It has been a month since I last wrote, not because I don't think about you every day, but just because our life here seems pretty boring and predictable! But I do want to let you know how it is going and also to let you know that we love you and think of you every day.
Today we had a fun experience. Some background information; we have an investigator named Milagro. She speaks some English and I speak even less Spanish, but we have managed to meet with her and teach. She had a date to be baptized just before we arrived but she didn't show up. She had another baptism date when Kaitlin and Tyler were here, but called and canceled it. She told us she wanted to attend church and make sure and get baptized when she was more sure. We pretty much put her on the back burner but made an occasional visit before the hurricanes. When we returned to the island she called us to see why we hadn't come to visit her. Without phone service she didn't know that we had gone off island. Dad and I have made a visit there every week since then to teach her but haven't tried to commit her to baptism.
This week as we were contemplating what to teach her I had the thought that we needed to talk to her about setting a date for baptism. When I told dad, he said he had the same thought. We went to our appointment with her and read in the Book of Mormon in Alma 32 about planting the seed. As soon as we finished she blurted out that she needed to set a date to get baptized! We didn't even have to ask her. We feel better about her getting baptized this time. We are hoping it will work out. Please keep her in your prayers. At first she wanted to be baptized in March, but today she told us that March is the month she had been baptized into another church and she wanted this baptism to be separate and special so she moved it to April 8. If she holds steady and goes through with it, we will have Chris and MiKell and family here to have a branch baptism with us. Wouldn't that be exciting! It will be on a Sunday after church.
But now I have to tell you the fun experience we had today. She is so happy and wants to share her joy and she wanted to cook dinner for all her friends. She invited us over to dinner today with her friends. She was worried that we might try to preach the gospel to them and warned us a bit not to, so we just enjoyed the experience. I think she might have been testing us and her friends a little to see how her friends would react to us and us to them. We had a really great time and had hugs all around when we left. She was the one who actually did a little teaching about the church to her friends!
I was worried about eating the food. There are a lot of good dishes they cook and dad has eaten a lot that he likes, but I am pretty squeamish when I see how many pigs feet and snouts that are sold in the stores. They love goat soup, bull foot soup and other things that I know I would have a hard time eating. I have to admit I was pretty worried about the food and didn't want to offend her. I said my prayers this morning asking for help. Heavenly Father really does hear our smallest pleas for help. I was able to eat things that I didn't know what they were and the taste seemed ok to me. She heaped up huge servings on my plate and I was able to eat everything except some small round bone things that could have been pig something. It was a small miracle and I felt that Heavenly Father heard my prayer this morning and I didn't offend her or throw up.
Yesterday, I looked at lds.org and saw a video of Elder Davis of the presiding bishopric visiting Puerto Rico. It was an interesting video but it did something strange to me. In the video we could see a meeting they held with all the new missionaries, our mission president and wife and the two other senior couples all together. We were the only ones in the mission not at that meeting. It started to bother me how isolated we are here. We weren't even told that they had a conference with Elder Davis. I felt distanced from the mission, separated and like no one was even aware of us. The mission president is busy with receiving all the new missionaries coming in, so we haven't talked with him as frequently as at first. This morning I had to really ask for help in my prayers to not get discouraged and to not let it bother me that no one seems aware of us. That shouldn't be important, but I am weak and it was bothering me. Tonight out of the blue, the mission president called. It was interesting that he called my phone instead of Elder DeMille's phone. We visited for a while and then I put it on speaker and he talked with both of us. When we hung up I had the distinct feeling that even though I feel isolated and abandoned, that Heavenly Father is very much aware of us. And the mission president being very much in tune with Heavenly Father's will was impressed to call us tonight. I didn't tell President all this stuff, but when I got off the phone it was a very strong feeling that we are being watched over by Heavenly Father and that he is aware of us and had the mission president call.
So, tomorrow we will start a new week and I will feel refreshed and ready to move forward. Often times we expect big miracles to happen to us like those mentioned in the scriptures. More often, however, it is small miracles that remind us Heavenly Father is in charge. His spirit can convince Milagro set a baptism date. He can temper the wind, the elements, and the food I have to eat. His spirit can urge a mission president to call in times of discouragement. If I could tell my grandkids something that would help is to watch for those small experiences where Heavenly Father manifests His spirit in our lives. Write those experiences down. By the end of our lives, we will have hundreds of those experiences. Too many to doubt that Heavenly Father does indeed love us and wants us to be happy and successful. He has a plan for us and when we use our faith to follow His commandments, He blesses us with His spirt.
In the sacrament prayers we are admonished to "always remember Him." Life gets busy and sometimes we forget to remember Him. But ALWAYS, He remembers us. That is very comforting.
We are planning another Relief Society dinner in March. Last time there were as many non-members as members so it is a good missionary tool for us. It is also fun to get my creative hat on and think of simple decorations that we can make with the limited supplies we find on island. The big challenge will be to decide a menu that everyone will enjoy. Last year I made Hawaiian haystacks thinking that everyone would love chicken and rice. The Cruzans didn't love it and thought it strange food and let me know it too!
Happy Birthday this month to Carson, Aiden, Chris and Emma. We hope you had a good day. We wish we could have been there to eat cake with you!
The gospel is true and I love you. Have a great week. Mom
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