Hello my beloved friends and family,

This past week has been wonderful. We had some awesome visits with people. Two investigators named Kevin and Alisha, who have met with missionaries for over a year, have finally made the decision to get married and be baptized! They wanted to before, but we finally were able to set dates with them and the ball is rolling! They’re planning on getting married April 1st… haha, so we’ll just do our best to keep them going strong till then.

A couple weeks ago, we came across a very nice lady who is a refugee from Lebanon. She invited us to come visit with her, and the thing we talked about initially was helping her overcome depression, but when we returned to teach her, she had two other refugee families staying there with her, these ones from Syria. They’ve literally been in America about a week now. Those Syrian families do not speak any English. We sat in this visit, and Michelle was basically a translator for us, and we looked upon these beautiful people who were looking right back at us, with longing eyes, waiting to hear what we can do to help them, what physical means we can provide for them. It was difficult to tell them we had naught that we could do for them in that regard, but that we could offer them an opportunity to draw closer to God through a special message we share, and that we can provide physical service and/or necessary labor. They were understanding, and the part that was greatest of all is that we were all able to smile and laugh with one another, something I think they haven’t done since their home city of Homs was utterly destroyed. We told them we would search for other associations and people who would be able to help them directly more than we can. The funniest part was in the middle of the visit when Michelle seriously left the room entirely to look for her keys and we were sitting with 8 Syrians who only spoke Arabic, so there was basically a huge invisible brick wall of language between us and we were trying to get things across to each other. By the end of the visit, I had actually learned a few Arabic words! It was a memory I will never forget.

I would challenge you as well to get involved in the cause of helping refugees who live near you. I can promise you I will become highly involved in this cause, and it’s been revealed to me that there is nothing else in this world which could bring me more happiness than serving my fellow man.

I’m so sorry I don’t have any pictures…. both Elder Laaksonen and I forgot our cameras at home… so pictures to come next week!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Ciao!!