Memorial Day Weekend - May 26, 2012

That sounds like a lot of fun going to see the air show. How nice that you got VIP passes and were there without lots of people and that the weather was so nice. Those planes do some crazy stuff. That is cool that one is a female pilot. I love David. That is so nice that he calls you and sees how you’re doing. He is the best brother. That is so kind of them to make a package for me. I can’t wait to hear from them. Wow the back of the house is gone. That is crazy. Really good though that it is now in the spring and not during winter. You both have had some interesting adventures with the house lately. Wires getting cut shutting off the power to parts of the house and bath tubs that will not shut off. Sounds like lots of excitement. You have so much pool work going on right now. That is a bummer that you still have so many problems with the cement. Hearing your story about how the new cement all turned orange would have been surprising to see. I can’t believe how many flowers you both planted. 384 is so much. I bet the yard looks so beautiful with all those flowers. You're going to get lots of comments this year again. This week I went on a lot of divisions to Coatepeque, my old zone. It was pretty good to go teach people there. They have lots of awesome investigators that I think can get baptized very soon. They only need some more lessons and church attendance. I challenged some people to baptism and they said yes. The missionaries just have to teach some more and they can put a date for the baptism. I liked teaching. I thought about some things during the lessons that I think all missionaries here need to do more. We can teach every lesson to people focusing on their needs, but the amazing thing about preach my gospel is that every principle from every lesson can be linked to baptism. As you relate all the topics to baptism and the blessings we receive it is easier to challenge them to baptism. Missionaries need to make it clear from the beginning why we are there. We are there to bring them the truth of the gospel and prepare them for baptism. With that it is easier to invite others to be baptized in the first lesson and they know why we are doing it. I learned several things that I will apply more to my teachings and how I invite others to the gospel. On Thursday the entire office was all back here to go to a special dinner at President's house. I met their other son that is a return missionary living back in Nicaragua and Hermana Maravilla's mom. The special dinner was to celebrate the birthday of Hermana Maravilla. We brought her some beautiful arrangement of roses and flowers with a giant cookies n cream chocolate bar. She loved it. Then we all sang happy birthday in English and sang Santos Venid (Come come ye saints). It is one of her favorite hymns. It was so powerful that she cried. I was very happy that she really enjoyed our singing and we all wrote in a card. It was special for me to celebrate her birthday with them. I don’t know it I told you but there are churches here that don’t have a baptismal font. The church has bought some portable fonts to take and this weekend the first baptism in one of these fonts took place. I will have to get some pics and send them. I enjoyed what JJ wrote about his baptism with the tarp and duct tape and glue. What an adventure. Sounds like they could use these portable fonts that we have. This week I saw an article talking about fruits and health benefits. I thought about you. I know it is really hard to lose the ability to have snack foods, trust me because I seem to be snacking all the time here in the office. I’m surprised I’m not 185 pds like I thought. But you can snack on lots of fruits and nuts right? That would actually be really nice. In the article it talked about Pterostilbene. You pronounce it Tero-still-bean. It is a super healthy antioxidant found in red grapes and even more in blueberries. It has many helpful effects such as helping to prevent cancer, cholesterol management, and reversing age-related cognitive decline. The other benefit that struck me most right now because of recent events is that pterostilbene can also help in control of blood sugar. It has benefits of lowering blood sugar levels. Kinda crazy. In the health article it also talked about how wonderful dark chocolate is for us. So I’m going to eat more red grapes, blueberries, and dark chocolate. I just wanted to share that with you cause I thought the blueberry pterostilbene effect of controlling blood sugar was cool. Oh one other thing. I bought a new suit. I picked the colors and got it all measured to fit me. I will have it on the 5th of June. I’m really excited about it. It will have two pairs of pants. I will have to write more about it later and send pics when I get it. I think it was a very good deal. I’m really really excited for a suit that actually fits me nicely. I found a website for a company in Orem that makes custom suits and they send stylists to you to take measurements and help design you dream suit. It is not that much either. I might have to take advantage of that when I get home. This week will be a good one and I think we have lots to do again. I love you and love reading your letters. You are the best mom and I really want to make you proud. I love you so much and can’t wait to hear from you again. Be safe and be happy. All my love, J