Congresso - Post 8

Me with my self-cut bangs!

Wow what a week!  First off, we aren't teaching Felipe anymore. We went back for our appointment with him but he wasn't there. We tried time and time again to set another appointment with him but he was never there when he said he would be so yeah.  

But We ran into Patsy in the street!  Patsy was one of the investigators Hermana Mowry had taught before I came but Patsy got busy and stopped taking lessons.  Hermana Mowry always was talking about how awesome Patsy was and how ready she was for the gospel.  She is from Mexico and is super fun and sweet.  We went by her house and had a mini-lesson.  She had been on vacation to Peru and Brazil and now she´s back.  We invited her to come to church and continue reading the Book of Mormon.   She wasn't sure if she would be able to come to church but she´d grab her Book of Mormon and start reading again.  We passed by Friday and she said she would come to church!  Yes! She came sure enough and afterwards there was a baptism and she asked to stay. It was such a beautiful baptism for Cintia - she is 15, super mature and on fire!  Even though we didn't teach her, I feel like she´s one of my friends :)  Well Patsy thought it was so beautiful and really felt the spirit.  So we invited her to also be baptized.  She took a moment to think about it and then decided yes!  She knows that this is the true gospel which was restored to the earth through a Latter-Day Prophet and she knows that this step will bless her life. We are super stoked!

We made cookies!

Saturday, we had 2 members accompanying us and we walked past this man sitting outside his apartment. Hermana Mowry stopped and started talking to him. His name is Nestor. I asked him what he was doing sitting outside.  He said he was just thinking.  SO I asked him what he was thinking about.  He said, Just stuff, the world, my life.  SO we just started talking and we gave him a Book of Mormon, read the introduction with him, and invited him to be baptized!  He didn´t say yes but he said he was interested in what we were talking about. SO we invited him to church and he said yes!  I could tell just from talking to him that he likes to think about things before acting.  So we passed by Sunday morning and rang his bell and he came down and was ready to come with us and everything!  THen he asked if he needed to bring his LDM (Libro de Mormon or Book of Mormon) and we said if he wanted to he could.  He came back down with his LDM but he had changed his mind. He said he want more space and time to think about it.  This broke our hearts because we know that he will learn so much and feel the spirit at church but we also respect the agency of others.  SO we asked him if we could come by and talk later and he said yes. In the collectivo (entryway) Hermana Mowry started crying and during the sacrament meeting I started crying. I was pretty sure he had some kind of concern or doubt in his mind, but we weren't sure what. We were super sad about Nestor changing his mind about going to church at the last minute, but then in walked Patsy and we felt better.

My Argentine Oxfords - super comfy!
The best tan my legs have had in Winter!

So we went by Sunday afternoon to visit Nestor and brought Hermana Diaz with us.  We started talking and we were talking about the Restoration and he started talking about making decisions.  We tried to talk about how we are here on this earth to make good decisions and try to follow Christ and do the will of God.  It became very apparent that his concern is that he´s been trying to make good decisions but they just never turn out good.  We tried to resolve his concern but he was being very vague and very intense.  I got lost in his words too. We just invited him to read a part of the Book of Mormon to resolve his concern and we are going to talk about the plan of salvation to see if that will help him.  He really is a great person looking for help and guidance but is really hung up on whatever these decisions are that he´s made or has to make.

Other than that, we contacted someone in the street last night that we feel super good about.  Her name is Paula and her husband´s name is Peter. (She´s married!  That´s a big deal here.) And she said she was Christian but hasn´t been attending any church since she moved here from Uruguay. She has 2 dogs, which is how we started the conversation because i LOVE dogs, especially Golden Retrievers :)

As for my Companion and I, we have learned how to work together well and are having a lot of fun together.  I feel like one of us is going to get transferred in 2 weeks and I´m going to miss her when we do get transferred. 

Oh and one more thing!  I cut my bangs! by myself!  At first I was panicking because i thought I did them wrong, But now they´they've grown on me :)  Although they are nowhere near as good as when Juliegh does them :)

I Love and Miss you all and thanks for all the prayers and Support!
Hermana Allison Scarlett

Congresso - Post 7

Sorry this post is a week or so late - the New Year has us running in ten directions at full speed!  So without further delay, here is Hermana Scarlett's first post for 2014......

