OFFICE TRAINING IS DONE and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This week in the mission has been a busy one.  Transfers come early this week and we will lose the wonderful Elders who have been training us in our office duties.  We are also getting ready to receive 18 new Elders and Sisters. Thanks, to these young Elders for their patience and skill.

We attended church this morning in one of our assigned branches, the Naguilian Branch.  There were probably about 30 members there for Sacrament meeting and about half that many for Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society.  We laughed that they probably wanted to start the new reduced meeting schedule a week early.  The Branch President ask us to teach the combined Priesthood / Relief Society lesson on serving in a "Higher and Holier Way".  Sister Roberts did a great job, with only a few minutes to prepare.  After church, the Elders assigned to that area took us to visit a woman and her daughter who was recently baptized.  We drove our car as far as we could and then got out to hoof it through mud and meadow to find the home.  

We had to wait outside in light rain until she was ready to let us in. She was helping her daughter finish bathing.  Removing shoes is expected when entering a home even though the floor is dirt. 

 She was cooking something in a black pot over a small fire in the corner of her house.  Heavy steel cables were strapped across the roof to keep it in place during a typhoon.  We reviewed a reading assignment from Akalt Ni Mormon and then asked her to pray.  I don't know what she was saying but she wept as she prayed and we all felt the spirit. I know that the Lord loves these people and blesses them even when they have so little of comfort and security.

  

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday and a prosperous new year.  We love it here!  Something special for the parents of our two grandson's who are hoping to put dirty diapers behind them.  We found this item in one of the stores.  It attaches to the bathroom wall with suction cups and the boys can try and make the pinwheel spin.  I wish we could send it to you but perhaps you can find one at Amazon. I apologize that the image is sideways.  I couldn't figure out how to rotate it in the app.  Just look at it tilting your head. TeeHee - Elder Roberts