April 29, 2008

Dear Family:

Mother's Day is coming up! I'm going to ask the President if I can call on Monday so I can talk to April and Kevin. But I'll email you next week.

We had a really cool fireside by Pres. and Sister Texeira about how Preach My Gospel is Modern Scripture for all people. It has awesome chapters that you guys could really learn from, if you wanted to start studying it. Like chapter 4: How can I recognize the Spirit. and a lot of others.

What I never knew about being a missionary.You're not just a teacher of the gospel, you are much, much more. Consider, for example, the following, non-exclusive list:Skirt-Finders, Match-Makers, Health-Advisers, Wedding-Planners, Marathon-walkers, Health-Advisers, Miracle-Enablers, Hunger-Relievers, and All-Around-Problem-SolversPaulo and Andrea, two of our old investigators (remember them , are now engaged, thanks to Sister de Jesus. They are to be married on June 7th. We picked the date for them. And Sister de Jesus told Paulo when and how to propose. They were kind of languishing, without working really hard to get married so they could get baptized, so we decided they need a baptismal date. So we prepared and taught several lessons about love and families, and after the one this week, Sister de Jesus asked Paulo if he would accept June 7th as a date for his wedding and baptism. He said yes. Sister de Jesus then asked Paulo to ask Andrea if she accepted this date, so he started to say, "Andrea, do you accept June 7th as the date of your baptism and marriage." But Sister de Jesus said "no, no, no, Paulo... on your knees, with this plastic flower plant, and we're not really here." And so he proposed, and she said yes.Érica, another of our investigators, is young and single, and trying to stop drinking coffee, so we taught a lesson about Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom. Our ward mission leader had given us a bottle of the Postum-equivalent that they have here, so we gave it to her. We called the mission leader about something or other and he said "There's been a misunderstanding, my mom wants to tell you something." Sister de Jesus was really concerned... that maybe we'd done something to offend his mother or something... But she (not a member) had tossed out the postum and replaced it with COFFEE! And we gave it to Èrica. Que vergonha. Luckily she hadn't drunken it yet.And the examples go on and on... we do all sorts of things. It's kind of fun, usually. And always an adventure.

Love you, miss you,
Whitney