So what happened this week?  Well, IT´S 2014!  QUE LOCO! It´s even crazier to think that I will be in the mission THE WHOLE YEAR!  It´s kinda awesome because I can focus all of my goals and what I'm going to accomplish here in my mission this year.  What a blessing :)  So how did we festivate this holiday?  Eating of Course!  We had a HUGE lunch and 2 HUGE DINNERS New Year´s Eve!  Oh man I was just way super stuffed.  As for the rest of this week, just the norm - talking to loads of people, visiting the members - both less active and recent converts.

As for Santa.  We had 2 more REALLY great lessons and set an appointment for another one, but she cancelled. All week we've been trying to set another appointment but she kept cancelling or wouldn't set a specific time. Then she stopped answering our calls and texts.  I was super worried about her.  We saw her Sunday morning in the street before church and stopped and chatted with her.  She said she's grateful for our help and what but decided she doesn't want what we have. I asked her if she prayed about what she taught.  She said yes.  Then I asked her how she felt and she said "I just want to continue with what I´ve always had."   What can we do?  She had it set in her mind that she was just going to continue in her old ways.  She didn't want to change.  It was sad because she is looking for more in her life to help her and I KNOW without a doubt that we have it. I want to help her so much and really have a lot of love for her.  But what can we do?  Everyone has their own agency.

On another note, we have another investigator.  His name is Felipe and lives with Jose Navarro, a less active member we are working with.  They are friends from Colombia and came here to study together. We passed by to have a lesson with Jose and Felipe and his girlfriend were there.  So we invited them to join us in the lesson and they said they would.  We talked about the Book of Mormon and why it´s important.  I invited them to be baptized and they said Yes!  They are so sincere and really want to have God more involved in their lives.  The girlfriend doesn't live in our area though.  We gave them each a Books of Mormon to read and are excited to continue working with Felipe.  

As for my Spanish, I am doing WAY better than my first day here.  I am able to have conversations with people and I'm really working hard to have good grammar.  Sometimes I'll be talking and then a minute later realize I said it wrong!   But I am doing so much better.  It´s so much easier and I am loving every second here.

So that´s pretty much it.  Feliz Año Nuevo les amo mucho!

Hermana Allison Scarlett

Congreso - Post 6

We were able to skype with Allison on Christmas Day and she was exuberant!  She looked great and sounded even better and was obviously happy.  It was a joy to see and hear her but more than that, it was wonderful to know she is well and enjoying missionary work in Argentina.  Allison asked we pass along her love you you all and her gratitude for the emails and letters - keep them coming!  Here is her letter for this week and a list of things she'd like if anyone is inclined to send a care package (see Contact Info post for instructions).

Well I didn't do a general e-mail last week because I got to SKYPE my FAMILY on Christmas day :)  Yes I cried. I always cry :)  It was a wonderful Christmas.  Christmas Eve we had a HUGE meeting with the whole mission together.  It was really great :)  President Ayre got up to start the meeting and then he said "Is Hermana Scarlett here?  Where is she?" I raised my hand and then he asked me to give the opening prayer!  Wow, I only have 6 weeks in the mission and he wants me to give a prayer in front of the WHOLE MISSION!?!  There are 280+ missionaries and I have to prey in front of all of them in SPANISH!?!  Of course I said yes and did it and it was fine :)  

They then showed us a video that they put together for the mission to watch.  It started off with a jib-jab video of the faces of the senior missionary couples on the bodies of a mariachi band singing and dancing to the song Feliz Navidad.  Everyone was ROLLING!  Next they showed the clip from the Grinch movie where the grinch´s heart grew 3x bigger and talked about how the Gospel can change people´s lives and had a slideshow of all the baptisms the past couple months, so we had a white christmas (all the people in their white baptismal clothes.  Felt like I had to explain that one because when I first heard it i was SO confused!  I was like, there is NO WAY it´s going to snow here!)  I cried.  Then they showed the piano guys video O come Emmanuel.  It was super good.  I cried even more.  Then president talked to us and talked about all the different kinds of missionaries we have in the mission.  We have missionaries from 21 countries serving in the Buenos Aires North Mission!  Then he asked all the convert missionaries to stand up, then all the missionaries who were there because of the age change, then a lot of different types of people.  He then talked about how grateful he is that each one of us are here and each one of us had to make sacrifices to be here.  I cried even more.  It was really great and I loved every second of it. 

