Hola mi familia

Hola mi familia!

It was another wild week in Brownsville! Things are going great. Juan was confirmed this past Sunday and we're now teaching one of his sisters as well! We're still working with Robert and things are going great with him! This week we worked a lot with two less active families! The first is the Morales families...they have 3 daughters (22, 18, 14) and a son (8) and the step dad isn’t a member. The mom works on Sundays but the kids were able to come to church this week! We had a really fun family home evening with them and we sang Cuando Hay Amor (it just wouldn’t be a family night without that song!). They're a fun family and they've all started reading the Book of Mormon again.

As well we found the Garcia family this week! We'd planned to go by a street that’s off the beaten path and hidden behind a few other streets in the area called Mora Road. As we pulled onto the street Friday night we decided to drive down it first and park out the end before walking around to talk to people. The first house we came to had a few people outside and they didn’t really take us to seriously. As we were getting ready to leave one of them said "let me find Chuy". A few minutes later a man came out of a small dwelling to the side of the main house and invited us into his house. His wife was behind him in the door and asked us "Quien les mando?" (who sent you!?!). turns out they were members from Matamoros who had been here for a few months but were unable to find transportation to church. The wife had talked to some Jehovah’s witnesses the week before and had been praying for help! It was pretty amazing to hear their story and to talk with them. She thought for sure someone from church had sent us there to visit them!  Their oldest child is named Jahannah and when we came back Saturday to visit again she had highlighted all 10 verses in 1 Nephi 1 where they had read the night before, the kids were also all dressed up in their Sunday clothes when we came and were sitting down with the Book of Mormon waiting for us! It was a sweet scene! They are such a humble family and the kids are our best friends! The husband wasn’t able to make it to church on Sunday because he works but the wife and the 3 kids made it and were able to stay for the other Elders baptism as well!

I'm grateful that Heavenly Father is aware of each of His children, and especially has special concern and care for families! It was a humbling experience and definitely motivated me to be better when I heard the words "Quien les Mando??"

Elder Paulsen is a great piano player by the way! He plays by ear and with 2 pianos in the chapel/multi purpose room we were able to play a duet of "the river flows in you" (I played it a lot before I left!) and neither of us have ever seen the music for it!

Con amor,

Elder Cook