coincidence?

I was debating over whether I should write something I already knew about (easier) or something I would need to do a little bit of research (harder), but every time I really focused my thoughts on my next assignment, I felt very strongly that I needed to write a story about my great-grandparents. I have heard a few unique stories about them, but I really don't know very much--and I didn't know that I was going to get very much more information than what I already knew--but I finally called my mom and asked her to tell me every single thing that she knew about her grandmother and grandfather. She reminded me that she had previously emailed me a letter that my great-grandmother, Edith Raven, had written. 

So I typed the name Edith Raven into my email search bar and found that my mother had actually sent me the letter twice--once in 2007, and again in 2013. I started reading Edith's story, and came across the name "George W. Gasser," and I had to read it again--my friend's maiden name is Gasser. I texted her, "Do you have a relative named George Gasser?" Yes. Did he serve an LDS mission in Texas in 1931?  Did his middle name start with a "W."? She texted her dad and then called me. 

Yes! She had a Great-Uncle George Walter Gasser who served in the Southwest LDS mission, which probably included Texas in the 1930's. 

My mind and heart have been going crazy for the last 3 hours. You see, my Great-Grandparents, Edith and William, had 8 children. Augustus Goss is one of them--he is my grandpa. Augustus and Roberta had 9 children, 7 of them living, and one of them is my mother, Connie. 

I don't know very much of Edith and William's story. I don't know who baptized them into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, perhaps George W. Gasser. But without this man, my grandfather, and therefore my mother, would not have been part of the LDS faith. And then my mom wouldn't have met my father at BYU, and I would never have been born. I would have never met Joe! I wouldn't have these four beautiful children! 

I told my kids about Edith and William over dinner, and then I told them the story about our friend's Great-Uncle George. And I don't know, but perhaps Kristy and I were watching her uncle and my grandparents, knowing that 80 years later, we would be friends--again, only because of two young missionaries and a family searching for the truth. 

Yes, I think that I will write Edith and William's story. 

(I don't have a picture of Edith and William. This is their son, Augustus, my grandfather, and my grandmother, Roberta)