Weeks are flying by: April 13, 2015

There are so many things in my heart that I couldn't find a title.  Last Sunday, Susane gave me a huge hug and said "I will miss you."  I was really surprised and asked her where she was going.  She explained that she wasn't going anywhere, but she would miss me when we leave and time goes quickly.  She was correct in two ways.  First, time has gone quickly.  We have been out over 10 months.  Someone said that the days drag on but the weeks fly by.  There is some truth to that.  Some days seemed a little slow, but time is passing so quickly.

What I did not know, but Susane must have felt, is that our call was changing and we would be moving.  We will still be allowed to work with the Branch, but we will not live as close and will be busy during the week.

This week was filled with emotion.  We are beginning to say goodbye to some of the friends we have made.  We have become close to a man who works in the grocery store here.  He is Jewish, and commented once on how we had not tried to convert him.  When we saw him at the store, we told him we were moving.  He wants to stay in touch, and so do we.  We told him we are going to give him a Book of Mormon with our testimony.  He said he wanted us to.

We did the same with our neighbors we have grown to love.  We told Bala that we are moving.  He was thinking of trying to find a less expensive place to rent, and would consider moving closer to our new home.

 We were asked to be ushers for a Rootstech conference here in Roswell.  I was amazed as I sat in on some of the sessions.  For any of you who may think you know how to research, you really should attend one of these.  You can see the sessions at rootstech.org.  I would recommend it.

On the happy side, we celebrated Elder Castro's birthday.  It is so fun to do nice things for the missionaries, and especially on special days.  I have been surprised about how many of the missionaries don't get packages from home.  For some, their families simply can't afford it, for some, the mail is too unreliable.  So we try to look out for the ones serving here.  We had fish because that is what Elder Castro wanted.  It was his first time eating asparagus.

This week has begun wonderfully.  A new teacher was called for Primary and she will have the children from 8-9.  I will have the ones 10-11.  That makes it much easier because their levels are so different.  We also have a new young man and he does not speak English.  Since the new teacher speaks Spanish, they were able to communicate and she loves it because she is learning Portuguese!

Our Young Women's President has returned from Brazil.  I have not been asked to continue with the Young Women, but I would like to help them.  The President has never been in Young Women in her entire time in the church.  She welcomes help.  Besides, I would miss these Young Women.  They are amazing!

And three of them are going to Girls' Camp!  I am so excited for them to have that experience.

Then, after church we had a baptism of Fabricio.  He is a choice man.  He was found while he lived in Tennessee.  The mission there does not have missionaries who speak Portuguese, so our missionaries were asked to teach him.  They taught him by Skype on our internet.  He eventually moved here and is working for a member.  He is a really wonderful person.  He had given up smoking and drinking before he ever met the missionaries.  The Branch is trying to help him with a better place to live.

The baptism was beautiful.  Elder Dixon performed the baptism.  He holds a special place in Fabricio's heart.  I am so grateful to have the opportunity to see these great things happen.