Opening the Envelope

 "This is as unique a cultural celebration as the Hindus walking over coals in India," I murmured to Mike and Heidi at Jono Ebert's "Opening the Envelope" celebration on March 8, 2018.  Leaving on a mission is an important and (usually) joyous rite of passage for young Mormons.  They apply to Church headquarters to go on a mission and then eagerly await receiving their envelope telling them when they will leave on their mission and where they will go.

 Jono has lots of friends and they turned out en masse to share Jono's mission call with him.  There will be many more parties like this in the next few months, as Jono's friends receive their own mission calls.  Camille set out chocolate chip cookies, eclairs, and brownies, and everyone grazed as the crowd gathered.

 "Opening the envelope" is an occasion for family to congregate, as well, in person and by phone.  Mike and Heidi joined the crowd at Camille's house and Jonny watched the event via Skype, through Dave's phone.  Lisa was at work, but asked us to email the news as soon as we learned it.

 Steve's Ebert family also arrived en masse.  Steve's dad, Al, is a witty fellow from whom Steve gets his delightful sense of humor.  We were glad he felt well enough to come.

 Steve's sister, Marilee, checked out which seats were available for older folk.

 Steve's sister,Chris, arrived, and chatted with other friends and relatives.

 The little kids scooted upstairs and down, relishing the food and excitement.  Mia loves her Ebert cousins.

 Sophie invited her best friend to the party.

 Ezra watched the event with special interest, since he will follow his brother in going on his own mission some day.

 Annie is old enough to help her mom prepare for the crowds.

 Finally, it was time to get down to business.  Jono stood in front of the crowd as Dave Skyped the event for Jonny.  Dave was also asked to give an opening prayer.

 Steve welcomed the group, and then Jono opened his envelope.

 Fukuoka, Japan!  It was the perfect mission choice for Jono.  He has visited and loves Japan, he has taken courses in Japanese, and he was president of the Japan Club at Olympus High School   Jono will leave at the end of July.

Hugs all around, and then the crowds grabbed a cookie and wandered off to find the next Big Thing.

Mardi Gras!

Laissez les bons temps rouler! We celebrated Mardi Gras on March 4, 2018.  I set out masks, beads, and a Mardi Gras poster.  Our grandson, Michael K Flindt, and his wife, Rebecca, helped blow up the purple, yellow, and green helium balloons.  Michael K and Rebecca were visiting from BYU-Idaho to use their Christmas present from Lisa and Kyle--tickets to the Broadway tour of "Sound of Music" at SLC's new Eccles Theater.  It was a treat to have them stay with us.

 Naomi and Spencer fried the shrimp and corn beignets, served with remoulade sauce, as our appetizer.

 Kirsten drove up from BYU-Provo with Naomi and Spencer.  Kirsten had great news.  She has decided to go on an LDS mission, and she will be leaving in September!  Kirsten helped serve our fresh strawberry "mocktail."  Mardi Gras is a boozy event, so we have had to make substitutions!

 

Our entrees were New Orleans classics--shrimp and sausage jambalaya, red beans and rice, and crabmeat au gratin.  Dave's brother, Alan, joined us and brought a fresh loaf of homemade bread.

 Steve and Camille were in Hawaii for Steve's work, but the Ebert children joined us.  Jono will receive his mission call any day, and the family has been guessing where he will go.  I suggested Delhi, India, and Dave suggested the Japanese Spanish-speaking mission in Omaha, Nebraska. (No, there is no such thing, although the San Francisco, California mission includes missionaries who speak 30 languages, according to its newly called mission president, my law partner Paul Durham.)

 Ezra's diet used to be limited to just a few items, including white rice, macaroni and cheese, and bananas.  He is developing a more sophisticated palate, although he was not quite up to all the spice of Mardi Gras.

 Sophia, at 13, is getting prettier and prettier.

And so is her sister, Annie, who lights up each room she enters with her bright smile.

RootsTech 2018

This was my third year at RootsTech, the huge family history conference held in Salt Lake City each February.  2018 was the biggest and best--four days of non-stop lectures and presentations, with 17,210 registrants for the nondenominational portion of the conference and 26,000 attendees for LDS "Discovery Day."  Among the hundreds of choices of classes, I focused on three areas that particularly interest me--use of DNA in genealogy research; the records of Ireland and Scotland; and the genealogy search engines I use most often (Family Search, Ancestry, FindMyPast, and Newspapers.com).  My family history goals this year are to write the biography of my Grandfather Hyrum Calder, to trace my Hamilton ancestors from the English plantations in Ireland back to their Scottish roots, and to continue providing new family names for LDS temple work.

I love everything about RootsTech, including its styish logo and the late winter lift it gives me to attend.  I look forward to this event all year.

Each morning, RootsTech hosted a general session before the individual classes began.  I especially enjoyed the presentation of Henry Louis Gates, a Harvard professor of African-American studies and the host of a "trace your roots" TV show.

Dr. Gates told about searching for his own family history.  The earliest Gates in America was Aunt Jane Gates, who was born in slavery and whose 1888 obituary listed her as "an estimable colored woman" who owned land and was a nurse.  Dr. Gates' grandfather, Edward Gates, was described by family members as "light and bright and damned near white."  Although Dr. Gates is dark, his DNA shows that he is 50% European.  Through DNA testing, Dr. Gates is searching for the white ancestors who fathered Jane Gates' children.

Another guest was Natalia Lafourcade, a Mexican pop/rock singer who recorded "Remember Me" for the Disney film, "Coco."  There was a long-standing rumor in her family that they had French pirate ancestry.  RootsTech traced Natalia's ancestry back to a French sailor in Marseille who emigrated to South America, but RootsTech couldn't verify whether he was a pirate!

