To ya’ll:

This week I felt bound and determined to have some really well thought out, memorable lessons. Yesterday, after a lovely dinner of chicharron (it builds character), we played a game with the little kids. We had madel ittle coins (talents) with kid's names on them and an idea on the back for doubling it, like “draw a picture of mommy” or “Give a friend a picture of Jesus,”, and then we hid them and they had to find them. Cool huh! Heavenly Father’s idea. After that we had asked one of the ReliefSociety women to go with us to visit a less active woman who just had her baby yesterday. This sister makes good bread. Great stuff. So we went to the hospital and her Baptist boyfriend and mom were there with her and we congratulated and sang a song and I don’t think her boyfriend had any idea what a role people in the church play in your life, even as a less active member. I know he appreciated the service and the Elders are going to go and dedicate the house they just moved into this week. I think he’s going to want to learn more. Also, we made a good contact with one of the nurses who heard us singing.

It was so slow yesterday in the Visitor’s Center I FINALLY got to watch women’s conference on the computer in Elder Tedrow’s office. All the other sisters on shift gradually wandered into the front office and we all sat on the floor and watched together. I really liked Elder Uchtdorf’s invitation to ‘pick a little space and beautify’ and then see only the good of it. I felt inspired. And then yesterday evening we got to see the EMMA movie at the visitor’s center. It is so good. If you haven’t seen the Joseph Smith or the Emma movie—Do it! They are both good and they were made at the same time, so they connect really well. I like that the main purpose of it was to get all her posterity in the same room/theatre. Get them talking to each other. It was wonderful.

We had an appointment last Tuesday with a Haitian named Antoine. SisterJeffrey, the one I talked about last time, went with us. It was really neat. He’s very smart and almost a citizen. English is his third language. Haiti only has four little branches on LDS.org. I looked because his whole family is still there. But surprisingly this man has met several members there and here. Still he didn’t realize this was a Christian church and he was excited to hear that news. It made me think of a scripture. "Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings ofthe Spirit which is in me, that there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord" (2 Nephi 1:6). There’s so many miracles that take place in people's lives and so many people that we have these meetings with and so I just assume, okay, The Lord needs this person to accept the Gospel now. But divine or not, people have agency and they need preparation. Antoine first met a bishop, then he talked to some inexperienced missionaries that didn’t give him very good info, then he met a member on a boat, then he met the Elders, then we went over and he missed our first meeting, and we finally got to teach him last weekand he realized we’re Christian, but has trouble seeing a need foranother testament of Christ. He’s so open-hearted. I feel like if he comes to church, he’ll feel the Spirit and it will make sense. But jumping from “Oh, you’re Christian,” to “I want to be a member” is a pretty big step. We’ll do our best to help him make it. But he might need more time to soak that in and look around at other churches. But when he’s ready to accept something else, he’ll be found again. Maybe by missionaries going through the area book or missionaries on the street or a member coworker. But the Lord knows where he is at and what he needs.

I had a neat experience in the referral center last week making calls. 7 calls, no answers. So I got up and left. But putting my referral cards back, there was an old business card in the bottom of the box. I called it out of curiousity and the person I called wasn’t a member! She’d come in last February and wasn’t ready for missionaries, but had given the sister her card, but now work was bad and she was wondering about what ‘eternal life’ really means, so I asked her again and this time, she was ready to have the missionaries over! So neat! Then one of the people I called previously called me back. He also said he would meet with themissionaries! I told Sister Williams, and she had called him before and invited him to read the Book of Mormon, because he just had one on the shelf, and he’s said, ‘Sure,’ but wasn’t up for missionaries. She called again and followed up and he still hadn’t read. She had a ton of cards and delegated this one to me, so I just called and asked if he’d read and he said, “Sort of” and he said he’d seen missionaries around, but never had like a sit down meeting. I asked if I could send them to answer his questions about the Book of Mormon and he said yes! So neat! If you want me to call anyone in the referral center lemme know.

So, I’ll end on that note. Love you all. Church is true. Thanks for the letters Lisa and Mom and Carollos and Christian!

From: me.