And a little child shall lead them

 

Sweet Samyra

Our beautiful, sweet Samyra was baptized this week.  She is amazing in so many ways and well ahead of her years.  She had a lot of support from family and branch friends.  Sister Turcsanski and Sister Later have worked hard to help her prepare and realized a wonderful blessing as everything came together.  She bore a strong testimony of how much this all means to her.  She is now the only Young Women in our branch.  We love the excitement of now having youth in our branch.  We can't wait to have more families that the Lord is preparing for us.  We have been praying with intention for the Lord to bless us with families and YSA.  We just witnessed His miracle and know He has more for our amazing Missionaries to teach and for our branch members to love.  He is preparing His children to receive His gospel.  We love being a part of His great work. 

A few days later was Samyra's birthday so we couldn't let an opportunity go by without some pizza and a celebration.  

The celebration part 2 took us to Family Home Evening that same evening where some of the branch members were able to also enjoy the brownies, ice cream and hot fudge with her.  Quite a treat!

Little sister Miriam is quite a character.  She loves to tease and be teased. She brings such joy to our branch. 

We participated in some district service where we all met at the Elders apartment and helped them DECLUTTER.  The apartment has been in the family for years, and it showed.  There seems to be a mission culture, across the globe, that when you leave a place, you just take what you think you may need and leave the rest behind.  So, you can imagine that after years of this practice things get a bit stacked up.  We didn't get the coveted before and after photos but suffice it to say that when we were done it neither looked nor felt like the same place (maybe the Spirit will feel a bit more comfortable there too, jk).  Together with the cleaning the Elders cooked some of their famous gut bombs (my words not theirs) complete with awesome toppings.  They were great and gave us just the right amount of nutrition to take on the monumental task.  We took two very large garbage bags to the red box (similar to a goodwill drop off but just a box) and countless large bags to the trash, including a very large collection of glass milk bottles from the top of the cabinet.  Sorry to the legacy Elders that put the work into the collection, but we were asked to remove them.  Side note on the red box; because of the size of the bags, we couldn't get them through the small opening without dumping them out.  Just as we were about to dump the bags a lady stopped to ask what was in them and could she look.  We left them with her and walked away.  After a distance away we turned to look and saw several people gathered around them and taking what they could.  Needless to say, the clothing and shoes found new homes.

And of course we can't resist in sharing another cute Boba photo.  They are classic and for me the best part are the furry hats they wear.  We are convinced that they are some of the heartiest people on earth.  They walk most everywhere they go regardless of the weather, and this week was cold, and generally there is a large bag of groceries or something being transported.  Here you bring your own grocery bags or purchase a bag at the checkout.  You also have to insert a coin in the handle of the shopping cart to get a cart to use for shopping and when you return the cart and hook the chain back up you get your coin back.  We love seeing people walking home carrying their loaf of bread.  They shop every day or every other day for their fresh bread from the bakery.  They have the best bread!  We have adjusted to bringing our own bags.  In fact, we like it.  It will be something we will continue when we get back home.