We interrupt this regularly scheduled program...

 ...to bring you this special report on our departure. It's getting more real by the minute! We received our travel itinerary on our flight(s). We will leave next Monday April 3rd with a non-stop flight to Amsterdam. After an airport layover there, we'll proceed to New Delhi with another 5 hour layover there before we fly on to Bengaluru arriving on April 5th. Seriously, 2 days in transit.  Mercy! We'll have a couple of days of orientation with President Bushi, experience the joy of jet lag and brain fog while trying to make a great first impression with the mission office personnel. We'll get to see the construction of the temple, etc. and after that, one more flight will get us to Coimbatore, our assigned district which is in the far southern tip of the country. That is some extensive mileage! 

Last Sunday night we had a Zoom meeting at 10:00 PM (9:30AM the next morning for them. Ya. 11.5 hours difference ) with President Bushi and his wife, and the 3 other senior missionary couples serving in the Bengaluru Mission- The Robinaughs, the Gibsons and the Gerlachs. I imagine you'll be hearing their names often in the future as they will be our new best friends!

Speaking of friends, this is the very hardest part of this 4 month mission stay here in Church Headquarters; saying goodbye now to the many fellow missionary friends we have made while serving the Lord together. We stayed long enough to get very attached to people we saw daily and weekly. We will miss the camaraderie,  the good spiritual conversations and talks we shared, the VW dorm life, all the laughter and joy of working together to gather Israel.  The Spirit in the mission is strong and undeniable. We are so very grateful to the Lord this was a part of our mission, that we didn't go directly to India. in hindsight we would've missed out on so much spiritual growth and all of these great friendships with people we will love forever. I regretfully acknowledge I don't have pictures of everyone and some photos I have already shared in past blogs but for our own sake mostly, I want to share these photos of people who have become so very dear to us. 

The Best Zone Leaders ever-Brian and Amy!

             Sister Howell, our first rescuer & friend

The Deckers who reached out to us in the very early stages with friendship and fun.

Our last VW bunch! Garden Apts a la Eden?

Del and Lila

Lynda and Jan

Wee Karen and Statuesque Karen

Lynette and I in matching garb

My Hanguk Chingu, E Chamenim

 

Jennifah

Gwen 

Vicki, Karen and Larson's all in mourning? Not!

Oh there's so many more too! Perhaps I will need to blog one more time if I can but this weekend will be so busy with General Conference, work, (the library is open all day on Saturday and all hands are needed) packing, saying goodbye to local family plus the Friday night India Mission reunion. What a flurry!

 This will surely be the last time I send the link to our blog via text to many of you. I'm saying goodbye to this subpar phone of mine and my beloved phone number so full of 5s and easy to remember. We've been told that WhatsApp is our future. I will still post the blog link on Facebook and you can type our blog address into any browser anytime and it will bring it right up. Many of you have given Rob your email addresses and he will send out his own publications via that mode of correspondence. But in a way this seems like a real goodbye to many of you who I feel we'll lose contact with, with us going halfway around the world. Wah! Parting is such sweet sorrow! Please don't forget us and we promise not to forget you. The one assurance that makes this all bearable is knowing that the same sociality that exists among us here will continue with us into other realms in the future (post mission? the next life?) , only it will be coupled with eternal glory which means it's only going to get better!!

 All our love and appreciation for now-

 The Dunlaps

 

Timing Is Everything

 Congratulations! By clicking on this link you have been cordially and exclusively invited to attend our first ever Pity Party! It will be a brief flurry of suppressed whining and complaining about our present circumstances. There are not many photos to go along with this party narrative so you will have to use only your imagination and auditory memory but we promise to serve refreshments at the end if you'll just stick it out. 

To begin this Whinefest, did we happen to mention maybe a few times before that we are stuck in the Garden of the Selfish Giant where it is perpetually Winter with no end EVER in sight? Oh sure, we can endure November 7th to February 28th and call it a typical harsh winter season, right? But seriously, it's beyond the time to wrap this gig up. Let the little croci emerge now without fear of being crushed by a blanket of snow, please! Our friend the Sun has shone maybe a handful of days these last 4+ months but even then, it is always accompanied by a lion-like bitter cold wind. We've not seen a lamb-like day even once! Believe me, I notice these things. In truth, we have not experienced another season BUT Winter while on our mission and these desert dwellers are getting so so weary of it. How long, O Lord?

