history (in this context an historical marker) in primary sources. They showed us the histoical marker that had to be changed when the “Wagon Box Prophecy” was found to come from a source other than Wilford Woodruff to whom it was credited. (Read more about tracing the authenticity of the “Wagon Box Prophecy” in this interview with our Historic Sites colleague, Gary Boatright.)

While we were out, we took the opportunity to visit the Farnsworth TV & Pioneer Museum, Rigby, Idaho, USA. Philo T. Farnsworth was a Latter-day Saint scientist who invented the first fully functional and complete all-electronic television system. We had an enjoyable time exploring the museum which is home to many local stories, artifacts, and art. We recommend to all our Church history specialists to get a better understanding of the history of their areas to add context to the development and growth of the Church.

We are grateful for the time we were able to spend with the Church history specialists in Idaho, and every other opportunity we get to meet the incredible specialists throughout the United States and Canada in person or virtually.

Credits:

Created with images by Mumemories - "Segla peak on Senja island with Aurora Borealis, Northern Lights in winter" • andreykr - "Aerial view of Marienplatz in Munich" • Autumn Sky - "Sweeping Wide Panoramic Landscape Pacific Ocean Scenic View and Sunset Colors on Windansea Beach in La Jolla north of San Diego California" • Autumn Sky - "Wide Panoramic Winter Landscape of Frozen Mountain Lake and Rugged Snowcapped Peaks above Canmore, Alberta in Canadian Rockies near Banff National park"