Stories From the Mission

I am so grateful for the family history mission.

For one thing, I get to hear people's stories, which I love.

Today I met Jon.  He and his wife love opera, so when they were called on a mission to Vienna, they were thrilled.  The mission itself was not so interesting; they digitized forms, BUT they were able to go often to the opera.  He loved that.  He told me how many operas he went to in 36 months, and I don't remember, but it was a lot.

I asked him where he got his love of opera and classical music, and he told me that his fourth grade teacher played Schubert during the noon hour.  He grew to love that type of music.  In fact, his career path was as a result of his love of music.

Jon taught Humanities at BYU for 32 Years.  He loved his job.  He has 4 sons (6 daughters), and three of his sons are in the Humanities field.  So, that teacher had a profound affect on Jon's life and his family's life.  (Many years later, he found her and told her of the powerful influence sh had had on his life and his children's life.  She said that he was the first student to ever come back to say thank you to her.)

Jon was adopted.  He was an only child and grew up in St George.  The neighbor girl told him when he was eight years old that he had been adopted.  And, he was fine with that.  He loved his parents and they were very good to him 

However, on the day he returned from his mission, his oldest daughter - who had been searching for 10 years - told Jon she had found his birth family.

This information has changed Jon's life - even though he has only had this information for seven months.  He has gone to Texas to meet his half brother and half sister.  According to Jon, they are wonderful, good people, and he has been thrilled about what is happening in his life.  He told me he is devoting the rest of his life to doing research and temple work for this new family he has discovered.

He truly feels JOY about his life; he goes to the temple often and does research.

It was a thrill to meet Jon and to help him today.

Not everyone has such great happy stories, but it's fun to hear them all.

And, I am grateful!