A blanket of heaviness once again descends

                                                      Sorella Umbrella

Perhaps we're unduly impatient only because we are a little sleep deprived, which tends to bring out our less than best selves, eh? Exhibit A. Our building complex used to be completely filled with missionaries, a little bit of Zion on earth if you will, but then they started moving out all the single sister missionaries and upgrading their digs so they wouldn't have the hardship of doing their laundry in a public facility. (Laundromat life is only as bad as your attitude so actually we're ok with this and will not bemoan this aspect.) But this exodus of missionaries has led to many empty apartments, only a few of them temporarily filled by visa waiters. As a result the church stopped leasing many of them and let the leasing office rent them out but still left a few completely furnished ones available just in case they have an influx of new VWs from the MTC. In kinder gentler times, the instruction has been when your visa finally comes and you vacate your apartment on your departure, just leave your door unlocked and your keys in the drawer for the next tenant. This practice worked just fine in a Zion-like society when everyone in the building was living with basic honesty and integrity. But now since they've started filling the building with regular renters from the leasing office, the temptation has proven too irresistible. One woman brought in her entire extended family to squat in the apartment across the hall and we started hearing a continual buzz of noisy family life. Still, children are an heritage of the Lord and so we cheerfully endured the sounds of screaming toddlers and crying infants at all hours. But then to make matters unbearable, the college-age girls on the 3rd floor decided to use the apartment right above us to extend their partying square footage. It was nigh to impossible to tune out the sounds of heavy running footsteps, loud laughter, squeaky bed springs, and the throwing of beer bottles out the balcony to land on the pavement below 'til 2:00 in the morning. And this was on a working day! Zion has surely fled!! Since there are no interior stairs to go stomping up to banish the revelry in non-existent bath robes and because we weren't willing to put on winter attire to go outside to go upstairs, we simply endured the agonizing night. The next morning we immediately voiced our bleary-eyed complaints to both Church Housing and the leasing office to "please, lock up these open apartments!". Thankfully, things are now back to a semblance of peace and quiet that should prevail in missionary housing. And so in this frazzled state and with yet the unsettling ambivalence of broken promises from the travel department regarding our visas, we soldiered on through the week...

Thursday things started looking up. And how?  Ann Howell!! This is our friend's name! She works in the FSL on the 2nd floor and months ago gave us the contact name of an Institute teacher/church tourguide with some interesting connections to India. Timothy Taggart's class was held conveniently only 3 blocks away in a church building in the Aves and honestly, we're not sure why we delayed getting in touch with him and attending his class til now. He began his class with a slide show of his friend Satish Kumar who is a pastor and who he met years ago in his travels to India. Weekly he puts out a contribution jar for his Institute class and then sends the proceeds to Satish, whose current humanitarian project is teaching local women in small villages how to sew. His church ministry is in the city of Vizag, not a part of our mission boundaries.

                                                                His project is sew good!

With the weekly donations, he helps the women purchase their own sewing machine, basic supplies and pays a woman to teach them how to make their own patterns. This has given them a valuable skill to clothe their own families as well as provide additional income allowing them to be self-sufficient. Brother Taggart said the largest obstacle Satish has found is finding a room large enough to hold the classes in. The machines require no electricity but that's not the issue. No one wants to rent a building space to Christians these days. So most of the time the classes are held outside. What a tragic problem of overt persecution but isn't that a fulfillment of prophesy of these latter days? We stayed on longer to listen to Brother Taggart's Come Follow Me lesson and came away edified by all that we saw and heard.

