Here are more stories from readers about their experiences encountering other Mormons in unexpected places.
A few years ago, my wife and I traveled from our home in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex to Salt Lake City to attend general conference. Air travel was provided by our daughter, who is employed by a major airline, and tickets to the Conference Center were made available by our stake president, so we looked forward to an enjoyable weekend.

Little did we know how unusual this weekend would become. We had tickets for two of the general sessions of conference and one for the priesthood session that I would attend alone. We watched the other two sessions of the conference on the hotel TV where we stayed.

After the Saturday afternoon session, I got in the appropriate line to enter the Conference Center for priesthood meeting. My ticket was designated for the last section to the far right (speaker's left) of the area under the balcony. Being more than an hour early, I had my choice of seats in that section. I chose the first available seat on the aisle at the left side towards the front, which would allow me to stretch out my long legs during the meeting.

The building slowly began to fill. As time went by, I visited with the people next to me and introduced myself to the person behind me. While discussing where we lived; he mentioned that he had come from Colorado Springs and was there with his father-in-law who lived in Salt Lake and had stepped out for a moment. He stated that his "in-laws" had just returned from a mission to Bulgaria.

Mention of Bulgaria piqued my interest, as my wife and I had completed a mission in the Freiberg Germany Temple a few years earlier, where we served the Saints from many of the former Eastern Bloc countries, including Bulgaria.

When the father-in-law returned to his seat, I mentioned that I had learned that he had just returned from a mission in Bulgaria and asked whether he had had the opportunity to visit the little temple in Freiberg along with the Saints who came from Bulgaria. He replied that the missionaries were not permitted to accompany the Saints to the temple, but he had wished that they could have done so since his ancestry came from that part of Germany. I elaborated on our experiences serving in Freiberg and commented that my ancestors, too, had come from that part of Germany. About that time, the meeting began and we had to take our seats.

Following the opening remarks, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and heard the man to whom I had been speaking ask whether I was familiar with the name Edward Schoenfeld. I was surprised, because Edward Schoenfeld is my great-grandfather, and he and his family were baptized, together with their in-laws Karl G. Maeser and his family, in the Elbe River in Dresden, Germany, in 1855 by Elder Franklin D. Richards.

I turned and mentioned this to the man behind me. He was equally surprised and said, "He is also my great-grandfather." We each took out pencil and paper and sketched our genealogy, along with our names, addresses and other contact information. From this, I learned that his name was Stan Schoenfeld and we could see that we were third cousins.

I was overwhelmed as I considered the odds of being randomly seated in a building with the capacity of the Conference Center and finding myself located right in front of my third cousin, whom I had never met and of whom I knew nothing.

Since our first encounter there, Stan and I, as well as other descendants of Edward Schoenfeld, have formed a bond and have corresponded with each other regarding family histories and genealogy. About a year after our meeting at general conference, we again went to Salt Lake and arranged a dinner meeting with as many of the descendants of Edward Schoenfeld as we could gather. We also invited our Maeser cousins to attend, and two of their families were represented. It was a delightful event that lingered on into the night as we shared stories and information about our common ancestors and ourselves.

-- Rodney S. Taylor, Bedford, Texas

After my mother passed away, my dad, Derral Child, married Emma Lou.  After my dad met Emma Lou's daughter, Dana, and her husband, Doug, he asked Doug if he happened to be related to his mission companion, Marvin Ashby, when he served in the Central Pacific (Hawaii) Japanese Mission from 1947 to 1949.

It turns out that Marvin Ashby is Doug's father, and my dad and his former missionary companion were able to get together and reconnect after almost 60 years. When Doug found out that I was from Napa, Calif., he said his brother, Lyle, served a mission in Napa in 1983-84.  After talking to Lyle on the phone, I discovered he baptized a family my husband knew.

-- Lyn Walkenhorst, Napa, Calif.
As I travel through life, there are many connections I make with people. Even though I live in a very small community in Arizona, it is quite well-known throughout the church.

