Here for the loooong stretch!

 

The near-end of January signified many things for us; 1- We survived the coldest and longest month of the year! (or so it felt) 2-It's nearly time for Rob's birthday! (More on that next week) 3- It's now perhaps the time we should activate our international medical coverage since it can only be done at the beginning of each month. (February is surely the month we leave for India, no?!?)

Although we've been told not to bother the Travel Department, we thought item #3 merited at least an email to see how the visa applications were coming along. What we learned is they are still waiting for one last pokey Elder to submit his application so they can all be sent in the same batch. So 2 weeks later, after we went to the effort to get ours in the very next day, we learn they are still at Church Headquarters and haven't even been submitted to India. Gahhh! Their educated guess of departure was, once submitted, it can take anywhere from 25-60 days to receive the visas back with the average time being 37. Well, yippee-ki- yi-yo. And here's where it gets a little crazy-making. Remember how we put February 22nd as our day of arrival in India on the last application? Because this is no longer feasible, won't that mean we will all have to reapply again? And couldn't this same cycle just keep continuing ad nauseum? I'm afraid we've entered a wormhole that has no end! But we are maybe imagining the worst. This is where we have to take a big huge deep breath and apply our latest mantra:

When others are being frustratingly Pokey, isn't this the ideal situation for us to be Gumby and s-t-r-e-t-c-h our capacities to not get bent out of shape?! So we are trying to stay positive through this. And hey, the bright side is we'll be here for RootsTech in March! Woohoo! And maybe even beyond! We can start wearing our hot weather clothes! We've thought it might be helpful to wear badges that state "We're happy to be here, please don't ask us about our visas"  because it's the usual conversation starter question we get asked many times a day. If we can keep in the mindset that we have already started our India Mission here, and count our blessings for all that is going so well, then we will make it to the other side no matter what or when. Believe me, there are far worse trials to go through, this is a cakewalk. Well, enough said about that. Let us move onward and upward.

Favorite Visitors This Week - a darling group of teens from a special needs school in Provo. We worked with them one on one. Their teachers had prepared them well to enter all their parents and grandparents' information into Familysearch. You can tell by their photo what fun, unique, and delightful personalities they had! I got to work with Demetrio who had an awesome mixture of Mexican and Native American heritage. It was amazing to see his Native American branch pop. As we clicked on various ancestors, Pretty Voice Woman, He Runs Away, etc. it was interesting to see that there was sparse documented sources but plenty of photos and stories which implies tons of oral history passed down from generation to generation. 

                                  

Yet ANOTHER family member came to visit us this week!  Our new son-in-law Tom, who's married to Kinzi, came down for meetings all day in connection with his church employment. He wanted to get on the road back to Burley before it got too dark but we had just enough time to print out some 2'x3' fan charts for him, his parents, and a sibling before we sent him on his way with a big happy grin, knowing his gifts will be treasured by his family. We think he's the treasure!

I think I may have mentioned last blog that tomorrow (Sunday) we are planning a Young Adult Indian dinner at our place after church, so yesterday (Friday)we took Sowmya shopping for all the necessities to make the meal at a great little market with "ethnically universal" groceries. She and her girlfriend are going to amaze us with their culinary skills! We can't wait! 

India Central ala SLC

While there, we met a man and who we thought was his son, helping him do the shopping. We couldn't help ourselves but start up a conversation with them, found out they were from Chennai which is in our mission, only to learn this was his daughter, not his son. Oops! I am always so impressed with little Indian children. Her English was so clear and concise and she was not shy to talk to adults. When I told her I used to be a school teacher and loved Kindergartners the father wanted to take a picture of me with her. so I asked if I could take one too of them.

                                                  

Well that about wraps up the highs and lows of the week but let's end on a high note with:

"GREAT MOMENTS IN FAMILY HISTORY"