After that meeting we all had lunch together.  They had all the Hermanas go sit down first and as I was heading to the tables I heard someone yell my name and I turned around and there was Elder Hicks!  He was an Elder who was visa waiting in my ward back home and at the same time I was serving as a ward missionary.  He´s way cool.  Well he got his visa and left and then I get my mission call not long after.  Everyone told me "That´s the same mission Elder Hicks is in!" So it was cool to see a familiar face and talk a little bit.  We all ate and chatted and then we did a white elephant, all the gifts provided by the mission.  It was the Left Right story that mom does every year.  All the Hermanas got scarves, even some of the Elders too :)  It was a really fun day.

Christmas Eve we also had permission to stay out until 10:30 with the members.  Here in Argentina they celebrate very differently.  They don´t sleep at night, they stay up ALL NIGHT!  Christmas begins at midnight. But we spent Christmas Eve in the home of Paul Pizarro, who is our ward mission leader and we ate a TON! His brother, Gustavo, loves to cook and feed us missionaries.  So we chatted and ate and listened to Christmas music and then we went back to our apartment.  At midnight the fireworks started.  It was way cool!  Everyone was awake and shooting off fireworks from the streets, from the tops of the buildings.  It was magnificent!  

In the morning we opened our presents and prepared for the day.  We went back to the house of Paul and Gustavo and ate some more and skyped our FAMILIES!  When mom answered I just started to cry.  Then they all sat around the computer and mom sat down and had a list of questions to ask me.  It was like a Question and answer session.  Kind of like a panel of judges or something :)  It was really nice to see the faces and hear the voices of my family again :)¨ It was really funny because every 10 minutes Paul popped in and said "Merry Christmas" or "Hi Family" or something.  He was so excited to have the missionaries in his house skyping their families and he was even more excited that he could say a couple english phrases to them :)  He and Gustavo would come in and be like "Tell your family I said this"  But I made them talk to mom in Spanish so she could practice :p  They really enjoyed that too :)  And it was funny because sometimes I would talk to them and start saying something to my family but I had to pause and transition my brain back to English.  It was just a really great hour to be able to talk with them :)

As for this week, we have an INVESTIGATOR (someone who is interested in learning more about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)!  We were walking to visit someone and I just had this thought that we should go visit a contact that works outside the Coto Grocery Store.  I voiced this to Hermana Mowry and she agreed.  So we headed down the street when this lady came up to us and greeted us in English!  We asked her where she was from and she's from here in Argentina.  Then she looked at our name tags and said that she wanted to meet with us and talk about God and what we believe.  WHAT!?! That´s never happened before.  But then she was like "But you're probably too busy."  We replied "No! We would LOVE to talk with you about God and what we believe."  She then set a cita con nosotras (appointment with us) for later that afternoon.  Oh man, We were so excited! 

Her name is Santa Lo´Scrudado (Not like Santa Clause, Santa signifies Saint in Spanish). We met in a little restaurant and we shared the message of the restoration with her and she was just soaking it all in and had so many questions.  It was just amazing.  We had Diego Gomez, a member, with us and he was such a HUGE help.  When we have a member at a lesson it really makes all the difference.  She is really concerned about her brother and the road in life he´s taking along with what´s happening in the world. She wants to help the people in the streets and the people who are drug addicts and the people who are poor and don´t have much.  We introduced her to the Book of Mormon and she is really excited to read it and pray about it and we invited her to church and she accepted. We also invited her to be baptized but she wants to know more and be sure before she makes that commitment. I´m very confident that she will receive her answer and desire to be baptized. She really is searching for something more that can help her in her life and we have it!  She came to church and really liked it and we are going to visit her again tonight and we are so excited.  What a miracle and a blessing she is!

Something New about me is I´m really enjoying our 30 min of exercise time every morning.  I fear I may become and Exercise nut while I´m here. I still eat a lot but that´s because the members are trying to make me fat and I'm always wanting to eat more because we walk a whole lot. Oh well!

Love you all!
Hermana Scarlett

Wish List (Things I'd like but don't need and cannot get in Argentina):

Exercise Jump Rope

Study Journals

Colored Pens

Sticky notes (Really good ones that stick well, I use them a lot!)

