Jan 15, 2010

The middle of January already!!! The time has gone by so quickly!! Leon and I just shake our heads in disbelief.

Today is Saturday and it has been a day to rest and get things done around the apartment. This has been a good week. We have been able to teach Merina twice and she has been very receptive. We are excited because she seems to love the things that we teach her. That makes us rejoice for her. The Gospel is true. Joseph Smith is a prophet. The Scriptures are true. Our Heavenly Father and Jesus CHrist do love each one of us and desire to help us. We have seen that so much here in the mission field. This experience has been such a great benefit to me.

Back to Marina. She is Spanish and has three very cute children. Her mom lives with her and takes care of the kids. Her mom has been less active in the church, but has indicated interest in getting her back to church. Marina and her Mom botgh came to our Relief Society meeting last Tuesday and enjoyed themselves. Marina is very young. Two of her children are in school and the other is four years old. She is separated from her husband. We are hoping to get her mom and the kids to church tomorrow. Marina has to work every Sunday. So we will have to see where things will go with that.

I love the attitude and faith of the people of the Spanish culture. They sincerely believe and trust in God and his ways. Even though they are Catholic, they seem to sense a part of the truth, anyway.

"Yesterday we had some good things happen also. We went to deliver a media Book of Mormon to a Spanish guy. He seems very interested. WE are hoping to get in and talk to him about it next week some time. He was very nice and also speaks English. I talked to him on the phone and then met his wife in person as she accepted the Book of Mormon. We will call them next week.

We also stopped in Walmart to shop and this lady comes up to use and asks if she can give us a hug. So she is throwing her arms around me and telling me "thank you," as she is explaining that she is a member that is less active. She lives in Sulphur Springs and we are going to visit her on Tuesday night. That is so exciting that she would comes to us and tell us that she is a member. Wow!!! It made us both very happy that she would do that.

This morning Maricella called and told me about a man whom she is sharing the Gospel with. She has him reading the Book of Mormon with her little family every day. He is asking her questions and wants to understand it! So today she called to ask us what to tell him. I answered her question the best that we could and gave her the confidence to carry on with him. I told her to just call us when she wanted some help. She was so excited. Neat!!!

On another note, Alyssa is dating a fellow who is not a member. Hopefully he will recognize what she has and want to have it too. He is a very nice guy.

Bill and Michelle are not doing too well. Mostly they are fighting with each other. We don't know if their marriage will make it or not. They both have so much disfunction. We have decided that the best thing we can do is keep teaching, but stay away from their disagreements. They both are very angry with each other and their two children. It is so sad. There is a lot of yelling in their home. Bill is having a difficult time feeling the spirit because there is nothing but anger there. They are both so use to it, they don't know how to change it.

We made our airline reservations to fly home the end of March for Suz's wedding in Idaho Falls. That is going to be so fast. We just pray that we will be able to finish out our mission strong and finding people to teach.

WE have been in Sulphur Springs for about seven months now. Today is transfers and there is really no reason to transfer us at this point. But ELder Whiting keeps teasing me and preparing me just in case something should happen. I can't imagine why oe where it would happen. We are happy here anyway.

Hopefully the next time I write on this, we will have some new people to teach!! We keep praying for that to happen.