february 20, 2008

February 20, 2008
It’s blog time again, we are packing and deciding what to take – what to send home and what to throw away. Elder Patten has pink eye in both eyes now and lets just say he doesn’t look his best. We are hoping that it will clear up by tomorrow since that is our yaque party at the chapel. It’s a big deal for the sweet people here to throw a party whenever any of the missionaries leave. Both branches are coming together for this one. It will be hard for us to leave these people, we have many who have become our friends. We spoke in both sacrament meetings last Sunday and talked to them about coming to church on time, sitting as a family and keeping the little ones on their lap, not leaving church after sacrament meeting and keeping the Sabbath day holy. I don’t know how much of that information was retained but maybe if it is said many times they will finally get it. The Tiose family with little James is doing so well. I love little James so much, he sat by me in Sacrament meeting a couple of weeks ago and asked me many questions, one being “Sister Patten is it true that little children are dying in Africa?” He asks me questions about the church and talks like he is about 25 years old. That is one boy I would take home with me. The Father is now active with a white shirt and tie and has been made the YM president. His wife Benni is teaching the youth and James little sister was baptized. We were able to get another white shirt and tie for James and two little white blouses for the little girls. One of the girls is 7 and so I will give her the blouse and a CTR ring and ask her to listen to the missionaries and get baptized next year. We have been teaching another family that finally got married two weeks ago (we will send pictures). I think they will get baptized but probably not before we leave, he wanted Elder Patten to baptize him but there is not enough time now. Our family home evenings with the Clatin Jebulon family and Elma and Manuel have been going well and we love those families so much. There are just so many families that we could talk about but we will just hold them in our heart. Friday at district meeting we will meet again with the missionaries about the addiction recovery program, at least they can take the steps into the homes of the people that need it and use them as part of their lessons. I am praying the Dale will remain sober, he is doing good again and Dale and Annie are planning to go to the temple in June. (Remember, Annie was the lady we thought was dead). The President is leaving for Hawaii tonight but will set John apart and give us a blessing before we leave. I am going on faith because I am not sure what to expect. I guess that is what a mission is all about. I didn’t know what to expect when we flew here either. Well the Primary and YW are doing really well, I met with the Primary Pres. last night and they are going to have “a show about abinidi” and inviting all the families, so we talked about the costumes and the dances and how that could happen. She is pretty excited about it and has put posters up on the building announcing the program. Since the YW had their New Beginnings program and postered up the building – they have all gotten into it and the YM have a “devotional” planned to talk about how to prepare for a mission. It is great!