Days Of Discovery

We have shifted to working full-time at the Discovery Zone in the Family History Library this week and we are loving it! I don't quite know what facet to begin with to share all that we are experiencing. It is so rich and rewarding. It is no surprise to us by now that we are here by Divine design before we continue on to India. Every day we have an experience or meet a person that feels vital to our preparation. Our testimonies of the truthfulness of the work we are engaged in seems to grow hourly! I guess I will begin with our "Spirit of Elijah" moments. For those of you unfamiliar with that term, it comes from a scripture in Malachi in the Old Testament where the Lord states He will send the prophet Elijah with the sealing powers to the earth to bind families and he will turn the hearts of the children to their fathers and the hearts of the fathers to their children before the coming of the Lord for the 2nd time.

 In the lunch room on our break on Monday, we happened upon an older wisp of a woman and and her American friend. Ambika is a native Indian working for the church in the Translation Dept. She studies in the library when she isn't translating. She shared with us her translation of the sacrament prayers in a language that starts with an M. Don't ask us what language it is, we can't remember now! She immediately took us under her wing when she learned we were headed to India and brought us Indian food for our lunch for the next 2 days! It was such delicious food. She is a force to be reckoned with in that tiny body of hers. For instance, don't you dare drink water with your lunch when eating her Indian food. Major no-no!

She's quite a legend and we're so glad to know her. But the true miracle was meeting Colette, her American friend who turned out to be a Swedish Genealogy expert. I just happened to mention offhandedly that Rob's line has a dead end in Sweden. His great Grandma Lovisa Bacon had only her parents' names listed (Andreas Anderson Finn and Golena) and the town she was born in. She was apparently the only one in her family to immigrate to America. Colette volunteered to come help us and with her expertise we found them! The "Finn" came from his having been a soldier who took on the name of his regiment, Finntorp. Golena was actually Carolina, and Andreas' last name was actually Larrson. With Collette's help we found all of Lovisa's siblings too -- Olof Severin, Carl Leonard, Johanna Maria and Andreas Alfrid! We were simply in awe for this chance meeting in the lunchroom that resulted in finding these ancestors and readying their names for saving ordinances! Would we EVER have been able to find that family on our own? We say unto you, nay!

A similar occurrence happened again with ancestors Anton Wallenta and Anna Marschalek.  These are Rob's great grandparents, but on the other side of his tree with a big dead end. The only hint was that they were born in Bohemia. I did some research on my own and actually found the passenger records of Anton, Anna, and son Anton coming over on the boat to America so I did that much on my own. Yay! But then we have the opportiunity and blessing here to request help from the big guns at the FH Library so we called in another European expert, Camille, and got some leads to find that they originated in Bohemian Austria. We did find Anton Jr's birth records in their parish. Camille had to cut it short before we could find their marriage records so that is work for another day. We were always told family history work is engaging and addictive and we now know this first-hand. We cannot wait to go back on Monday and do more research and get more help! Would we have found this kind of help in India? Again, we say unto you, about as much chance as there is blood in a rat's tail.

 And if that wasn't enough reason to love our mission, on top of that we get to work with such lovely people in the Discovery Zone. 

Our Zone Leaders Brian and Amy! (My family will get a little chuckle out of that name combo) 

And Reed is a staple at the FHL who works with us every morning. What a joy he brings to our day! (He does a terrific impression of the Greatest Showman dance upon request too.) He is the son of Emeritus Elder Cornish of the 70. 

Each day this week, after studying our lessons, we shadow our mentors as we learn the different assignment posts. People walk off the street and say they they've heard of this place and wonder why they are there? After we help them start a free account, they start entering the information of the family members they know, usually parents and sometimes grandparents. Inevitably, a census record or an obituary pops up that greatly expands their family tree beyond their own knowledge and that's when their mind gets blown away. So many times we are asked why do we do it. Although we aren't actively proseletyzing, when we give them the basic explanation that family is so important to our Church, that it's our belief that we are all children of the same Heavenly parents and that he wants to find every one of them and get them connected to their roots and search out those that have not been attached to a family tree, that is usually a sufficient answer. 

In other chance meetings this week, I ran into Debbie Doxey, a highschool friend who sings in the Choir at Temple Square at Music and the Spoken Word. So great to see her again!

After a concert at the Assembly Hall this week, Rob struck up a conversation with this fine fellow, Brother Hamblin because of a mutual love of berets.

Had we finished our conversation 15 seconds later with Brother Hamblin, we would've missed meeting another Indian friend. We literally turned around on Temple Square and ran right into him!

We had actually met him last week at the JSMB but we couldn't for the life of us remember his name, (note to self-- write Indian names down immediately or you will surely forget them) so the Lord gave us a second chance! He told us to just call him Raj. He too is a Bengaluru returned missionary from Hyderabad. No way....get out of town! This is becoming a deja vu experience for us! We don't know yet why, but we feel it is not by accident we keep running into him. He mentioned an upcoming fireside involving many Indians, so perhaps that is one reason. These young people are the pioneers of their country who will be the future leaders, so we feel honored to know 2 of them already. And don't forget grandma Ambika! 

And there are others we meet too, who I don't always get a picture with; Lori Salazar, another missionary at the FHL who by much delving, figured out we had the same English class our Freshman year in highschool before she moved away. (It is so satisfying when you finally figure out where your paths crossed!) Another night we ran into our old Midvalley Bishop and his wife, Scott and Emily Childs at a One Voice Concert, also a Korean couple working in the FHL who I could only greet and tell them I have forgotten all my Korean, the amount I remember is equivalent to the amount of blood found in a rat's tail. And so it goes.

One last tidbit before I end~ Remember last week I introduced you to Kinzi's new beau Tom? We've been sitting on their secret for 2 months now but they finally revealed to his parents and children that they were married over Conference Weekend. Yes, he's our new son-in-law and we are thrilled, tickled, and absolutely overjoyed for them! Maybe they dared tell us their secret early on since Rob and I pulled a similar maneuver in our past and just decided to elope one day with no fanfare or preplanning. Maybe they knew we'd completely understand and were good at keeping secrets. Anyhoo, the first factoid of information Senior Missionaries first offer each other is how many grandkids they have. Tom has 6 children from his first marriage with his oldest son serving a mission right now, so YAY!, we can rightfully declare we have inherited 6 step-grandkids we've never met but hope to meet them all after we return at a family get-together.

 And, of course we can't wait to see what next week brings us. Stay tuned for our future encounters the Lord has prepared for us. 

 Until then, 

The Dunlaps