As a family, we take temple trips. When we visited the Orlando Florida Temple, our children came from the baptistry and asked if we knew Steve and Dalrie Frost. They were working at the LDS Church's ranch and were with the youths doing baptisms. Of course, Dalrie grew up in my same ward in Show Low, Ariz. On the same trip, we stopped at the Atlanta Georgia Temple, and a sister said she used to live in Snowflake right in our ward boundaries.

On our visit to the Copenhagen Denmark Temple, the temple president saw our recommends and told us his favorite mission companion was from Snowflake: Dean Flake. My husband was his home teacher at the time. Many miles from home we were given VIP treatment. At the Germany Freiberg Temple, a worker asked us where we were from and said her niece married a boy from Snowflake -- Nephi Bushman.

When we visited our daughter in Round Rock, Texas, the assistant Explorer leader came and said he was raised in Snowflake. His dad was in our ward. The president of the Bern Switzerland Temple said our son's mission president grew up in his home ward: "Yes, Tad is a good boy!" Wherever we go, there are connections to Snowflake: "Oh, I had an Elder Flake from Snowflake for a companion!"

-- Nancy McCleve Bailey, Snowflake, Ariz.

I left France in 1971 and was baptized a member of the LDS Church with my wife, Nadine, in Australia in 1973. I returned to France in 1976. I lost contact with the missionaries who had taught us.

Now, I have three sons and two daughters, and one of my sons lives in St. Quentin in the north of France. Recently I lived with my son for two years to help him do work on his house. A young lady from our ward in St. Quentin went to study in Adelaide in South Australia; she went to the temple there and found a couple named Terry and Tina Bramford. The Bramfords were (mine and my wife's) friends when we lived in Australia; Tina was baptized along with us in 1976. Tina had made contact with the missionaries who had taught us.

Before this, I had been thinking of trying to write the Bramfords to tell them what had become of us. Then all this happened! The Bramfords e-mailed us and we were able to get in touch with Elder Rawlinson and Elder Anderson -- our missionaries. While visiting Salt Lake City, my daughter who lives there and I went with my missionaries to the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple.

While my wife and I were on a tour in China on Aug. 2, 2007, we were going from the dinner restaurant into the National Chinese Ballet theater when we ran into the in-laws of our youngest son. They were on a different tour from Vancouver, British Columbia.

There we were among 1.3 billion people and met our dear friends, Garry and Carol Kerrison. It truly is a small world when we have friends and family in the church.

-- Roger and Marlene Jones, North Salt Lake, Utah

Soon after my then-husband and I married, we moved from Nevada to Florida, a state no one in my family had even visited. My Florida bishop's father had been my father's bishop in Salt Lake City, the one who had sent my father on his mission.

After the mission, my father became a schoolteacher and moved to Las Vegas. My Florida bishop's wife had been one of my father's students.  When the bishop's wife grew up, she became a schoolteacher in Salt Lake City, and among her students were my first cousins, my father's nieces and nephews.
 
-- Dana Tischer, St. George, Utah
I went on my mission to Germany and had a wonderful experience using my language when I was not expecting it. I was going on vacation to Nauvoo, Ill., with my family, and we visited Carthage Jail.

We were greeted by a pair of sister missionaries, who offhandedly asked if anyone spoke German. When I replied that I did, they introduced me to a German family who happened to be just about to take the tour. I translated for them and then spoke with them a little afterward to find out about where they were from.

I found out that they were from the same city as my one native German companion on my mission, and that the mother of the family had been his primary teacher.

-- Michael Young, Clearfield, Utah


Twenty or so years ago, I was having lunch with friends in the Washington D.C. Temple cafeteria. A woman came up to me and asked if I was Grace Pratt's daughter. When I confirmed that I was, I also recognized her as Matilda Andreason. My mom had been her seminary teacher in Kailua, Hawaii, at least 20 years before that. Matilda was then living in Michigan, and I lived in New Jersey. She was actually closer in age to my sister, so I didn't know her well.