                                 The friends of The Indian Society of Salt Lake

Now as it so happens, earlier in the week, we read the Neff's blog- rickneff.us, our fellow missionary friends who lived one floor below us in the early days of our mission, telling us the sobering series of events they are experiencing in the New Delhi mission in connection with their Humanitarian calling. Basically, the Indian government has put a moratorium on ALL their clean water projects they were involved in and tied their hands to anything else they might try to do to better the lives of the poor and needy there. Does this make any sense to anyone? They were so discouraged and frustrated. And all of this in their current field of labor in Vizag. Our ears perked up in the Institute class. Vizag?? Isn't that where Satish Kumar has his sewing ministry? Isn't that the same place where the Neff's are serving? Surely the government wouldn't be aware if the Neffs were to be involved in something as small scale as a sewing ministry until these absurd sanctions were removed? Well, we don't know the end of this story but to us it felt MTB, like we were possibly in the right place at the right time to put Timothy Taggart's Indian Society, The Neffs, and Satish Kumar in touch with each other. Timing is everything! If anything comes of this coinkidink, we will follow up and let you know but if not, let's all continue to pray for the Lord's work to go forth in all countries unimpeded by bureaucracies and government secret combinations. 

Friday was MONUMENTAL in so many ways. We finished reading the Book of Mormon together as a missionary couple since starting our mission. We already had a firm testimony of its truthfulness but now we can honestly testify to the power we felt in our lives as we once again took up a serious daily study of it. We know assuredly it is the word of God given through ancient prophets to come forth in our day, when we so sorely need it to navigate through the very circumstances previous civilizations went through that ended in their complete destruction. If we want our society to end differently, we must heed these lessons!! How much more can we all do to put out a warning voice to the world? (Tell everyone you know to read it and learn the solution!) 

Right after our study hour, we left our home in a blizzard and proceeded on the freeway and then up the steep mountain to the Bountiful Temple in the heaviest snowstorm of the year. It was harrowing but I think our efforts that day to persevere were later greatly rewarded. It just so happened that we performed the very last ordinance in our reservation list that would've expired while we were in India. Coincidence? Maybe. Later that afternoon, I was working with an older gentleman whose father was born on a ship in the Indian Ocean. We found a birth record and a ship log that showed his place of birth as Bombay, India. How cool is that? How incredibly foretelling too. Right in the middle of finding these records, Rob hands me his phone. It's Michelle from Travel telling us our visas have finally arrived! What? Can this be real? Our wait is finally over? Winter is over and India has come? Thank you Lord for our deliverance from the awful monsters of Death, Hell & Winter! The timing of all the events of the day just couldn't have been more right. All of our Discovery Zone friends rejoiced with us! Rob's daughter Kinzi showed up right on schedule just moments after we got the phone call to celebrate with us too! She was down in Salt Lake doing some volunteer work with an organization that benefits the homeless and she came and stayed overnight with us. It's not often we get to have a slumber party on a mission! It made the whole day feel very special indeed!

                       Beanie and baby. 

So your next question- When do we fly out? Because Travel called us a mere half hour before they closed for the weekend, there was no time to ask questions. We do not know anything at this point. In a way, now that we've waited this long, would it spoil some vast eternal plan if we left after General Conference? There happens to be an India Mission reunion here in Salt Lake on March 31st with Area Seventy President Gutty, all past Mission Presidents, and any missionaries that ever served there that we would absolutely love to attend before we go. We also would prefer watching the proceedings of General Conference not in a jet-lagged state first thing when we get there. We may not have a choice in the matter and that's okay at this point. The last directive we were given- Please don't share this news on Social Media to make sure that no other missionary in our group learns his visa status until he hears it from his Mission President. So I'm bending the rule a bit to put the news in this blog, even though I'm on a Facebook page of parents of India missionaries, they would not have access to this blog nor my page but just in case, I am asking a favor that if you feel inclined to send congratulations, (which we'll assume you'll have, but don't feel you must.. it's implied) that you do it internally on this blog rather than on Facebook. Thank you for enduring the pity party and now we will resume our regularly scheduled optimism.

 

PROOF!!!

"Thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment, and then if thou endure it well... thou shalt triumph over all thy foes..."

