Is this summer or winter?!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Hello Fam! How are you all doing! Have you have a wonderful week? How is little Ava? I can´t wait to see pictures of her! Congratulations Jordan and Kristin!!! Did you all have a great Father´s Day? I hope you had a great Father´s Day DAD! Thank you so much for the e-mails! I can´t wait to know what is going on at home!
This week was wonderful! It has become really cold here (I think we are having some funky weather like you are having too...I even had to pull my winter coat out last night!) but the work couldn´t be better! Mom, THANK YOU so much for the recipe! It turned out perfect (that is definitely one to add to the recipe box). Joanne was able to print it off for me and she was SO happy with the little note that you wrote to her...she even got a little emotional about it! I know that your words are words that she will always treasure as well as words that I will always treasure. I am amazed how all of you immediately have such a strong love for the people that I am working with. Even though they are in the beginning only names included in my e-mails, through your prayers you develop a great love and concern for them that blesses their lives in so many ways! Thank you for being willing to serve and love like the Savior. You are wonderful examples to me! Anyway, the institute dinner turned out so good! We made pancakes and eggs and the ham sauce and I don´t think there was an ounce of food left on the tables! All of the people were just raving about it and asked us if we would be willing to cook it every week! It was really fun to be able to serve in that way and especially to be a support to the ward in that way. They are really struggling to find a leader for the institute and YSA center so I am glad that we are able to help in some way to keep it going! They´ll be asking us to cook again in a couple of weeks so keep me posted if you have any ideas for easy, time-friendly meals!
As far as investigators go we are a little low again. Emily will be leaving in a week to go back to St. Martin and we are hoping to get one more lesson in with her before she goes. We had a great miracle with Zjuleika this past week! We had an appointment with her on Tuesday and she really opened up and told us how she was feeling about what we had already taught her. She has interest but is a little scared to make changes. We pulled out a calendar to set up a baptismal date with her and something amazing happened! She said that before she makes the following appointment for her she wanted to make an appointment for us to do a family home evening with her and her two daughters! Only a week earlier she did not want us to be in her house when her daughters were home and in that amount of time she decided, with promptings from the Spirit, that she wanted us to teach her and her daughters. I will keep you posted on how tonight goes! We also found another new investigator, Gracita, and we will be teaching her for the second time this week!
We have done a lot more work with members and are seeing the fruits of our labors. Their hearts are beginning to soften and they are joining in the work. It is such a blessing to work with such wonderful and dedicated people!
We have interviews on Thursday in Zwolle and I got permission from President to work the rest of the day there. I get to look up old investigators and do some finding and I can hardly wait to be back in that city for a little while! I actually got to call Tineke and setup an appointment with her for dinner that night and I am looking forward to seeing her again. It really is a special blessing and privilege to be able to do this!
I love you so much and I know that God loves you too. He is your Father. He wants us to be happy and have success. I am so thankful that He sent me to the family I am a part of. You are all so wonderful, not only because of what you do but, more importantly, because of whom you are! I pray for you! Have a great week!
Love, Laur