Several Short E-mails

[In response to her mom's weekly e-mail.]

The pictures are beautiful. Thank you so much for this email it made me smile, laugh, and get a little teary. I think it's funny what you said about how I look. I think after my mission I will forever be part Panamanian. What a strange history I have...born in England, grew up in New York, family in Utah, studying in Idaho, and living in Panama....haha but I love who I am and who I`m becoming. I know I have so much to learn but as my Zella says, We`re getting there. 

Merry Christmas family :) I love you!!

[In response to her grandma's advice about doing splits with members.]

My main concern about doing splits with members isn't the problem with unity. My companion and I are getting along really well and we wouldn't have problems with that. My main concern is that I am still getting to know my area and my area is really big. But I definitely want to work with the members and we have many plans to be able to do that. 

[In response to what to do about people who are struggling financially.]

As far as families that don't have food...we've been working with the bishop on that. The problem that we have is the stake will not help families that aren't fully active in the church and the family that we have is having problems with that too...but God can't bless people that aren't doing their part. We`re working with them. Yesterday we talked to them about tithing and I shared an experience about when dad didn't have a job for a year and you guys paid double fast offerings because of your faith in knowing that God would bless us...even when we had a big family with many mouths to feed. Thank you for being such good examples to me and for providing me with experiences to help other people. Yesterday we focused on the head of the house because he is having problems with taking responsibility and his wife is doing a lot of his part...aka leading the family. We talked to him about how he has priesthood authority and responsibility and that God has confidence in him. The next lesson that we have with them we want to talk about self-sufficiency and financing. We prayed with them and promised them that if they do their part God will bless them. The head of the house committed to paying his tithing when he finds a job. 

I know that they will be blessed. 

As far as carrying food with me...I haven`t met any other families that are really struggling right now so I haven`t seen the necessity. The people here have money..but it's not a bad idea to have something just in case. 

[The weekly e-mail.]

This week we made a real effort to focus on the people here and the work. We had some really miraculous experiences that I would like to share with you. Amazingly they both happened in the same day which was Friday, December 27th. 

The first experience happened like this: we were sitting on the bus. We had just come from an all-sisters conference. I was sitting next to someone, talking to him, and my companion was behind me. When I looked over at her, the people sitting next to her made a comment and my companion said something like, "She`s my companion." Then they asked us what church we`re from. She said the full name of the church and they had never heard of it. Then she said, "People know us like the Mormons." She told me that their faces lit up and they said, "You`re Mormons?! Mormons are so cool." Well the way they said it was, "Que pritty son los mormones." She got their phone numbers from them and we want to visit them this week. 

The other experience that happened...a few weeks ago we contacted an old man and then taught his daughter and grandson. My companion and I were not focused on him. The most recent time that we went to visit we started talking to him. He said that his daughter and grandson weren't there. As we were talking, my companion was inspired to teach the restoration. As we spoke with him he told us that he has always wanted to know which church is true. He said that so many different religions have come to talk to him but that none of them had shared this message. He is 78 years old. In our minds we judged him as someone that wouldn't be interested in the gospel...but God had other plans in store.