This event did not happen in the library but over the phone. Rob's brother Steve, after hearing us talk about various ancestors in the Dunlap Tree in our blogs, was curious if he could gain access to all this free-for-the-taking information. But of course! So Rob called his brother in Boise and with a teleconference, helped him open up a free account and taught him how to navigate the intricacies that is Familysearch. I enjoyed just listening to the two of them banter, laugh, gasp in awe and amazement together while they shared funny and touching memories of their dad, mom, and grandparents for a good half hour.  They have such a close brotherly bond that I admire and am so grateful for. Steve and his wife Penny have been so very supportive of us going on this mission and I think Rob was truly happy to share some of what we've learned to do these past couple of months with his brother. We see this same joy that Rob & Steve felt almost daily in people who come into the library from all over the world. It is real. I feel a twinge of sadness for people who are estranged from their family because I know those family relationships are eternal, that we are all born into our family and life situations by divine design and they don't need to be divided by death, shunning, or estrangement. I know firsthand that the Savior Jesus Christ has the power to heal the broken branches of our family trees. If we come unto Him with humble hearts, he can mend our hurts and misunderstandings. I also know too that because He broke the bands of death, he offers the whole human race "ethnically universal" resurrection. We will all live again and can enjoy these family relationships though Christ's Atonement and beautiful and eternal Plan of Happiness. Have a good week everyone and go hug someone in your family you love immediately! Life is short!

Rob's hero-brudda Steve

 P.S. If any of you would like to read of happenings in India, may we recommend our friends the Neff's blog below. They are Humanitarian missionaries in the New Delhi mission and we love hearing and seeing in photos what they are experiencing. 

https://rickneff.us

Ode to Joy

 Mission Life... Shall I compare thee to a winter's day? A snowy-blowy, sleety-slushy, soggy-foggy, icy-windy kind of bleak experience? No, I don't believe I will. Granted, we have surely seen plenty of "moisture" this past week in its various forms to color the background tone of our week. But in truth, there's been Sunshine In Our Soul(s) and we've scarcely even noticed the weather. It verifies the truth of Russell M. Nelson's statement that says our happiness has very little to do with the circumstances of our life and everything to do with the focus of our lives. We just keep having the best week of our life, over and over again! This may sound a bit boastful to say that, but we are not boasting of ourselves, we can only boast of our God, for in His strength can we do all things, including being perpetually happy in the midst of a Utah Winter. He is providing us with a most abundant life and I hope to convey that in this week's blog if nothing else. We just never know what joys each day will bring, here's a few from this week~

I'm sitting at the front Information Desk at the FSL looking out the giant glass doors when I see a young man approaching. "Man, that guy looks so much like Rob's son, Ryli." The closer he gets I realize, oh my word, that is Rob's son Ryli! He was flying home to Idaho Falls from spending time in Reno but the weather wouldn't allow them to land so they rerouted them back to Salt Lake for an overnight's stay and booked them on the next evening's flight. So without any advance notice, he just shows up on our virtual doorstep, much to our utter joy!

Rob was on the moving committee that day, getting new missionaries into their apartments, so he was nearly done with his assignments and was able to spend a good portion of the day with him. I joined them for a fun night out of food and conversation in downtown SLC. This makes seeing 6 of our 8 children during our time we've been here. Incredible! That's 75% when we were expecting 0. What unbelievable joy! C'mon Breydi and Paisley, we're on a roll!

Another joyful encounter was when our old Sandy Midvalley Ward's Young Women had a Family History activity one evening this week at the FSL. We were in heaven seeing old friends Jillyn, Jana, Jen, Kelly and Steve.

Even more fun was seeing some of our then 7 year-old Primary Class members all grown up as teenagers! I only wish I had taken a picture of the whole gang. It was a blast playing all the interactive games with them. What a lovely group of young women they have all grown up to be.

                                             Rob, Jana and Marley

There's a distinct possibility the Young Men of the ward will be following suit and coming in the near future. We hope so! Other amazing visitors came this week, including some of our newest favorite subset--people from India! Vijai, a newly baptized member came in with 3 sister missionaries. We were excited to tell him about our small young adult group that we plan to have another FHE with before we leave. He is a student at the U and will be in Utah for 2 more years. Perfect timing.

Then...2 more women came in from Bengaluru, India on the very same day! They spoke English and Tamil, our latest "language of the week", so they taught us a few phrases. Nandri! (Thank you!) We also told them about our growing Family Home Evening group and they said they would love to meet with other Indians and would be happy to cook some food for our gathering too.

                                     Rosaline and her sister Swathi

As it turned out, we found out these women were not young adults but have husbands and 4 children between them so now we're in a quandary, do we invite all 12 people plus us into our tiny apartment with 4 chairs? We have not decided yet what to do but stay tuned to what shakes out (our motto is usually the more the merrier!).