One of the delights of RootsTech is the display hall, where nearly 100 family history vendors sponsor displays.  I have had my DNA tested through Ancestry, but I bought tests to also have it tested through two aggressive start-ups--Living DNA and My Heritage.  They provide features that Ancestry does not.

And certainly not least, I enjoyed my schedule of classes, including this one by Brian Donovan, the founder of FindMyPast.  FindMyPast has the most extensive records, of all the search engines, for England, Scotland, and Ireland.  I will definitely be back to RootsTech next year!

Tucson with Bernie and Elinor

Home again!  David and I lived for four years in Tucson, from 1972 to 1976.  Dave was a social worker in the Air Force, and he replaced Bernie Engelhard.  Bernie and Elinor were our first friends in Tucson, and they have been dear friends ever since.  Bernie and Elinor had two baby daughters in the 1970s, Sandy and Donna, and we had two baby daughters, Lisa and Camille.  Our daughters are now grown up with adult children of their own, but the Engelhards and we have stayed close.

Bernie and Elinor live in a lovely home on an acre of land on the east edge of Tucson.  Their pool and backyard was featured in Sunset Magazine several years ago.  Jonny and Michael still remember swinging from the rope over the pool when we last visited Bernie and Elinor in the 1990s.

Bernie and Elinor gave us a typed agenda, when we arrived on Thursday, February 22, 2018.  It was filled with four days of delights--gourmet meals at home and at local restaurants and slide shows of trips and family.  We especially enjoyed the video of the Engelhards taking their grandson, Nicholas, to Israel, where he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at the Wall in Jerusalem.  We also went on hikes, visits to Sabino Canyon and the Desert Museum, and the Tucson Rodeo.  Most special was joining Bernie and Elinor at their synagogue and then attending a brunch at which Bernie and Eleanor told about the trip they took to Germany and Poland last year, searching for their ancestors.

On Thursday afternoon, we took a tram ride through beautiful Sabino Canyon.  When Lisa and Camille were little, we took them on picnics there, so long ago.

 Elinor walks 30 minutes every day, so she was always searching, while we visited, for new trails.

 Elinor and I hiked to the waterfall in the Sabino Canyon state park.  It had just rained, and so there were pools everywhere.  "You could not have chosen a better time to visit Sabino Canyon," Bernie and Elinor told us.

On Friday morning, Dave and I woke early, for the 7 a.m. session at the new Tucson LDS temple.  Bernie called Dave, last fall, to say that he and Elinor were going to tour the temple, and wouldn't we like to join them?  Bernie attends and teaches Jewish genealogy classes at an LDS stake house each month.

 We appreciated the beauty of the desert even more on this trip than when we lived in Tucson.

 On Friday afternoon, after lunch at a popular Mexican restaurant, we visited the Desert Museum.

The Museum has stunning views of the Tucson valley, as well as a memorable collection of desert animals and plants.

The Museum defines Baja California as part of the Southwest desert ecosystem, and so has stocked a pool with friendly sting rays.  We reached in and let their silky skins rub against us.

 Big horn sheep ruled the rocks and spiders hid among the crevasses.

 We searched for javelinas and coyotes, the wild animals that lurk around Tucson homes.  It was a sunny day and the havelinas were cuddled up together, asleep.

On Saturday morning, we attended the prayer services at Bernie and Elinor's synagogue.  It is a Conservative congregation (rather than Orthodox or Reform).  The 2 1/2 hour morning service was mostly in Hebrew, with English transliterations and translations in the prayer book.  The Rabbi/Cantor and laypeople led the psalms and other readings, and I sang along with other members of the congregation.  After the service, there was a wonderful lunch of lox, breads, salads, and cookies, which is a weekly incentive to attend services!

 David wore a cap to the synagogue, as did the other men.

On Saturday afternoon, we attended "La Fiesta De Los Vanqueros," the excellent Tucson rodeo.  It drew cowboys from all over the country, including a bronc rider from Panguitch, Utah!

No photography is quite so fun as a rodeo.  I captured horses with some or all feet in the air, and a bullrider flipping head over heels off of his bull!

 One cannot forget the rodeo clowns.

 The solid row of cowboy hats showed the devotion of rodeo guests to "western culture."

 Tucson definitely has the flavor of the Southwest, including this churros stand and a tortilla factory next to the parking lot.

 Note the license plate on this truck!

 On Saturday night, we dined at Vivace, one of Tucson's finest restaurants, located high in the foothills.  The food was luscious, including my seafood stew.

 On Sunday morning, I helped Elinor prepare for the fifteen guests who came for brunch.  The food was wonderful--bagels and lox, tuna and vegetable salads, fresh fruit, Elinor's homemade banana bread, and brownies.  One friend brought quiche and another brought her much-praised apple cake (and I got the recipe!).

 After brunch, the guests listened to Bernie and Elinor tell about searching for their relatives in Germany and Poland.  Some were caught in Europe during WWII, and not all survived.

 After the presentation, a few of Bernie's and Elinor's friends shared their ancestors' stories, as well.  It was an experience I will always remember.

 Dave and I went hiking with Elinor, on Sunday afternoon, along the Rilitto River to the Jewish Community Center.  We admired the many classes offered at the JCC (such as Syrian cooking), the huge gym, and the displays of art.

We were touched by the memorial to those who had died in the Holocaust.  We then spent one more evening eating barbecue and watching slides, and then crept out Monday morning at 5:30 a.m. to catch our plane home.  We are already looking forward to meeting Bernie and Elinor at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in July.  They may stop by, in the meantime, on a trip to Idaho, and we would love to repay their graciousness!  We will have to prepare our own agenda of Salt Lake City's best sights....