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