Rob took a real shine to this young man Christopher and let his inner Cub Scout emerge as they talked like a couple of 9 year-olds together. They formed an insta-bond. I think it was the common love of old man hats and satchels that started it off.

Now its that time again for GREAT MOMENTS IN FAMILY HISTORY! Meet Linda and Sharon, two friends who came in from a small town in Nevada. I was working with Linda, she didn't know her father or even his name so half of her tree was already bare. She told me her deceased grandma's name was Amy M. Married Name but she didn't know her birthdate or where she was from. We searched to find anything that might shed some light on her existence but came up empty. We guessed at her approximate birth year and entered it into a census search. Up came a woman named Amy May...... (Can't say for privacy purposes) from a nearby Nevada town where they were from. She had never known her grandma's maiden name but she thought this had to be her, the May of her middle name sounded exactly right. As soon as we entered Amy May Maiden Name, records right and left started popping up, including marriage records to her grandpa, confirming it was indeed her grandma. Then we just watched her family tree populate with ancestors to the 1500's. She was dissolved to tears, she could hardly take it all in. After it had all sunk in, I asked her if she wanted to do any more digging on the other side of the tree but she said she was too overwhelmed for one day but promised she'd do more digging on her own. So we printed her and Sharon a fan chart and she cried again when we told her there was no charge. You would've thought we had presented her with diamonds and rubies but such is the value of knowing your roots and finding lost relatives. (Cue the Relative Race theme song.) Her reaction reminded me of Ammon in the Book of Mormon that we had just read that morning.. "Now the joy of Ammon was so great even that he was full, yea he was swallowed up in in the joy of his God, even to the exhausting of his strength; Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness." 

 

I love that we can give this experience of finding family to patrons, completely free of charge. Do you agree that the best things in life are free?! Or relatively inexpensive at least? How can you not feel joy when you go to Deseret Industries, hoping to find a pair of khaki pants and find a brand new pair with the tags still on and an unused missionary journal too, all for under $10.00?

Oh dear, now I fear I have given way to boasting. But once again, I will praise God and his goodness and our shopping angel, who always helps us find miraculous bargains just when we need them. 

In closing, I'll share a few pictures of "Things that Remind Us of Home." 

Rob's old job right in front of Temple Square

Our pet Matt incarnate!

Last summer, we introduced the series "All Creatures Great and Small", to Linda, our dear friend who was diagnosed with Leukemia and Barb and Tim, her next door neighbors. The 5 of us had our own little film festival and watched Seasons 1 & 2 all together at Linda's home. Such happy memories!  Imagine our joy when we found Season 3 available on our computer at PBS.ORG. When we heard the intro music, our hearts were completely swallowed up in joy, remembering all of our dear friends back home, praying and hoping they will all be there when we return, God willing. 

Lastly, we switched a toggle , that allows you now to leave comments here without having to log in to your Google account. Yay! We would love you all to share something with us that gave you complete joy this week, big or small!

We love you all so much and thank you for your interest and support in our mission,

The Sunny Dunlaps

De Ja Visa

 The week was going along swimmingly when mid-course we received a dreaded email from the Travel Dept~ "We're sorry to inform you, you will need to re-apply for your India visa, changes have been made that require new responses-1) All missionaries, going to either mission will put as their airport destination city- New Delhi, 2) All visas are for the duration of 1 year, 3) the new departure date is February 22 or before."

 Although we were a tad dismayed at the thought of another delay, we quickly dropped everything, jumped through the hoops, and filled out the online paperwork (again) and promptly returned it in person back to the Travel Department by the next day. She said she had 2 of the 6 elders' applications as well, so once the other 4 submit them, they can then send them all off in a batch. (Heavy Sigh.) No, don't mistake our sigh, mind you, we have no problem in staying here longer in the Church Headquarters mission, it's only a matter of adjusting your mindset. And it's just helpful to know when you have to buy your last bottle of salad dressing, that's all, since we had started to thin down our supplies. And who knows? It may be very evident in hindsight the purpose for our delayed departure. We consider this more time to assist our kindred dead with our access to several temples and to see Music And the Spoken Word live every week. What blessings! These are two of the many perks we surely won't enjoy in India. In turn, we have felt the joy of actively gathering Zion on the other side of the veil. It's pointless to worry about the 1 year limitation at this point. 1) Policies could change, 2) we could end up in SriLanka, which is part of the Bengaluru Mission but requires a different visa, 3) we could come right back to where we are now, 4) None of the above. For now, all we need to worry about is the next step in our 23 month mission so we will put all trust in the Lord to figure out those details when the time comes. Until then, Carpe Diem!