Three years ago, my husband and I were volunteers at the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center during the Hill Cumorah Pageant. We were in the Resource Room when a man approached us and called us by name. He was laughing at us, as he realized that we didn't know who he was. So he gave us clues until we finally guessed that he was Boyd Hoggan. We had been classmates with Boyd at Utah State, from which we graduated in 1960. We hadn't seen him since then, but our name tags identified us. He didn't say if he recognized us without the tags. He was there with his daughter and her six children. She was 2 years old at the time of our graduation.
 
I am now an ordinance worker in the Palmyra New York Temple. I wear a name tag there, so it's not unusual to hear someone say, "Laura Lee Edwards, what are YOU doing here?" The first was a young man who knew I didn't recognize him. When he told me his name, I acknowledged he'd been a teenager when I last saw him. He lived in our ward in New Jersey where he was a peer of my son and daughter. He was then a bishop in Owego, N.Y.
 
-- Laura Lee Edwards, Canandaigua, N.Y.

It was 1944 (during World War II) and I had married a serviceman just three days before in my Kaysville, Utah, home (the Bamberger Railroad station, incidentally), and we had just arrived in Chicago by train for our honeymoon and to visit my new in-laws. It was during the overnight layover before boarding another train downstate to Streator, Ill.

This fellow-Kaysvilleite had recently been transferred to a school at the Great Lakes Naval Station and was getting acquainted with Chicago on foot. It was a neat experience to introduce my husband to my Mormon friend in such unusual circumstances.

-- Dorothy Miller Lotz, Kaysville, Utah
I served as the 187th Infantry Battalion Chaplain of the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division at Camp Evans Vietnam in the forepart of my 1971-72 overseas tour. Camp Evans was located in the northern part of South Vietnam not that far from the DMZ.

When I arrived at the battalion, the commander offered support by giving me the choice to acquire an assistant right then from troops in garrison, or wait for a soldier's return from the field who had expressed interest in being a chaplain's assistant. My choice of the latter proved to be a little amusing, yet inspiringly providential.

A few weeks later, Spc. Marsh Gurr returned to garrison and applied to be my assistant. During the interview, I asked him to share his religious background. During his response, Marsh told me he was a Latter-day Saint.

Needless to say, I was surprised and at the same time thrilled and amazed at the odds of two members of the church meeting under such remote and unusual circumstances. When Marsh finished, I delayed telling him I was an LDS chaplain and playfully asked, "Are you one of those, what do you call it, 'John-Mormons?'"

Marsh forthrightly answered: "You mean 'Jack-Mormon,' sir!" Then he adamantly added, "NO, SIR, I'm a returned missionary from Japan." 

After asking him a few more questions, I finally said, "Well, Spc. Gurr, you may be interested to know that I am an LDS chaplain."

At that moment Marsh and I simultaneously rose to our feet, meeting in a hug of grateful appreciation for this special "small LDS world" blessing. If my memory serves me correctly, I was later told that Spc. Gurr himself became a chaplain in the Air Force.

-- Calvin Kunz, New Braunfels, Texas

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Ten years ago, my husband and I traveled to Sweden to visit old friends, who were serving as temple workers in the Stockholm Sweden Temple.  We went through the final session before the temple was closing for two weeks.

After the session, my husband was in the dressing area when a man approached him and said, "I understand you are from Mesquite, Nev. I have old neighbors who live there. Do you happen to know the Thornleys?"

My husband answered, "No, they're just our home teachers!"
 
Then, in the summer of 1977, our family went on a 2,900-mile trip from California to Maine and back. We stopped at Joseph Smith's home in Vermont. As we were walking toward the visitors center, a missionary was walking toward us. As he approached us, he put out a hand and greeted my husband by name.

My husband did not recognize the missionary, but the missionary said he remembered my husband and me, and that his family had lived in the same ward when he was a child and had moved when the missionary was about 10 years old. We had a reunion on the spot.

