Well, life is a roller coaster here in the Weston Wards of Massachusetts. :) That's for sure. I don't have a ton of time, so I'll just outline some of the craziest things!
Let's start with the bad news, shall we? Jackson. :( No baptism again. And this time, we tried contacting him all week before we cancelled it the day before. That was hard. He finally texted us yesterday morning. . . Turns out his mom was NOT supportive. AT ALL. In fact she "rejected" the invite he gave her and forbade the baptism. Which, you know, is kind of crazy because he's 22 and has only known his mom for a year. He moved to America from Uganda at age 21 and in with the mother he had never met, who threw a lot of rules at him he's not happy with. But he has to obey because he has nowhere else to go. . . :( It's a hard situation. So if you could keep him in your prayers, that would be amazing. We don't really know what to do at this point. . . contact is minimal, too. We don't want to make things worse for him.
On a positive side. . . Sarah!!! I love this girl! She's 13 and part of a less-active Haitian family we're working with. SO SPUNKY. We're good friends. :D But this girl has never taken a dance class in her life and hasn't been given very many opportunities to shine. We were granted permission to attend the Middle School talent show she made it into to support her. OH. MY. GOODNESS. I have NOT seen that much talent in a 13-year-old, particularly in one without any training. She blew everyone out of the water!!!!!!! Completely. It should have been on TV or something. Talk about fighting for your dreams and showing the world what you're capable of. She danced like a PRO. Sister Slater started crying. It was amazing. :) :) :) Use the talents God has given you!
Kevin (Brother LaBarge, as we now like to call him) is doing great! Seriously! He came to church again on Sunday and Bishop White was FINALLY able to talk to him! Score! AND he paid fast offerings. Yeah, he asked US how to pay them. He's always so ahead of us. So excited for him! Now we just gotta get his daughter to girl's camp! :D
Another miraculous event - the Martinez family. WOW. Joe Martinez was baptized 3 days after I entered the MTC. His process inspired his less-active wife, and they were able to go to the temple to do baptisms for the first time EVER this weekend! And we were lucky enough to be there. I was able to bear my testimony of family history and temple work with them, and help him prepare the names of his grandparents and great-grandparents for his first step ever into the House of the Lord. They both so GET it. He said he felt it as soon as he walked into the temple. She was nearly in tears the entire time. And I was even allowed to do baptisms with my companions! So beautiful! I love the temple!!!
That was Saturday. We also went trackting (spelled right?) for awhile on Saturday. . . that doesn't happen very often. And I got fried. :D Big sunburn. But it was an adventure. Some slammed doors, plenty of funny looks and awkward conversation starters. So worth it when we found Joe and Beverly, then later on Oscar. :D Tell you more about them if anything comes of it.
Gotta get going! Love and miss you all. Sometimes things get hard, but I've been blessed to be able to hit the reset button every time I get up in the morning. :) I appreciate hearing from you. It makes my day!
Sincerely,
Your Favorite Missionary ;)
Sister Merkley
MBM Missionary
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