September 2014 has come and gone................

Yes, it is hard to believe, but September 2014 has come and gone. It seems like the days and months just flit away without even asking. So guess we will see what we can do about getting put into this Blog what happened since our last Blog of September 7th.

Monday, September 8, was our Senior Missionary FHE at Brother Jim "Chip" Foley's. He was our host and speaker. He lives in Lakewood, an area just west of Tacoma, right on the edge of beautiful Gravely Lake.
"Chip" had his spacious home set up for 30 plus Senior Missionaries to enjoy our usual sit down pot luck dinner and activity. "Chip" has a very interesting life story with more year to play out. He was born in Merrick, Lon Island, New York in 1946, a Catholic. His mother was a faithful (but non-attending) Episcopalian. He and his brother later attended the Presbyterian church. He was very shy and attended public school. In 1956 LDS Missionaries tracted out their house. His mother and brother were converted by reading the Book of Mormon. He was instantly converted upon hearing about the Plan of Salvation. His father stopped listening when they told of the Word of Wisdom.

He entered BYU in 1964, went on a mission 1966-1968 and later graduated in 1970. He wanted to be a Dentist, but Anti-Mormon Draft Board changed that. They vowed to draft all the Mormons in their district and did so, he being one of them in 1970. The induction station was in New York City where all draftees were told they were going to Vietnam. They were all given a battery of intelligence tests and "Chip" scored very high. This resulted in him being told he "was to valuable to be cannon-fodder" and would he be interested in something more in line with his intellectual abilities. He then asked them what was the most difficult job in the Army? The officer replied that there was a cryptanalytic course (the breaking down of codes and ciphers used by enemy nations) offered by the Intelligence Services, requiring calculus, so he chose that. He was sent to Ft. Devens, Massachusetts, did well and was the Honor Graduate of the class. Some were then sent to Vietnam, but he was retained to help teach the next Crypto class.

At BYU he met and later married Carolyn Gambee in 1971, raised five children and after 10 years of battling cancer Carolyn died in 2000.

In 1972 "Chip" completed Officer Candidate School and a Commissioned a Strategic Intelligence Officer working on codes, intercept, satellites, etc. He and Carolyn visited all 50 states and 30 countries. He was moved 21 times in 30 years, twice in Europe, twice in South Korea, once in Central America and the Middle East.

In 1979, after nine years as an Intel Officer and being interviewed by LDS Church Leaders he was transferred to the Chaplaincy. He was a Chaplain for 21 years and then retired from the Army in 2000, a full 30 year man.

His Patriarchal Blessing gives him two main assignments: (1) Do Genealogy (2) Write his family history. From 2000, to date, he's been diligent and persevering in accomplishing those tasks. He has now assembled and entered into computer database 20,276 names of his ancestors, and has written and transcribed into database 52,278 single-spaced pages of his family's history. The Patriarch said to write his family's history, and that "it would bless thousands"- so, not wanting to make God a liar, he's chosen to do his very best in preparing the history. It will be well over 70,000 pages when finished, and will contain more than 18,000 photographs, with an index, hyper-linking, etc. People have given him their journals, diaries, letters and photos. He's also interviewed and tape recorded over 60 families world-wide and transcribed those interviews and combined them into the family history. Such takes most of his time. Additionally, he serves in a number of local church callings (teaches High Priests and is assistant Gospel Doctrine teacher; leads music in Priesthood and Men's Chorus; is Ward Finance Clerk; is ward photographer; is Ward Financial Counselor; is Ward Family History Consultant; cleans the chapel every Sunday--as well as serving each week in the temple--which he's done off and on for the past 42 years (when the Army assigned him close enough to a temple). He  has four great Home Teaching families. He spends considerable time answering Gospel questions posed by many people.

For our evening activity "Chip" asked if any of us had heard and sometimes questioned the myths and outright lies which have been floating around about the church, Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.
We all had. He then proceeded to pick out several bound 81/2 X11 booklets, each thoroughly researched and documented with dates, places, names and facts and time lines roving their untruth. His training and years in Intelligence Service served him well. The evening was a Spiritual Feast.

I am indebted to our fellow Senior Missionary couple, Elder & Sister Petersen for "Chips"
biographical information.

We were going to enter some pictures of the evening, but Sister Martin is having some problems with her downloads of the pictures from Brother Foley's Facebook page. So Sorry for that.

Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014-- We were finally able to get Laura Adair (the young lady contactor at the Archives) to come to dinner. She kept putting us off for a long time. We had a really nice visit and time to get better acquainted. We just do not have time to really visit at the Archives, because we are all so focused on the work we are doing.

Saturday Sept. 2014--This was the Olympia Stake "Day of Service." Our Olympia 1st Ward was assigned to "pulling ivy" at Priest Point Park from 9:00am--12:00pm. The ivy is not native to this area, someone brought it here and it has gone wild (like our Russian Olives). It was a very successful time with a lot of hands making light work so to speak. Bad news on my part, I had my glasses tucked in my sweat shirt and somewhere along the way I lost them. Good thing I had my extra pair to finish my mission with.

Sister Martin, Sister Chapman, Sister Boone
 

One of many loads by wheelbarrow

One of may loads on the John Deer small truck

Sister Martin really did work

Looking down the trail

Looking across South Sound towards the Capitol





Last clean-up and take to the large truck at the top

 

 

 

 

Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014--We also had the opportunity later to feed Sister Boone and Sister Chapman between 4-5 so they could go knock doors at 5pm. We can only feed them on Saturday or Sunday because of that time because we don't even leave the Archives until 4:30pm. We always enjoy having them to dinner (or drop by for ice cream grandpa has told them to come for). This time gives us time to get better acquainted and they always leave a message and prayer. 

 

 

We will close this portion of September for now, because it has become so long and it is time to get off to bed. Sister Martin tried to do this Blog for September a week ago and clicked Save, but it did not save so got lost somehow. Now she will have to take another day to finish the month of September. Hope you all do not get to bored or tired reading this and will look forward to more later.

 

We love you very much and pray for your safety and blessings of your righteous desires.

Love, Elder Martin, Dad, Grandpa & Sister Martin, Mom, Grandma