My Claim to Fame

Dear Friends and Family,

So this email might be pretty sparatic (like I'm sure all of them are) because I have several really random things to say. So if I struggle with "sentence fluency" like I always did in junior high and high school I am apologizing upfront.

So let's start with Monday. So we had an appointment with the girl named Maria Del Mar who is a less active, she is a sweetheart! When we went to her house for an appointment I kept thinking to myself "we just visited her last Friday, I swear we set up our return appointment with her for this Friday not Monday." Sure enough when we showed up she was a little confused because she had also thought our appointment was for Friday but we had brownies (we seriously make brownies like twice a week. People LOVE brownies here. It's the instant cure-all and ice-breaker) so we came in and all of her family was there with the exception of her dad which is nothing short of a miracle. To give you a little perspective her mom is only home a couple of days every couple of months. Most of the time she and her husband are in Ecuatorial New Guinea (where a lot of people here are from) to work. And her two brothers were there who are also never home. We talked about the atonement and it was such a powerful lesson. The mother was only in for that day and I know that it was not a coincidence that Hma. Shaffer wrote down the wrong day for our return appointment. It reminds me of a quote President Sitterud shared in the Madrid CCM. Coincidences are just miracles where God chooses to remain anonymous. So my invitation to you (we invite people to do something at the end of each lesson so I decided to do it with you guys to) is to choose to see everything this week as a miracle. I think it was Einstein or someone important that said "You can either live life as if everything is a miracle or nothing is." You'll be amazed at what you find when you choose the former.

On Tuesday, we met with Vanessa. She actually moved the appointment so her parents could be there. We are meeting with the three of them again tomorrow and we are really hopeful. We think Vanessa is ready and we are hoping she can be baptized this week or next. She is amazing.

On Thursday, we had a special zone conference with the islands zone as well. Elder Teixera, a member of the first quorum of the seventy and the president of the Europe area (so over all of the members, the missionaries, the church, everything in Europe) came with his wife to speak with us. It was literally a once in a lifetime experience and he was absolutely incredible!! As I mentioned in my last email I believe Hermana Shaffer, Elder Coombs, Elder Schindler, and I sang "Señor, yo te seguiré" (Lord, I would follow thee) and it went so good! We did four parts and despite my inability to sing I got stuck with soprano but somehow it sounded really good and the spirit was so strong that some people cried! After the conference, Elder Teixera wanted to interview a couple of missionaries (like four or five) to get to know them and to see how the mission is going and I was one. He was so sweet and we had a great talk. I also got to talk to President and Sister Pace which is always amazing, they are so sweet. I am so lucky to be able to rub shoulders with such incredible people.

The rest of the week basically consists of canceled appointments and knocking doors. However, despite most of our days not having any set appointments work out, we still have yet to have a day without one lesson. The Lord is truly blessing us and I am so grateful. Our baptism date dropped us which is hard but we will pass by in a couple of weeks just to see how she is doing. She is amazing and I know that she will be someone else's miracle one day, she just needs a little bit more time.

I love you guys! Thank you for all of the prayers and support, they mean the world to me. Have a great week!

Hermana Tuttle