Note Cards

USA Stamps

Envelopes

footie socks (The ones that cover the front part of the foot for flats)

White out (preferably pens)

Shoes insoles (The green and purple dr. scholl´s ones are comfy :)

Q-tips

Toasted Cinnamon Almonds

Reeses

Measuring Cups

Fast Easy Yummy Recipes (egg-drop soup, no bake cookies, etc.)

Beef Jerky (original)

Nutella

Peanut Butter

Mints and gum

Crunchy cheetos

Lays Barbecue chips

WHite cheddar popcorn

Dr. Pepper flavoring

Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Seeds

Peanut Butter M&Ms

Zip Lock Bags

Box mixes (Cake, brownies, Pancakes, reese's bars, etc)

Healthy Snacks (Cliff bars, luna bars, trail mix, nuts, etc.)

Congreso - Post 5

Hi everyone, this is Mom with a few editorial comments.  

First, every six weeks, on Tuesdays, are transfers in Allison's mission.  This is when the Mission President decides which companions stay together or get switched, and if switched, who moves to which area within the mission.  Not all missionaries are switched and moved each transfer - usually a missionary is moved to a new area every 4-6 months and stay with the same companion every 2-3 months.  This past Tuesday were transfers.  

Second, every Monday is Preparation Day aka P-Day.  This is the one day a week when missionaries take care of temporal needs - do laundry, go grocery shopping, clean apartments, go sightseeing, write home, recreational fun, etc.  The rest of the week is focused on serving others and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.  So, when transfer week comes around, all missionaries in the mission take their P-Day on Tuesday rather than Monday so those moving or getting switched use that P-Day to pack up and move to their new areas and get settled without losing a day of doing the Lord's work.

Why all this - well Allison's email came late this past week which is causing this blog post to get done late.  Sorry to the regular readers and just know every six weeks, the blog will be late.  Oh - I'm having to do more and more editing too.  Allison's emails have horrid spelling and grammar now - which only means her spanish is getting much better!  And now, here is the latest from our Hermana Allison Scarlett :)


So today was the big day of transfers!  (Drumroll pleaseeeeee)  WE ARE STAYING IN CONGRESO!!!!!  Last night we got the call that all 4 of us Hermanas are staying here in Congreso.  We are all SUPER stoked (excited).  We feel like we have so much more work to do here and we are ready to hit the ground running and have some miracles happen these next 6 weeks.  

As for this past week we have been working really well with the less-active members.  We´ve visited Andres and Milagros who are awesome :)  We were visiting with them but their cuadra (city block) didn´t have energy (electricity) so we were sitting around 2 candles in their living room talking and mentioned that transfers were this week.  Milagros said "we don't want you to leave.  You´re our missionaries."  Oh man my heart just melted!  We´ve challenged them to read the Libro de Mormon (The Book of Mormon) in one year.  I told them that I read it in 2 months, so they can do it in 12 months :)  They are just super great!  I´m going to miss them when I eventually leave Congreso.  

Another less-active member we´re working with is Alfredo Morrency.  He´s a super tall, skinny man from Haiti.  He´s in his mid 30s but totally looks like he´s early 20s.  He served a mission there in Haiti and is here in Buenos Aires studying and working.  We had a really good chat/lesson with him and he came to church on Sunday.  He´s a very calm super nice guy and we´re excited for our next visit with him this afternoon!

We are also working with Jose Navarro.  He´s 24, from Colombia, and is here studying and living with 2 of his friends.  He wants to serve a mission and go to the temple along with many other big goals.  We´re helping him to do the little things that he needs to do, such as reading the scriptures, going to church, paying tithing, in order to achieve his big goals.  He has such a big desire and he´s so dang busy!  Everyone is so dang busy here!  But we can see him doing great things.  But by small and simple things do great things come to pass.

Also, we have the Familia Miño.  They usually come the first hour of church and then leave because the son who has the car doesn't want to stay.  We've been working with them and especially their other son, Freddie.  He is such a goofy guy.  He is so animated always having something to say and it´s never boring when he´s around.  We were meeting with their family and we were talking about doing the good things and he was like "Well I'm not a bad  person.  I don´t going around doing bad things."  Then he looked at me and said "What do you think?"  SO I said, "NO, you´re not a bad person, but we can always do better.  For example, before my mission I didn't read my scriptures EVERY day."  Everyone gasped - It was really funny!  I continued, "But now that I'm reading every day I've seen all the blessings it´s bringing into my life and realized all of the blessings I missed out on before because I wasn't being exactly obedient.  Heavenly Father blesses us according to our obedience.  Now that I know these things I´m going to read my scriptures every day in order to receive those blessings.  It´s not that you´re doing bad things.  It´s just that there are always better things you can be doing."  He is now coming with us on our visits and he got his family to come to church and stay all 3 hours which was a MIRACLE!  And he really enjoyed himself and he is really going strong and is just a fireball right now!  It´s quite amazing to see.

