The Digital Preservation Zone

     I think I am finally getting the hang of my camera, computer and blog and I may be able to post more often now....hopefully.  I apologize to any of you who have checked to see if there is a new post only to find the same old news.  Today I want to introduce you to our new friends and co-workers in the Digital Preservation Zone; our place of service for 18 months.
    Shon Watkins is our "boss."  He is a paid employee of the Church who we all refer to as "employees."  The rest of us are missionaries, either full time or Church Service Missionaries who serve from their homes and usually only part time (CSM's).  Shon grew up in Smithfield, Utah in a family printing company, Watkins' Printing.  He decided to leave the company a couple of years ago and ended up as a full time Church employee over the digital preservation unit.  Shon is brilliant.  He started work here a couple months before we arrived and we have been able to witness the metamorphasis of the department from a jumbled mass of books and machines in back rooms and corners to the streamlined process we now have.
     "They" say that one day we will move to better and bigger quarters but for now we are in a small room on the bottom floor of the Family History Library (B2) in the south east corner, between the British Zone offices and a room called "Special Collections."  Shon used to be in an office on B1 and whenever someone had a question they would call his desk.  The problem was he was usually going between B2 and the ConsLab on floor 3, the other half of the Digital Preservation Zone, and no one could ever catch up to him.  When we moved all of our equipement into this room he had a cubicle created in our room for his office.  Now we know where he isn't at least! 
      Shon is great!  He is a computer whiz and great at making our digitizing processes simpler and more effective.  He is also an avid BYU fan and every hour on the hour the BYU "fight song" comes on to mark our stand-and-stretch time. :)  Shon will be gone on vacation with his family this week and is leaving our own Elder Thomas in charge.  That is another metamorphasis that has been amazing to see but a story for another day.
      Elder and Sister Veach have been serving with us for a couple months now.  They were serving a mission in Georgia until their mission dissolved and was assimilated by four other missions in the area.  They only had four months left to serve so rather than going home early the Veach's chose to serve in the Family and Church History Mission.  Elder Veach is 82!  He sure doesn't look it.  He was a radio broadcaster most of his life and then a motivational speaker.  Sister Veach is 13 years younger that E Veach and very quick to learn.  She has passed on a lot of computer knowledge which has helped us immensely.  E and S Veach live south of SLC and travel to the FHL every day.  We have become fast friends.
     The three young missionaries are Elder Grether, from Oregon, Elder Sy, from So California, and Sister Holt from SLC.  Elder Grether suffers from narcolepsy (sleep disorder) and falls asleep "at the wheel" often.  One day he was having trouble staying awake so Elder Jackson (not pictured) told him to go into Shon's cubicle and lay down on the floor for 15 minutes.  E Jackson would wake him up when it was time.  Sister Thomas didn't hear the conversation (I have got to get hearing aides!) and went into Shon's cubicle to leave a book on his desk.  As I was placing the book I saw some legs sticking out from under the desk top....Sure gave me a scare!  A body!!  Gave everyone else in the room a good laugh.  Elder Grether started his mission in Michigan, I think, but couldn't continue in a regular mission because of his disability.  This is such a great place for those young elders to serve... E Grether is our computer guru.
      Elder Sy says he has Something Spectrum Autism.  He is another favorite.  Elder Sy is OC about Australia and reptiles.  He has been to the Golopagos Islands and plans to go to Australia after his mission.  Friday he had a list of points about him that he thought everyone should know.  The list included what he liked to eat, listen to, watch and spend his time doing.  It said he likes to go to the pet store once a month just to hold the snakes for a while....ugh!  He is just a delight.  He is very concerned about the winter coming since he hasn't ever experienced winter weather.  His mother sent him a nice fur hat and he has a good warm overcoat that he is already wearing...and it is still over 70 degrees :)  He is meticulous about his work and we love to audit his books.
      Sister Holt (E Thomas calls her "giggles") has been in the zone longer than us.  She is local and only comes to work part time during the week.  She also has some form of autism.  Sister Holt loves to chat and is so friendly and sweet; we all just love her.  She usually works on the copi book machine (the three are working on copibooks) and we give her the most difficult books because we know she will be able to scan them accurately.  In her spare time she is singing in a choir and writing a children's book.  She is always cheerful and very loving.  I think she just turned 24.
      In the picture with Elder Thomas is Sister Escobedo.  She taught us on the copibooks when we first arrived and she is a great teacher.  She and Elder Thomas were working on the form feed machines the day of the picture and E & S Veach were auditing books (checking for missed pages, torn pages, lost text, etc).  Sister Escobedo just finished her mission but decided to extend for another couple of years.  Her husband died several years ago and her kids are all gone from home.  She owns a 4,000 sq ft house in Peoche, NV and some storage units.  They are financing her mission. 
      Hope you have enjoyed this tour of our room and the people in it.  We can't say enough how much we love what we are doing; we are grateful for the chance to serve even though it isn't anything like what we imagined before we got here; and we are having the time of our lives!