The 1940 Census Miracle

Wednesday March 5, 2014

Mike had yet another great reunion at the temple today.  Here are his comments.

Today in the temple, we were helping another group of youth in the baptistry when an elderly couple came in and asked to be able to do baptisms for some of their ancestors.  As the sister came out of the font, she looked at me closely and said, “I know you. Were you a missionary here before when you were younger?”  I confirmed that I was.  She asked if I had ever worked in Colonia Suisa.  I said I had worked in Colonia and that I was the district leader over Colonia Suisa.  She got very excited and talked about the knowing that I was the Branch President and how she remembered those times and the people that we both knew. She was still in wet clothes from the baptisms so I hurried her off to change with a quick hug. Later as I entered the office in the temple, I encountered her again.  This time she was even more animated.  She said, “You worked in the Deseret Ward in Montevideo”.  I confirmed that I had and she told me where she lived in Montevideo and reminded me that I often stopped by her house and had often eaten dinner there.  It was quite a little reunion and I will never cease to be amazed at how important missionaries are to the people they visit and teach.  They remember them and love them.  End of Mike’s comments.

When it was time for me to change clothes to go home, I had to go out to the foyer and tell Mike it might be a while because my locker was being used.  The sister in the locker was talking away, very excited as she relayed her findings of Elder Burnett to the other temple workers.  I have been made very aware of what a great impact my wonderful companion has had on so many people here in Uruguay.  He is my exemplar.

Thursday March 6, 2014

We had smaller groups at temple today but a strong confirmation from the Spirit on the marvelous blessing the Indexing program is for people.  Sister Zanni is a temple worker and she related the following story about finding her grandfather.

Sister Zanni, a marvelous, sweet, elderly sister that works diligently in the temple, quietly set 2 family cards on my desk as we were doing baptisms for, and in behalf of the dead, an ordinance performed anciently in the temples and also performed today.  When the time came to perform the baptism in behalf of this long lost great aunt, I turned around to make sure she was there to witness it.  She was and was obviously quite moved and very happy at seeing this done.  A short while later as it came time to do the work for the great uncle, I turned and saw that she had left to help someone.  I had them pause and Debbie went looking for her.  She returned shortly with Debbie and was obviously very grateful we had waited.

I spoke with her after we had finished for the afternoon and she explained that 25 years ago she had attended the temple in Chili, and while there the Spirit spoke to her and told her to look up and note how the temple ordinance worker looked exactly like her grandmother.  She looked up and it was so true.  She began to wonder why she had been reminded of her grandmother.  She realized that she had not done the baptism or other ordinance work for her ancestors.  That set her off on a 25 year search for her ancestors, most of which had come from Italy.  She spoke of how her mother had come to visit her and ended up passing away at her home and how hard it had been to take her mother back home to her sister in a coffin.  She lamented this and asked God why her mother had come to visit her only to die at her home.  Then she realized that her mother had spoken to her of where their family had come from in Italy.  That was her most valuable clue and led her to be able to find the records and do temple work for hundreds of her ancestors.  There was one great uncle however who had gone to New York and other than an Ellis Island report of his arrival, she was never able to find anything else about him.  Then, recently her granddaughter called her crying with joy because she had found the lost great uncle in the 1940 US census with his wife and child and other family members.  At that point I told Sister Zanni that Debbie had worked hard to get people involved in indexing that 1940 census and that she worked on it every day and even got me to help until it was all done.  At that point she again got tears in her eyes and said, “So, I was praying to be able to find my great uncle and Sister Burnett and others were working to answer my prayers. By that time we both had tears in our eyes.  I know how dedicated Debbie was to that project and to indexing in general for decades. End of Mike’s entry.

When Mike relayed this to me, my tears also came as another witness that FamilySearch Indexing has helped so many people and I am grateful to be a part of that.  I said to myself that who knows, but maybe our Stake did index Sister Zanni’s long lost uncle. 

When Mike relayed this to me, my tears also came as another witness that FamilySearch Indexing has helped so many people and I am grateful to be a part of that.  I said to myself that who knows, but maybe our Stake did index Sister Zanni’s long lost uncle. 

Our Mission President and his wife, President Cook met with us and the Pugmire’s this evening.  They came into the airport this morning but their luggage didn’t make it yet. After very brief introductions, we decide that our zone leaders who are coming in for Zone Conference tomorrow needed to be fed good meals.  We are back to cooking!  We dashed to the grocery store at about 8:30 pm and bought what we needed for tomorrow.  We told the Cook’s not to worry about anything.  We knew they were exhausted.  They were very appreciative. 

We got home about 10 pm and had some homemade strawberry ice cream. The recipe was called “5 minute ice cream.” Just blend your cream, strawberries and sugar in a blender.  Put it in the freezer for a bit. It was very yummy.