October 11, 2010

We had a great day at church at the Belize Branch yesterday.  It was fast and testimony meeting.  

Mostly men bore their testimonies—a couple of women spoke near the end of the meeting.  Though many are converts, I think these people have a lot of faith.  Chelsea, a little primary-aged girl, got up and said she wanted to express her testimony by singing a song.  In perfect pitch she sang the primary song “What Has the Father Asked of Us?  Be Like His Son”.  She closed “in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen”.  The Spirit was really in that meeting. 

Also, there were 4 little babies blessed today—3 girls and 1 boy.  I wondered how many of those young mothers were married. (I found out later none of them were.) 

The Sandbergs came yesterday afternoon from St Ignacio and stayed overnight. We had dinner ready for them, as Elder Sandberg had interviews at the church right after.  Later, 5 young men met here for the missionary preparation class.  We had Mystery Pudding with ice cream for refreshments.  When I went to take the foil off the freshly baked pudding, hundreds of little sugar ants were crawling all over it.  Sister Sandberg and I just dumped them off and served it up.  That was all we could do.  The young men loved it and asked for seconds.

Left to right:  Branch President Gordon (only back from his mission to Georgia a few months ago), John, Warren, Mika, and Elwood (recently back from a mission to Georgia, as well). 

This past Wednesday night, we and Elders Choc and Lunt were able to go to Leticia Peters’ house and teach her and her two children.  This was  our first time to be in a local person’s typical home.  They live pretty humbly.  Letitcia was willing to read from the scriptures and even said the closing prayer. 

We bought a "gym" membership at a local Best Western hotel.  We go swimming 2 or 3 times a week.   Most days the water feels pretty cold when we get in at 8 am, but after a few minutes it's okay.   

We buy big 5-gallon bottles of water at the water store for drinking water. We also use a special pitcher with a Seychelle water filter that Dave and Christine Ostler gave us.  It is a big help. 

We spent quite a bit of time with the young elders and sisters this week jumping through all the necessary hoops to get all of our work permits. This is why we went to Belmopan a week or so ago.  In three more weeks we should all have them.  The permits are good for one year. 

Elder Pattee drives the mission van, which is a "stick" shift.  Sometimes hauling missionaries around on mission business is also part of our job.