Sweet is The Work

 

Let's start with the best news first. When blessings rain down on us, it's a deluge. Like usual, we were sworn to silence for awhile until confirmation and media posts could be made. But it's out in the open now- Kinzi and Tom are going to be parents! When it rains it pours! We haven't heard the determined due date and it's still pretty early in the game, but by our basic calculations, maybe sometime in November? All we know is it's time in our family to make womb for babies! 

A gummy in the tummy

           A beanie in the belly

That's it for exciting news this week! How can you top that? Oh Yeah. That other thing. It's Day 10 of waiting to hear anything on our visas after the email. Nothing but Crickets... Crikey!!! Anticipation is making us wait! But here it is, Another Saturday night and time keeps on slippin'slippin'slippin' into the future . But just like always, we've had great pop-in visits, many "special friend" encounters, fellow missionary Lovefests, the "Indian of the Week" meeting and always some touching family history stories that you've come to expect from this blog. Let's begin! 

Our FSL mascot Reid had his 39th birthweek. Yeah, not a typo. He had special t-shirts made for each day so we couldn't possibly forget. He worked it for 3 days and spread the joy out to make it last as long as possible. So it was pretty much Party Central all week. 

                   Let them eat cake

             Reid will never atrophy with a trophy! 

Additionally, we had a Hello/Goodbye Potluck on Monday night for all the newbies coming in and the cherished missionary friends that we have come to love going out and must now say goodbye to. Parting is such sweet sorrow! 

                   Fay, Gwen, Fran+

                            Mesia

                         Jan

                               

I'm embarrassed to even mention Pi Day and St Patrick's Day too but throw those in the mix plus a Sunday dinner invitation and a VW Game Night and let's just say the sugar consumption this week has been off the charts! Everyday had some reason to celebrate with treats and sweets. 

 

Onto another topic, our MidValley ward friend Ron Clawson came in to the library and we hardly recognized him, he's lost so much weight. What an inspiration to us since we've completely fallen off the wagon this week.

                           a sweet friendship

We finally got the opportunity to get a picture with Leslie, the sweetest little Weeble that works/volunteers, (not sure which), on another floor of the library. She lives in our same apartment complex and walks to work every day as do we, but her little legs take her twice as long to get there. We're not sure what she does there exactly but you've probably realized by now the library is a very safe, accepting, and accommodating place for lots of very special spirits. 

                  What a sweetie!

Friday we hoofed it up to the COB on our lunch hour to treat ourselves to some cookies because as my mom always used to say , "A bit of sweet makes a meal complete". Right? And because it was St Patricks's Day, there was a table display saying, "Today is your lucky day!" giving away free pints of BYU ice cream. Score!! Life just doesn't get much better than this. (Can you believe we still bought a cookie too? Honestly, we're out of control)

Not only did we run into my sister Lolly (very fun coinkidink) but as we're sitting there we couldn't help but overhear a very familiar accent at the next table. We've gotten very bold to ask folks point blank, "Pardon me, are you by chance from India?" Well sure enough, Venky is from Bengaluru and works for the church in their Interpretation Department and for Google Translation.  What a charming fellow!  We can add him to our growing list of Indian friends we've made here. We feel it's no coincidence we've made all these connections and friendships during these past 4 months. That's the real reason we had to go to the COB, right?