Friday night the ward had a Christmas activity and it was super great!  The youth decorated the church and it was absolutely beautiful!  Lots of members, less-actives, and non-members were all there together fellowshipping and coming together for the holidays.  They cooked asado, which is argentine barbecue and it´s LA MEJOR (THE BEST)!  Andres and Milagros came and they really enjoyed themselves.  It really brought the ward closer together and I feel like many good things are going to come from that night.  We are working on strengthening our relationships with the members in the ward (a ward is the local congregation) and strengthening the ward so that we can all work together to crecer la obra misional aca en Congreso (to grow the missionary work here in Congreso) and I´m so happy and so excited to be a part of it for at least one more transfer.  Miracles are going to happen, i can feel it.  

Love you all!

Hermana Scarlett

Congreso - Post 4

Hello everyone!

So this is my last week of this transfer! QUE LOCO!  I´ve been here for 5 weeks.  Sometimes I feel like I´ve been here forever and sometimes I feel like I just got here yesterday!  To be honest I really don´t remember much of what happened this week.  We still don´t have any investigators.  It´s frustrating because we are working hard and every day are thinking about what we can do better as missionaries to find those who need this message in their lives.  It´s hard in the city and we realized that we need to strengthen the ward here and help them to have the vision of missionary work in this area because without their help, missionary work here is next to impossible.  So we´ve been visiting with the members and teaching lessons about la obra missional and helping them to remember why this gospel is so important to them and help them to have the desire to share the joy and happiness that this gospel brings and how important it is for everyone to have the chance to hear this gospel. Also, the ward is working on putting together a ward mission plan to help the ward work together to crecer the obra missional aca en congreso (grow the missionary work here in Congresso).  We´re really excited to work better with the members and ward leaders here!  I just hope we stay here another transfer to help continue the growth in the missionary work and work with the ward to bring more souls to Christ.

Hermana Mowry and our
Littlest Christmas Tree

We´re still working with quite a few of the less-active members here and we´ve had some really AWESOME lessons with them-full of the Spirit!  We are working with Andres y Milagros.  They are a brother and sister that got baptized when they were very young and became inactive very quickly because they didn´t really have the support of their family.  Right now he´s 19 and she´s 22. It´s crazy to think I´m the same age as Andres!  We were teaching them the Plan of Salvation and talking about what we need to do in this life.  One of which is keeping the commandments so I mentioned the law of chastity, and he was like what´s that?  SO we set another appointment to teach him the law of chastity.  It´s so crazy that we're the same age but I'm on a mission teaching him about the law of chastity.  It was a really good lesson though, both of them were.   

I got the first 2 boxes on Tuesday from Mom!  Muchas Gracias!  I finished off the bag of white cheddar popcorn yesterday.  I made it last 6 days! haha you should be so proud of me :)  I am doing pretty well rationing out the rest of the edible things you sent me.  Our apartment is now very much christmas-afied and it´s awesome :)  We rearranged our apartment for the 2nd time this week and now it´s super spacious and awesome. 

En realidad (Really) I have no idea what else to tell you all.  I´m doing well and enjoying my time here!  I miss  you all and wish you a very merry christmas season and will see you in about 15 months!  

Lots of Love,

Hermana Allison Scarlett

My first bowl of grits since leaving the states - YUMMY!!!

Congreso - Post 3

A miracle happened this week!  We found Maria!  

So here's the back story.  While we were in the MTC our Teacher, Hermano Call, had us create our dream investigator.  I created a woman named Maria.  The description I wrote for her was this: 

How met: Friend of a member who was referred to us.  

Needs:  Single mother who needs guidance and comfort.  She is trying her best and has strong faith. She needs strength and to know about the atonement, that families can be together forever, and that she can do all things through Christ.  

Our teacher told us that if we had the faith we would find our dream investigator.  And this week we did!