-- Judith M. Horsley, Sun City, Calif.
One fast Sunday we walked into the chapel, where I noticed an unfamiliar woman waving at us. I told my husband, who recognized Sharon.

Some years earlier, while attending BYU, my husband, Ralph, had arranged for his roommate Dave to go on a date with Sharon, a girl from Ralph's home ward in Oregon. Sharon was furious about being set up on a blind date, but Ralph persuaded her to go anyway. Dave and Sharon hit it off, married and moved to California after Dave finished his university degree.

While living in California, Dave introduced a co-worker to the church and watched the family join the church. The new members moved to Washington state, and the former co-worker was called to be elders quorum president in the same ward where Ralph and I were living. On the Sunday that Dave and Sharon had come to witness their friend bless his new baby, they found the one who introduced them to each other.

-- Minou Shelton, Ridgeley, W. Va.
When I was a girl, my family moved every couple of years. We lived in wards on both coasts and in the Midwest. Each ward we moved into we would inevitably meet families from old wards or their friends or family.

There was the family from our ward in Fairfax, Va., who was in our ward in Denver. My best friend in New Jersey had an aunt in our Temecula, Calif., ward.

Now living in Utah, I'm amazed at how often I run into old friends from all over the United States.

One of my favorite stories has got to be about my good friend from middle school in Succasunna, N.J.  She ended up roommates at BYU with my best friend from Virginia, then later served a mission under my current bishop.
 
-- Tami Peterson, Midvale, Utah
Ten years ago, I spent six weeks in Singapore on a business assignment.

Everything was unfamiliar, and I was anxious to find the local LDS church, meet some members and attend Sunday meetings each week during my stay. During my first sacrament meeting, the bishop stood up to conduct the meeting -- he looked so familiar, and I could tell that he recognized me, too.

After the meeting, I immediately introduced myself to him, and we quickly realized our previous connection. Bishop Jackson and his family had lived in my home ward in Ogden, Utah, for a few years, probably during my early teenage years, while he was completing a medical residency. Having no contact with each other for probably about 15 years, it was wonderful to see a familiar face in such an unfamiliar place.

-- Bradley Hart, Highlands Ranch, Colo.

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This story happened in the early 1980s before our daughter, Alene, married her fiance, Scott Hortin.

We took them to visit my in-laws in Ridgecrest, Calif., one weekend so they could meet our new son-in-law to be. We went to church with them Sunday morning.

Because my mother-in-law likes to visit a lot, the five of us walked to their home and left the car for my mother-in-law.

When she arrived home, she told us that she had invited the elders for dinner. I was not happy about that and wondered why she didn't think she already had enough guests. I was in the back bedroom packing our things because we planned to leave for home right after dinner.

All of a sudden, there was a tremendous commotion in the living room.

I went there and found a lot of laughing, hugging, and back-slapping going on. One of the elders had been Scott's roommate at BYU, and they had lost track of each other. They had been in the same sacrament meeting less than an hour before but had missed each other.

Because my mother-in-law had listened to the Spirit and invited them over, they were able to reconnect.
 
-- Gloria Bell, Los Gatos, Calif.
My husband and I took a trip to the Hawaiian island of Kauai some years ago to escape the depressing winter scene of West Jordan, Utah.

After months of preparation for the trip and extensive research of Kauai, we had taken the airplane trip and had finally arrived. Our kids were staying with relatives, so that was one less thing to worry about. We had just finished a huge home improvement project and we really needed a vacation. I remember arriving in the tiny airport of Lihue. It was after dark, so all I could see on one side of the road was the red volcanic dirt with beautiful mountains looming large in the distance and to the other side was a vast nothing where I supposed the Pacific Ocean lay.

The condo we had booked to stay at was a simple, but tidy group of rooms that were perched on the beach looking out toward the ocean. I went to sleep to the lulling sounds of the ocean.