                 Doing the Venky Thanky 

This whole week at the Discovery Zone was so incredibly busy but by now we are getting to be old pros at helping people build their family trees, find records, attach them, merge them, delete them. It's hard to remember all the many wonderful encounters because of the sheer numbers, but I'll share one that stood out. A large multi-generational family with Italian ancestors came in. They were members of our church. Rob immediately liked the son's hat! The purpose of their visit was to find an ancestor's record who'd been given a patriarchal blessing by Joseph Smith Sr. I was working with one son Giovani and we soon found a random census record that showed his great grandfather's family with a 3 year old child named Silvio, which incidently was also the child's father's name as well as another sibling's name, but was marked as a girl so it was all very confusing. Fortunately, the patriarch of the family had come to the library as well, who was quite old and was just sitting there on a couch while his family did all the researching. "Dad, do you know anything about this 3 year old named Silvio". He said, " That's not correct. Her name is Maria" and she died in the Flu epidemic". As soon as we put in her correct name, her death certificate almost immediately appeared and verified that she had indeed died at the age of 5. Once she was properly identified with her correct name that matched her gender, her family was able to immediately reserve her so she could be sealed to her parents in the temple. It was a touching moment for this whole family to find this little daughter and give her back her lost identity. Even though this wasn't the initial reason they came in, we all sensed it was the real reason. We know according to the teachings of Moroni in the Book of Mormon that little children are born innocent and are incapable of sinning until they reach the age of accountability, needing no baptism, but are alive in Christ. But that sealing ordinance to her parents is vital to her so she can be part of her multi-generational family for eternity. It's sweet moments like this that make us so grateful to be helping in this work of gathering families, in preparation for the Savior's Second Coming. 

                                  The Fratelli

Of all the sweet things we have partaken of this week, (which were legion) the fruit of the Tree of Life is the most sweet above all else and the most delicious to our souls. 

Whether the weather we weather

 This may be our briefest blog yet. I have very little in the way of pictures to share. Mostly I'll be sharing a few segments from emails we received this week, if only to build dramatic tension! On Tuesday, March 7th we received this email from Elder Gibson who is currently serving in Chennai, India. He writes,

 "We're thinking you must be getting close to coming to India. The Saints in Coimbatore are eagerly awaiting your arrival. In the meantime, we will be sending you information about each branch, specifically their temple preparation activity as of Jan 31st, which was our last day there. There are 6 branches in Coimbatore District. 4 of the 6 Branch Presidents are new within the last 5 months. So they will really need your support."

{Pause here to insert gasps! These branch presidents are brand spankin' new! We can see immediately we will be doing more MLS work (Member/Leader Support) than strictly YA (Young Adult) work. This is just fine with us. How exciting yet daunting to be so anticipated!} 

"Watch for our emails over the next few days. President Nikhil, the 1st Counselor to President Bushi (our Mission Pres) will work with you when you arrive. District President Charles Pandian is also a great resource. He works closely with our Humanitarian couple, the Gerlachs. You will love these wonderful saints."

Just hearing names and contacts made it feel very real to us that our time is drawing nearer to be there! And unbeknownst to me, receiving this email prompted Elder Rob to send an email to our Travel Department contact Michelle to ask if we are still on her radar because 2 days later on the 9th we received her reply to his query. She writes:

"I finally heard back from our public affairs person in Washington DC yesterday and he let me know that we should hear from them about the applications in the next 10 days or so. I hope to have good news for you soon!" 

That was on March 9th. So, the 10 day countdown begins... We are not cheering yet. BUT SOON! We were going to sign up to volunteer for help needed during April General Conference but after these emails, we decided it would be untimely of us to sign up to help and then not be here, so we refrained. And we just heard moments ago that the couple from our same MTC group, The Schramms, got news that their visas from Norway have arrived! That we can cheer about! Hurrah for Israel! So their wait is over and we are now the sole reigning grandparents of the VW's. Speaking of being grandparents...well, I'll just leave that thought hanging...we are so happy with our new status, we'll mention it every chance we get!. Our renters had their baby girl this week and it thrills us to think of a baby in our home. We are gaga over babies!👶

We've had the opportunity to meet and become friends with the first sister missionary from New Delhi, India assigned to the Church Headquarters Mission. Her name is Sister Paul and she is an angel AND a pioneer! What an honor to know her!

                                Wannakum to India??

We also had a new VW couple move in next door to us who are waiting to go to Australia but served in India 9 years ago. The Loures told us alot of what to expect -- the good and the difficult! She mentioned somedays they would only have water for 2 hours and they would busily fill up all their buckets so they could do dishes later, wash their hands, flush the toilet, etc. Boy, we take alot of things for granted don't we? But that was 2014, surely that's been fixed by now...right??

