Yesterday's naps were absolutely essential, but getting to sleep in a timely manner was not happening. I took L-tryptophan, which gave me a 20-minute kick-in time during which I rearranged the furniture in my apartment! I had gotten the idea earlier in the evening that during the warm weather I need not worry about blocking the baseboard heaters, so I could move my bed in front of the air conditioner--so I did it! Last night I did not get everything to where I wanted it, but I slept well with the cooler air blowing over my head. When I awoke it was about an hour later than my usual time, and I felt pretty rested most of the day. At lunch time I did take a brief nap, setting my alarm, as it was towards the end. I suspect I will generally sleep much better now. The wall air conditioner does its best, but it really cannot cool the whole apartment unless I turned it way down. This is a better alternative.
I started my time at the Library as a Greeter again. The first 45 minutes or so were pretty slow. Then a guest came and asked if there was someone who was good at German translation available. Not only was I not feeling confident in my translation skills, but as Greeter I was not supposed to leave the desk. It turned out I was the only one available with any skills in German script, so the floor manager covered the Greeter position and sent me to help the guest. 2 1/2 hours later the guest had exhausted her list of records to transcribe--and I was feeling some of my previous skill had returned. I felt very blessed to have been given that opportunity. I recognized some of the words I had been reading in the German word list, which was very handy and informative. The guest was actually pretty good herself--but lacked confidence to do the job on her own. No one came to get me and no one complained once I emerged out of the microfilm reader area, so I think everything else got covered. I actually worked with that guest into my lunch time--but it was worth it to me, and she was very happy for the help.
After lunch I decided to work on more Polish record deciphering. Then one of the trainers came to me and showed me a multiple page list of various skills that a missionary is supposed to have before being allowed to work at the consultant desk solo. I had been given a copy of this list before, but had not been told what its purpose was, and I felt intimidated. I have not had to do the kind of "research" that most people seeking their ancestors in Germany and Poland have to do, because I have known the small localities where my people came from. Therefore I am not very familiar with even the common resources. I spent the next hour becoming familiar with a lot of those resources, and got a big blessing because of it.
One of the sets of resources is "How to" guides from the Research Wiki. One of the tasks in the document was to become familiar with the How to guides. I decided to choose Poland--and found that the hard work of deciphering the hand-written forms had already been done. I went through and wrote out for myself the birth record form. In the next week or so I will do the same for the marriage and death records. It is then just a matter of deciphering the names, dates and places to find ancestors--so I now feel I will be able to help the guests with the Polish research, also.
My last hour was as Rover, the person who tidies up the place, making sure trays are filled with scratch paper, and pencils are sharpened and chairs are pushed in from the aisles. Not a bad way to end the day, especially since staying on my feet keeps me from dozing off!
I went straight to the temple when my shift was over. I had not planned to go, and I did some things that did not take long--except for waiting occasioned a lot by the shift change there.
This evening my MTC group met for the Dancing with Bells hand bell concert in the Tabernacle. The concert was very nice and I was glad I had the opportunity to attend. We had to be there pretty early and I got to talk quite a while with my visiting teacher, and that was very nice.
Tomorrow we start an hour later than during the week, and for one hour I shadow at the German/Slavic Consultant desk--I am sure it will be interesting.
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