The next day I went on a run along the Coconut Grove Coast. It was windy, but I got to watch the sun rise over the ocean's horizon and silently I gave thanks to be in paradise and see some of Heavenly Father's most spectacular creations. That day, my husband and I went to Wailua Falls, where the opening credits of "Fantasy Island" had been filmed. We hiked to the bottom of the falls using greasy ropes left by the locals. The jungle was thick with mango tree roots and extremely slippery. We used the ropes to navigate our way down to the pools made by the falls. Once at the bottom, we marveled at the double waterfalls tumbling down a distance of 175 feet. It was fun to be that close the magnificent falls.

Later we went back to the hotel to swim in the pool. The pool overlooked the ocean and was surrounded by trees that held delicate white and pink flowers that would fall onto the manicured, short-cropped island grass.

It was then we met an amazing couple -- they came walking down to the pool, and we noticed that the man was wearing a BYU baseball cap. Once they made their way to the hot tub where we were soaking our tired feet, we got up our courage to talk to them. It wasn't just the hat that gave them away that we might have something in common. It was the way they were dressed, acted and glowed.

I asked them if they were fans of BYU. One cannot assume that someone is LDS just because of a hat they might be wearing. They didn't look Hawaiian and we weren't on Oahu, so that ruled out BYU-Hawaii.

They replied that their daughter was attending Brigham Young University. We then asked if they were from Utah. They told us that they used to live in Orem, but they currently lived in Florida. It was at this point that the men grew sleepy in the warm tropical sun and went to their prospective chairs to read and sleep. Regardless of this, the woman and I continued our conversation.

We proceeded to talk for easily an hour and a half. She felt compelled to tell me her touching story.

She moved to Florida and her husband was out of work, so she decided to study for and take the exam for her contractor's license. She had five children but managed to start and run a construction company when she passed the test and received her license. They proceeded to build a spec home, live in it for two years, sell it and build another. They did this several times until they were able to build their dream home. The husband was able to help in the company in other aspects while he looked for employment, but it was her company and she ran it.

During this time frame, this woman hurt her back severely and became wheelchair-bound. She continued with her business, but it was a tremendous strain on her personal as well as her family life. She told me she had always been an independent and physically fit person, but now was helpless in a wheelchair, which required her to be dependent on her children and her husband to take care of her.

At that time, her husband decided to become the breadwinner in the family and take an active role in providing for his family. The woman now was more at home, spending quality time with her children, teaching them to be a more service-oriented family than they had ever been. Over time, her body healed and she was able to get around more on her own. She had not gone back into the crazy schedule of work that her company had demanded at one point. She realized that it was more important to spend time with her kids than to build better and bigger homes for them to live in.

She did find that if she was prayerful, she could balance her family life with work. She really enjoyed what she did and couldn't completely give it up. She shared many personal and inspiring thoughts with me.

I was very touched by her life story, and it has stayed with me always. I don't know what happened to that nice LDS couple, but I have remembered her story of courage and trials and how she made it through.

Her story came to help me down the road when my husband and I were at a crossroads of change. Because of her story, I went into real estate when my husband's job changed to a lower-paying one. I was able to balance home-life with a career, which gave us much-needed income. I knew that it wasn't ideal for me to work, but when it became necessary, I was able to find a job that I could balance my family and work, if I kept close to the gospel and kept my priorities straight. When my husband's employment situation improved, I quit doing real estate, so I could be home with my children more.

I wish I had gotten that woman's address. I would like to have kept in contact with her to thank her for making such a large impact on my life. She was a fellow member of The Church of Jesus Christ, and became my "visiting teacher" on an island a long way from both of our homes.

-- Mylinda LeGrande, West Jordan, Utah
When I turned to Page 6 of the June 27, 2009, Mormon Times and was reading Wayne Brickey's (my institute teacher) column, "Sites and Insights," I glanced at the article next to it. There was an article about Ashley Bracey, who was competing in the 2009 Junior Miss competition. To my surprise, it was Richard and Kim Bracey's daughter. Brother Bracey was my bishop when I was in the Clover Hill Ward in Midlothian, Va. When our stake split, he went on to the Midlothian Stake presidency.

