Theme-less yet Seemless

 Like sand in an hour glass, so are the Days of our Lives...After 17 blogs now, you all know our basic routine, you know the things that generally happen to us. We aren't generating any big news to report these days but thanks for sticking with us for another entry. For our sake more than yours, we want to remember even the simple daily things that make up a mission, so here goes a little more of the same. Except we discovered the emoji button this time. Cutting edge!

Sunday, as I was sprinting across the street to make a green light on our way to church, my phone fell out of my pocket, hit the pavement and shattered the corner of the screen. 😣 I quickly realized it's impossible to take a picture of your own phone so you'll have to imagine a phone with a cobweb in the corner. I have taped it up nicely and we will grin and bear it until we can buy a new one in India. Later that day as consolation, the sun made a welcome appearance. We simply had to stop and bask in the joy and warmth of a bright sunny moment. Ahhhhh. We love Sun-days.

Rob bearing his cross

Monday was Presidents Day and all kids had the day off from school so the entire SL Valley had the same idea that the FSL would be a great place to let them have an adventure. Seriously, it was Jungleland Jim's Playland. The decibel levels were unlike any library setting you've ever imagined. All we could do was just grin and bear it for most of the day!

Normal capacity-2

Tuesday morning was spent doing sealings at the Bountiful Temple. It was memorable because another couple in our group was proxy sealing the entire Gugenheim family that consisted of 17 children. Not a typo.  Apparently the sealer had never heard of the Gugenheim Museum because he stumbled on the name with amazing consistency. We grinned and "beared" it as he pronounced father and child's name wrong exponential times. We are learning patience on our mission!

 That evening we had actual reason to smile genuinely. It was my daughter Maddy's birthday and we met her and Franklin at the Kathmandu Grill for Indian food, a mutual love for all of us. We are so thankful we could be here to celebrate with her. We loved the food and their company so much! Aren't they just the darlingest?

 31 looks so good on her!

The Mother & Child Reunion is a dream come true for me.

Just grinning, no bearing here

Wednesday was Snow Day! It was incredible, I would say at least 10 inches fell in the valley. Our report time was delayed an hour 'til 10:00 for those commuting in. There were a few die-hard patrons but it was mostly quiet and sparsely attended and because all the other church buildings had closed or never opened, we were excused by Church Security to go home at 3:30. (I think they just wanted to go home too). That was an unexpected perk! We came home and curled up in blankets while the snow fell, worked on a puzzle, and listened to a podcast on The Sermon on the Mount that was probably 3 times the length of the original. My hard-working companion sawed a few logs here and there through it. Zzzzzzzzz.

                    Napoleonic Complex dreams?

Thursday is our late evening shift at the library. Have we mentioned before we have had many celebrity sightings while on our mission? We are told right from the gecko we are not to engage any General Authorities in conversation, ask for photos, or even make eye-contact with them, only Reid can get away with hugging them. So it was completely brazen of me to stop President Leavitt of the Choir aka Governor Leavitt that night and ask him if his wife Jackie was in the training that was being held at the library. Dang, somehow I had just missed her! We used to be in the same ward with them when he was The Governor of Utah, (he did not remember me from Eve). Jackie was who I really wanted to talk to but I told him how his wife and I had been in a horrible play about Porter Rockwell together in our younger days. He vaguely remembered that and said he would tell her hi from me. Completely shameless on my part to break all the rules. (My claim to fame is that the First Lady of Utah brought me in a meal in 1995 when I had given birth to Paisley. Isn't that remarkable and kind of her?)  On another day we saw YW YM Presidents Bonnie Cordon & Steven Lund, who I accidentally waved to thinking they were close personal friends of mine since I knew their faces so well. My bad. (He actually waved back at me 😎) And once we were waiting for an elevator on the Travel Dept. floor, the door opened and there was Bishop Causse. This time we quickly averted our eyes and said we'd take the next one. Whew, that was so close! (This is what daily repentance looks like, folks.) And Peter. 😉 3 times now. Just a cool calm smile in passing that you would give any other mere mortal on the street. Fortunately, the same night as the Leavitt Incident, our past ward member Mollie, who is "The Bassoon Player in the Symphony at Temple Square and Official Choir & Symphony Photographer Combined", acquiesced to our request for a photo with her. Though she's pretty important and seen on national television weekly, no rules were broken this time.

My brush with semi-fame.

Friday's highlight was a Discovery Zone trip to the Jordan River Temple with many of our fellow workers. It was a glimpse of heaven to see about 20 of our friends there dressed in white. We all sat together and felt the love and unity. In these 3 months, I'm afraid we've stayed a little too long to just zip off now without a look back. We have bonded tightly with these fine folks, it will be much harder to say goodbye when the time comes. There are no photo ops in the temple and so we will have to rely on the time when our whole life flashes before our eyes to remember their lovely radiant faces in that celestial experience.

Two of many dear friends at the FSL- 

Del and Lila

Saturday is a working day and it was such an awesome day for both of us! It never fails that at least once a week some family member surprises us and pops in. This time it was Maddy and Franklin! Yay! Twice in 1 week!

Thanks for keeping the family thing going, you two! Who's next??

My favorite guest encounter today was with a mother and daughter who had such kindness and mutual respect for each other. Mom Helen was a pure delight, she reminded me quite a bit of Dame Judi Dench; articulate and philosophical and so pleasant and funny, as was her daughter Dana.

Mom talked and shared memories and daughter typed- a perfect working combination They both had such upbeat positive outlooks on life and both were absolutely thrilled to see the records of ancestors coming over to America from Russia on the boat. They plan to come back often, now that they know they can digitize all their photos and documents at our Memory Lane for no cost. She asked me if it was appropriate to give hugs to the helpers and I was more than thrilled to receive one from her. A good tight one. We don't often get those sweet perks! 

Judi, Judi, Judi

And that's a wrap! A theme-less yet seemless week in the life of the Dunlaps. We're still grinning😁 and only occasionally bearing it 😬😬. Life is so good. Missions are wonderfully bearable!