Thursday night I had a bit of a miracle I wanted to share. I was paired with Hal, another missionary at the Greeters Desk. It allowed us to talk for nearly an hour, as the night was slow. We got on the topic of our health and we each mentioned the maladies we endure (we swore as we got old, we wouldn't talk incessantly about our poor health but oops, that's where the conversation went). Hal mentioned he takes 3 drops of iodine in a glass of water for his thyroid every day. I thought gee whiz, it sure wouldn't hurt to try it so after the temple Friday we found a Nature's Grocers store and bought a bottle. For anyone who's known me for 5 minutes or 30 years, they know there are 2 things I absolutely dread -- cold weather and air conditioning! That night as I went to bed, I felt like someone or something had lit my pilot light and revved up my inner furnace. I didn't have to sit in front of our space heater trying to warm my popsicle toes like I normally do. I found I could even bear to have my arms outside of the covers.  It was a most pleasant sensation to feel blood in my extremities! So here I've been getting my thyroid levels checked yearly and dutifully taking my thyroid meds for 28 years with none of my symptoms removed. One time I spent an inordinate amount of money to have a blood panel done to get at the root of my hypothyroidism. They said my autoimmune disease was caused by "leaky gut" and wanted to sell me books and remedies but that never felt completely true either as I have no digestive issues compounding my diagnosis. Why didn't any doctor ever tell me to try this simple remedy? Because it was too easy and inexpensive and didn't create revenue, I guess. Anyways, I'm hoping that I will see improvements as dramatically as I did that first night. To me it felt like a miracle. Maybe my mind was ready for it as we had been studying the story of the woman who had a health issue for 12 years and only wanted to touch the hem of the Savior's garment for she knew she would be healed. "Jesus Savior, Pilot Me" took on new meaning. I have felt the blessings of health and protection while serving this mission and wanted to bear testimony of the goodness of God to deliver this solution to me, via Hal. I feel I can weather the last of the winter weather better now and perhaps any other circumstance we might be asked to bear in the future. This week we've walked in snow, rain, lightening, thunder, hail, and severe wind and frigid temperatures. We won't complain because we know many of you have been shoveling on top of that! We know it could always be worse.

We have taken advantage of our extended SLC stay and in just about an hour we'll see the BYU International Folk Dancers.  I hope to include a couple of photos from this performance to end this blog. 

We obviously couldn't take pictures during the performance but it was incredible! The women are so lovely and the costumes are gorgeous but watching men dance and their displays of strength and agility is what we love the most. Our favorite was the Indian dance and not just because we love all things Indian. Ask anyone there and they'll agree, it was spellbinding!  We loved each and every dance but the Hopak from Ukraine was the ultimate finale! Praise the Lord we could be here to feel such joy from watching this expression of joy and happiness!

Major Status Change!

 Yes!! It finally happened! We were given the news that............ drumroll please...........................................

We will be adding a new member to our family that just might enjoy playing with little planes, trucks and cars. We're finally able to tell................................. we're having a grandson!!

Ok, sorry for the clickbait, we know what you were thinking. (heheh) But this is news we've been waiting for many years to hear. Our daughter Rachel gave us this gift last Christmas but she didn't want us telling anyone for 2 months until their gender reveal so that they could make their announcement on social media first. Oh, the agony of a non-disclosure clause! We sure have had to keep a lot of secrets lately ie. marriages, pregnancies, etc. 

She hath taken away our reproach!

Just this last Monday we had a family zoom meeting and found out the happy news that we can now share with one and all. We are literally the only missionary couple we've met for the last 4 months that have 0 grandkids. I tell ya, blessings sure come to people who decide to serve missions! 

But besides that major announcement, everything else is status quo. Except...The BIG EVENT going on all around us for all amateur and professional Family History buffs..... RootsTech2023. When we heard about it back in December, we assumed we'd be long gone by now but we're actually so so glad we were here for it. It was huge and it was a blast to be a part of it all. The volume of guests was incredible! We enjoyed the many perks, (oh, we did eat!) the throngs of people we met from all over the world, and the many personal visits from friends and family, not to mention the brand new friends we made.  