Kim Bracey was an organist in our ward, but I also knew she composed music with another sister. I happened to be a member of the Richmond Mormon Chorale at the time, and we were honored to be permitted to sing one of Kim's songs. I await the day Sister Bracey has a recording I can buy and be inspired and uplifted again. What a blessing her music was.

I had about forgotten my excitement of hearing about the Bracey family when the Mormon Times of Sept. 26, 2009, came.  There on the front page -- it can't be -- it looks like Wayne and Nancy Stafford's daughter -- and IT IS! Again, it was wonderful to read about Sister Sarah Stafford on her mission in St. George, Utah.

I've been away from the Richmond, Va., area for about two years. I actually left a month or two after the Braceys moved -- they to Utah while I moved to Missouri.

Though I love being in Missouri in the Gallatin Ward, reading about my church family in Virginia touched my heart and brought back many fond memories.

-- Georgianna Taylor, Hamilton, Mo.
I have been married to a wonderful husband for almost eight and a half years.  I met my husband on the LDSSingles.com back in 2000. At that time, one of my best friends, Robin, who was one of my missionary companions in Japan in 1982, encouraged me to try the service. I was a graduate student at the University of Utah at the age of 45.

One day, I met my future husband, Gordon, who at that time, lived in Farmington, N.M.,  online. About two months later, I met him in person for the first time in Salt Lake. At the first date, guess what I learned as we were talking? Gordon knew Robin back in the mid-1970s, when they were both students at Kearns High School.

I have a 2 1/2-year-old girl who is adopted from China. Every Friday, my daughter plays with a cute little friend who is a step-granddaughter of my very dear friend. This "very dear friend" was one of my missionary companions in 1981 in Japan. Her name is Michiko, and she is originally from Hokkaido, Japan.

Michiko and I were missionary companions in the winter of 1981 in the Japan Okayama Mission. About 30 years later, we enjoy seeing each other every week and run after two adorable toddlers here in Utah! I live in South Jordan, and Michiko lives in West Jordan currently. May I share how Michiko and I ended up living this close?

When I got married to Gordon after graduating from the U. in June 2001, I became a permanent resident of the United States. As for Michiko, she also met her husband online.

Michiko, while she was in Japan, met Tony in 2003 online, and they got married in 2004. She bravely moved to Utah from Japan to start her married life. When I first learned that Michiko was corresponding with Tony, I was quite curious about how things might go. 

Then came a surprise! I learned from Michiko that Tony was a resident of West Jordan.  Gordon and I have lived in South Jordan since 2002. I told Michiko that West Jordan and South Jordan were neighboring cities. How excited I was at that time, although, Michiko was not sure about what the future would hold for her.

I asked Michiko to find out Tony's exact address so Gordon and I could "check up."  He lived only two miles away, so one day, Gordon and I got on our bikes and went to see Tony's house. Later that day, I reported to Michiko, "His house looked nice, and his garage was organized in an OK manner." (His garage door was open).

The rest is a history. Tony and Michiko were eventually sealed in the Tokyo Temple, and she moved to West Jordan. That is why I can see her every week. Michiko and I can speak our own language and help and support each other.  When I think of this fact, I cannot help but thinking about our Heavenly Father's love for us. He knows each one of us, and watches over us.

-- Haruyo Noguchi Wright, South Jordan, Utah
It never ceases to amaze me that almost every time I go to Temple Square or the surrounding area in Salt Lake, I run into someone I know, be it an old mission companion, schoolmate, or acquaintance.

Another example of this was when I was at Utah Sate University. I was in a financial management class and had made a comment about taxes in Oregon and Washington. After class, a gentleman rode up behind me on his bike and said, "Excuse me."

I moved over to let him pass, but he said, "Are you Justin Hansen that lived in Puyallup Wash., years ago?"