So on to the rest of our week~ 

It's time for "Great Moments in Family History!" We attended the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to do the baptismal ordinances for Rob's great great grandparents Andreas Larrson Finn, Carolina Andersdotter and their 5 children (and their spouses and a couple of their sons too) with our Swedish genealogist friend Collette and her niece Nicole. 

                                                 Points for spotting Nicole, the photo bomber.

On my very own, with a little further digging and research, I was able to find additional family members; spouses, parents, and some grandchildren, which for me has the same sweet satisfaction as working on a jigsaw puzzle, I just have to find that missing piece! In Sweden, each son takes on the father's name as part of their surname as do the daughters, But at some point in history, they switched to keeping the same family surname the same as their father's surname, so it can be tricky to know which it is. Also when they immigrate to America, some of them simplify the spelling of their last name, for example, from Andreasson to Anderson, or their first name from Johannah to Hannah, Lovisa to Louisa. So that too can be sometimes confusing. It's been a real sleuthing job to look at dates and names and I admit it can be tedious at times but I thoroughly love it, which surprises me, I never thought for a minute I would be a family historian-type. My greatest discovery was when I saw another Swedish record that showed a marriage in 1868 of Andreas to a woman named Maria Sophia Andersdotter. What? I thought Carolina was the mother to all these children!? Then I started putting the pieces together- Baby Lovisa was born on October 31, 1867, and suddenly there's a marriage to a new woman with the same last name as his first wife in 1868. Are you coming to the same conclusion as me? Carolina must've died in childbirth or shortly after and perhaps it's her sister, 10 years younger, maybe a widow, maybe never married, who steps in to take the job of caring and raising this newborn baby. It was literally the night before going to the temple that I found his second wife, Maria Sophia so thankfully we were able to include her with the experience of being in the temple together with her kin. It was a beautiful time spent in the temple and of course, one of the workers knew a pastor from India that she had met and interviewed when he came to visit Salt Lake for a world religion convention so she gave us his contact information. You just never know when you meet people inside the temple what the purpose might be. We are never surprised anymore when this happens, because it is practically every time, the norm now, not the exception.

  Another temple meeting in the Bountiful Temple with the Tews. They served with my brother Bill & wife Rusty in Austria and they had friends who served in Sri Lanka who they put us in contact with. The badges are a sign of instant comraderie to start up a conversation!

Today 3 siblings and their aunt came in to the Familysearch Library.  (Yes, the new name was made official on the 10th! We will refer to it hereafter as the FSL) Their mother had passed away in the hospital that very morning. They were from out of town with a lull in their schedule, they said their mom loved doing family history so they thought to come here. I have never seen a family so exultant as they watched their family lines populate. I think their emotions were so tender and jubilant as they talked about family members and perhaps in this discovery, felt a very close connection to their mother. Perhaps she was still very near. It was very beautiful to watch and listen to their experience, without being directly involved. Unfortunately my photo doesn't capture a bit of the emotion they were feeling.

                                             The aunt, daughter, and two sons on the phone 

Last of all, just some photos and videos of extra special friends we have mentioned in past blogs~

Tab and I clad in our earmuffs

                        Marie who's NOT wearing her earmuffs, I might add!

Last of all~ Take a moment and watch this video of our sweet friend Reid who works at the FSL every weekday. He is truly The Greatest Showman! You can see his exuberant spirit shine through and his impressive talent too. It's everyday people we meet and come to love that make living a joy and serving a mission so rewarding. Carpe Diem everyone!

The Spontaneous Family Reunion

 We begin this blog with a reference to Romans 8:28 which states that "all things work together for good to those that love the Lord." The idea of a spontaneous family reunion all started with my daughter Rachel telling us last month that she had some work-related training in Orem the first part of January that her company was flying her here for. We had said our goodbyes to her in Vancouver and the rest of our children back in August but with our interim assignment here in Salt Lake, here was one more time to see her before we jet off to India. So then Cassy, another daughter decided she could break away from Seattle for a weekend and join us too. With Maddy, (yet another daughter) and Franklin, her husband both living here in Salt Lake, suddenly it was a family reunion we never could've planned in advance but it just sorta fell into place, kinda like it was MTB! Maddy and Franklin live 5 minutes away in the Avenues from our apartment downtown while they are attending Ensign College and the U of U. How blessed we felt to have this once-in-a-mission opportunity to gather with 3 of our daughters after so many years apart, and some family members meeting for the first time face to face. Miraculous in our opinion!