                                         St George neighbor Ken with many India connections

                                                              Highschool friend Linda 

                              2nd cousin once removed Dave from WA. who I'd never met before. Nearly savant                                       at remembering names and dates. One of  my 23,454 cousins at RootsTech.

One special encounter this week tops them all. A beautiful international family came in who were members of our church, asking for help in getting some family ancestor names found so they could take them to the temple the next day. They had twin 11 year-olds so they wanted 10 names for baptisms plus 2 endowments for the parents. A righteous request if ever there was one.

                                                             A miracle waiting to happen

 Dad Scott was from Scotland. Mom Beatriz was from Beatrizland, jk, from Brazil but her ancestors were from Portugal. Obstacle #1- Scott's grandpa's name was super common in the town of Aberdeenshire. #2- all they could recall was Grandma's name being Ina. It just so happened that an intern named Lynzi was sitting on the other side of their computer, she overheard us attempting to find some record matches and coming up with zilch. She joined in the quest to help but sadly, we had no luck and by then the family said they needed to be somewhere else very soon. But Lynzi had some new ideas so we said we'd keep looking for them. So no sooner after they left, that's when the miracles started happening. Lynzi's friend Melissa had told her about this website called Scotlandspeople.com since it's her emphasis country of research. It was free to peruse the index of records so we just kept putting in Scott's grandma and grandpas' names, nicknames and guesses of approximate ages they might be. The rule is if you have 1-a name, 2-an approximate date and 3-a place, you might get lucky. Suddenly, up pops a marriage record of Thomas and Jamesina!! That was Ina's full name. We had found them! We were so excited you would've thought we'd won the Showcase Showdown! Not only that, it had both of their parents' names listed too so we were able to research their marriage records and find their marriage dates and then their parents as well. And the perpetual list goes on. Every generation found is a major victory! When we started transcribing the info into FamilySearch, strangely, they had been hiding there all the time, we just couldn't find them with the wrong name and they weren't attached to the son's tree, like a branch severed from its trunk. So just like popcorn popping on an apricot tree, once attached, suddenly there was a harvest of blossoming names, oh I'd say 10-12 at least, just perfect for the kid's baptisms. After the initial ecstasy wore off, we just started praying "Please let them come back, please let them come back!". It was my turn to be a greeter at the front desk and I couldn't keep my eyes off the big sliding glass doors. It felt like an eternity since they had come in the first time. I was starting to get a little bit discouraged that they weren't serious about returning but just about then, I saw them through the windows. It was like Christmas morning but better. When we showed them their tree and all the records we had found, they were ecstatic, we were ecstatic all over again, and we had a gigantic Hugfest! Once again, they had to leave to be somewhere but we promised them we'd get their cards printed and cut and would leave them in Guest Services for them when they came back in the morning before our shifts. 

                                                                  The Miracle Dream Team

It's a testimony builder when the Lord puts people in the right place at the right time when they are needed for a special purpose to bless His children. Always both the givers and receivers are blessed in these instances and they all rejoice together. We bonded tightly with this family and the 2 interns Lynzi and Melissa through this experience. We only wish we could utilize Lynz/Mels amazing expertise every day, as they normally work remotely from home, not at the library. We're a little teary we won't see them anymore now that RootsTech is a over. (Sigh) Thank goodness for Facebook to stay in touch with the many many friends we are making on our mission.

       Poor Polaroid quality photo but the best of Instamatic-Friends

By Saturday 5:00PM, we were plum tuckered out from the 9-hour days we had put in all week but we had one special event still to go. We invited all our Indian YA friends plus our kids Maddy and Franklin for an evening temple trip. With some last-minute cancellations, we ended up having only Raj able to join us. It was just the right size group. We felt so joyful being together and marveled that night how the Gospel of Jesus Christ unites us all; Americans, Peruvians, Indians, Scots, Brazilians, male, female, married, single, full-time missionary, part-time intern; all are alike unto God and all are so loved by him. 

                                                  What a Mod Squad!