We were at the door of a less-active member's house to have a lesson but he wasn't home.  I was a little frustrated because that seemed to be the theme for our appointments.  We were about to leave when a motorcycle zoomed by and the woman riding on the back yelled ¨Hermanas!¨ The motorcycle pulled over on the other side of the road and the woman motioned for us to come over, so we did.  She was a member from another ward and asked us if we knew her friend Maria who lives in ward area.  We didn't so this woman shared with us that her friend Maria has met with the Hermanas before and asked us to visit Maria.  Then she whipped out her phone and called Maria and made an appointment for us the following day.  We talked to Maria on the phone and told her how excited we were to meet her and she was very excited too :)  

The next day we went to her house and met with her and she is exactly the dream investigator I made  up in the MTC!  We were able to talk to her about the Libro de Mormon (Book of Mormon). She has read it and has a testimony of its truthfulness!  In the past, she wasn't able to attend church because of work (which is the problem for pretty much everybody here in the city); However, right now she doesn't have a job and is able to come to church with us and is looking for a  job that will allow her to come to church every week.  It was such an amazing lesson.  We sang Nearer my God to Thee and talked about how God. He is always there and we can get closer or further from Him just by the choices we make. She has such a strong desire to become closer to Him.  Maria set a baptismal date and we are teaching her all the lessons.  She is like a dream come true!

Miracles happen everyday we just need to recognize them.  They aren't always as obvious as a woman yelling at us on a motorcycle, but they do happen.  Waking up everyday is a miracle.  The Lord truly does send us tender mercies and miracles.  Another example - we live in the same apartment building as the Sister Training Leaders and yesterday morning we did exchanges with them - I was with Hermana Dunn.  We walked to an appointment with a less-active member passing by a river and I felt like I was back home for just a moment.  I felt like I was looking over the sound in the Outer Banks so I took a moment to enjoy it.  The member we visited also had a dog who was a rottweiler that looked just like Chester (the dog we had while I was growing up).  thile I was petting the dog, she looked at me and put her paw on my lap just like chester used to do.  I just smiled because it was something so small and yet it was a tender mercy of the Lord. 

Something else awesome!  I finished reading the Book of Mormon this morning that I started reading in the MTC with the topics.  Ohmylanta I have learned so much!  And I started reading a new copy this morning marking a new set of topics -  I'm excited to learn even more!  Why have I never studied with a topic before?  It makes it so much more meaningful and fruitful :)

I am loving it here.  They work may not always be perfect like I want it to be but I´m doing what my Heavenly Father wants me to be doing and I´m doing the best that I can.  I love the work. I love the people.  I love my mission.  I love this Gospel with all my heart.  Everytime I feel down, I just read my mission scripture again and remember why I´m here (Alma 29:9-10).

I Love You ALL  <3

Hermana Allison Scarlett

From A Good Samaritan

Post from Mom - I received this email along with pictures this week and thought it was worth sharing.  It is a comfort to hear from others about your child.  Another tender mercy from the Lord!

Dear Parents,

I have attached pictures of the missionaries (elders and sisters) that we were fortunate to travel with from Atlanta to Buenos Aires on November 4th.  My husband and I along with our 17 year old son were heading to Rosario to pick up our son Elder Peter Welsh who was completing his mission on November 5th.  It was such a delight to travel with these enthusiastic missionaries as they made their way to Argentina.  I'm sure that you heard from your son/daughter that our plane was delayed for nearly 2 hours while we were all on board.  Those missionaries did not waste any time using their enthusiasm and language skills to share the gospel and their spirit with their neighboring passengers.  It was a beautiful site to see and a wonderful way for us to start our trip.  You should be very proud.

I'm sorry this has taken me so long to get these pictures sent off.  I intended to do it while we were in Argentina, but my access to the internet was not as consistent as I would have liked, and our son kept us on the run the whole time we were there.  I have about 50 pictures taken by me and my son at the airport and on the plane (and one at the Buenos Aires Temple).  Some are blurry, but I'm sending them anyways because, as a mom, I know that even a blurry picture of your missionary is a treasure.  

I am happy to have my son home, but I am going to miss his wonderful emails and the blessings that come from having a missionary serving.  Enjoy your next 16-22 months.  They are priceless.

Kathi Welsh
Bakersfield, CA