Rachel, Cassy, Maddy, Franklin

The Blondies

Knowing we only had one day together, we tried to seize the day. We started in the morning at the Family History Center, working on our family trees,

looking at memories of ancestors, printing off family fan charts, and doing some of the fun activities at the Discovery Zone.

 

After that, we hiked up to the Avenues to enjoy lunch with Franklin, who was now off work, at the Shambala Restaurant. Have we mentioned before how much we enjoy Tibetan Food? Some things just bear repeating! Then the Huertas shared a scenic route to walk through City Creek Canyon to get from their place to the Utah State Capitol. Once there, we enjoyed looking at the frescos in the Rotunda, the Senate and House of Representatives Chambers and a beautiful view of the city from the Capitol steps. We couldn't have asked for nicer winter weather. The recent rain had cleared the skies of all the inversion just for us to take it all in. We got great exercise and sight-seeing all in one shebang!

 Everyone was pretty beat after all the exertion, so we all agreed napping was the next activity we should anxiously engage in so we could come back together fresh for a night of game-playing and an Indian meal at our apartment. Gratefully, we were able to find something tasty and agreeable a second time for everyone with special diets that wanted to avoid meat, gluten, and carbohydrates. After dinner, we played games and just had such an enjoyable time laughing and being together. They all just left our place, but the 3 daughters plan to have a sleepover at the hotel. I'm so glad they can carve out a little more time together! Our plans on Sunday are to go to Music and the Spoken Word and church and then our time together is over. Wah! Too fast! But such happy memories will last us for awhile, hopefully the girls and husbands can meet again a few times while we're gone, and our numbers can increase.  

Our little family minus 2 husbands, 1 daughter, and Rob's 4 kids

The last experience I want to share happened earlier this week, which strengthened my testimony of the eternal nature of families. I was helping a young woman from Georgia work on her family tree. Once they're able to connect with their first deceased ancestor, their ancestral lines just literally populate before their eyes! It is always a mind-blowing moment to see all the people that came before you that have a hand in shaping the person that you are today. This young woman wanted to see how far back her lines would go and so she just started clicking away. Her clicking took her through Wales and soon we were beyond the Middle Ages, connecting her with Lords, Barons, Princes, and various royalty. This also amazes people when they realize they have royal blood lines in their heritage. She kept going and soon she was in the Meridian of Time and even Before Christ. She just kept clicking and soon I started recognizing names we had studied this past year in the Old Testament; Eliakim, Jehosephat, Mahalaleel are some I remember. When we got to Methusalah, I realized, "Oh my goodness, we are going to get her back to Adam!" Noah... Enoch...Seth...And there it finally was, staring her in the face- Adam and Eve... I had never had this experience before myself so I was equally in awe and amazement.. Wow! We were both a little stunned. Then after she had taken that in, she said, "what will it say if we click on after them?" This is what she saw:

It was a very cool moment. Not only did she realize in a very visual way that she was a daughter of earthly Kings and Queens, but that more importantly, she is a daughter of God. It's moments like these that are truly rewarding and faith strengthening. I was just basking in the glow of that experience, when a few hours later, a young man from Alabama came and the exact same experience happened to him. Twice in 1 day! What are the odds? I've been trying on my own lines and I just keep running into dead ends. I noticed however that his lines took a completely different route through different countries than the young lady's. His Adam and Eve names also looked slightly different too

All roads lead back to Adam & Eve

It is my testimony that we are all literal brothers and sisters, yes, every person that has ever lived on the face of the earth throughout the ages. We all descended from the same earthly parents and our spirits are born from our Heavenly Parents, thus once again making the Human Family true siblings in every sense of the word. The Holy Scriptures, Ancient and Modern-Day Prophets bear record of this truth too, don't just take my word for it, and nowhere is it felt more keenly than when you are immersed in Family History and Temple work. We are so glad we can share this truth with others as missionaries and let them learn it for themselves, when they feel the Holy Spirit stirring inside them, telling their hearts it is true. 

Take a moment to study this painting and see what truths it teaches