29 September 2014

Dear family,

I may just stop writing and send pictures. I think it is more interesting for all involved.

It has been a good week, with at least one very important miracle: E got baptized. His wife has been waiting for this moment for a long time and missionaries have been visiting him off and on for a year (to say nothing of the missionaries who visited when the wife was learning about the church and was a recent convert).

On Tuesday night, we had a noche de hermanamiento (fellowshipping night) in the house of a member. We invited E to the event, and afterwards he went to the chapel with the Elders for his baptismal interview.

We visited him frequently during the week and on Friday we had his baptism. A couple of sister missionaries who had also taught E got permission to come to his baptism. It was a small but very nice baptism. E was so eager to be baptized that as soon as we had taken pictures he essentially asked, ''Now can we get started?'' What a change from someone who used to hide from the missionaries or only listened to please his wife.

On Saturday, we went out to teach with the Webbs. In the morning we drove to a small town about 20 minutes away to visit a family of members. The mom is a returned missionary, the dad is a member, and there are three young sons. The mom has a strong testimony but the cost of transportation to the chapel prohibits regular attendance. She tries to send her 14-year-old son when she can. (And the dad has to work every day except Tuesday.) The Webbs let everyone share favorite scriptures and shared their own. Then they taught a short English class. Before we could leave, the Hermana insisted on feeding us lunch. I think she was really happy to have a member of the branch presidency and several missionaries in her home.

We made a few more visits that afternoon and then in the evening, we went to the Women's Conference in the chapel in T. Our chapel doesn't have a satélite dish, so the other building is kind of the stake center of the two branches. It has the family history center and the satélite dish. I watched some of the sesión in English on the computer, but the connection kept stalling, so in the end, I went to listen in the chapel in Spanish so that I could hear Pres Uchtdorf's talk. I will need to read the talks to fill in the gaps, but it was a good conference.

On Sunday after church we covered the Webb's English class, and then I taught a piano class. It's about the fourth time I've taught the class. I am mostly teaching my budding pianists to play ''I Am a Child of God'' by rote. With a few of my older students I am teaching a few basics of note reading. But there is no magic way to train a new pianists in just a few months. But President Klein said it was worth the time to plant some seeds. So that's what I am doing. If nothing else, I am planting, and I have a couple of devoted students who love piano class.  

Thought for the week regarding E's baptism. Ether 12:27

I love you all! Take care!

Hermana Davis