I confirmed this, and he told me he was Scott Wardle. This was thrilling, because for a while we had been good friends, both my dad and his, as well as he and I. He was getting ready to be married soon, and my family was able to attend his reception. It was a rather delightful experience.

-- Justin Hansen, San Antonio, Texas
The most interesting experience I have had in this regard was when my wife and I were living in Fort Wayne, Ind., and had gone up to Chicago to go to the temple there.

We were eating dinner at a nearby restaurant. When I excused myself to go to the restroom, a couple immediately came up to talk to my wife.

Their first question, with concern in their voice, was to inquire what had happened to Charlie. The couple from St. Louis had previously lived in Dallas where my wife's identical twin sister had lived with her husband, Charlie. They were relieved to find out that Charlie and his wife had moved to Utah and were still very happily married.

-- Steve Ray, Provo, Utah
One evening about 20 years ago, a ward member named Ann was at our home to teach my son his weekly piano lesson.

My mother happened to be visiting at the same time, from California (she was not LDS). We three sat around the table after the lesson having some ice cream, and for some reason, my mom recalled a unique old sofa my husband and I had in our student apartment at BYU. This sofa folded out into a bed by lifting the back of it and letting it flop down -- only then it had a big "crevasse" in the center so the sleeper or sleepers rolled into the center. It was really quite a curious and uncomfortable invention.

Ann, the piano teacher, got a funny look on her face and asked if the sofa was olive green and where had we gotten it. It was indeed olive green and we had bought it at Deseret Industries for $20 when we married and moved into that apartment.

She and her husband had given their olive green flop-down sofa to D.I. when they left Provo earlier that same year -- it had been cast off to them by her elderly aunt a few years before that.
 
So here we two close friends had both furnished our first apartment with the same sofa, nursed our babies sitting on it, put up unsuspecting guests on it, etc. Twenty years later, we still occasionally laugh about that coincidence.

-- Suzanne Walker, Beaverton, Ore.
My most recent experience was when my oldest daughter just entered BYU as a freshman. Her new bishop is the cousin of her grandmother (my mother-in-law). He now affectionately calls her "cuz." Of course, he is in his 70s and she is only 18.

We recently had a visit in Beijing of a young married couple from Utah who are teaching in HouHot, Mongolia. Riding home in the car, the wife mentioned that her father teaches voice at BYU. It turns out he is my daughter's vocal tutor.

-- Barbara Moore Toronto, Beijing, China

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My wife and I were booked for a week-long cruise in the sunny Carribean and decided to go a couple of days early so we could go to the temple in Houston. We love to go to the temple in whatever city we visit.

After a very nice session, we wanted something from the small distribution center around the corner and went in to pick it up. No sooner were we in the door when a man we did not know hurried up to us and said "Sister Stone, my wife wants to see you."

Our response was, "Who are you and who is your wife?"

It was odd because the woman in question was in a totally different room and we had to go into the room to see who she was.

Lo and behold, there sat Jolanda, who had been in my wife's Young Women class, was a good friend of two of our daughters, whose parents are our good friends and whose father taught school with me at two different schools in Calgary. She had seen us for the one or two seconds it takes to walk past a window and had sent her husband out to catch us and usher us in. She was in this other room because she was nursing her baby.

We never know who is around the corner and watching us, so we had better behave wherever we go. 

-- Dennis Stone, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
In 1986, I was working as a community health nursing consultant at a university in Upper Egypt. At that time, the nearest branch of our church was in Cairo, more than three hours away by train, and I was never able to attend.

Finally, the week before I left Egypt, I attended the small Cairo Branch, which was wonderful. After the service, I was approached by a woman in the branch who was living in Cairo with her husband and children. She asked me where I was from. When I told her I lived in Salt Lake City, she replied that when she had lived in New York City, she had a good friend from Salt Lake. Half jokingly she said, "I don't suppose you know her," and told me her name.

Not only did I know her,  we grew up in the same ward together and had been close friends ever since. I even visited her in New York City when she lived there.

-- Susan Stevens Kaelin, Salt Lake City