Moving to Azua has been a stabilizing event in our lives. There is way less chaos then life in the office but there still isn't much that is routine. We still make our last minute trips to help a sick missionary or help with a housing issue but we are usually able to stick to some sort of schedule. We love meeting with the missionaries for district meetings and Zone meetings and this week we did some house inspections, which turned out to be mostly enjoyable. For the most part, missionaries know how to keep a house clean and they do a fair job, which was the case in 4 of the 5 houses we inspected. Occasionally a house gets run down and messy, no really dirty and the missionaries that move into the house don't want to clean up after the missionaries before them so they don't. In fact, usually, they just contribute to the mess. We have one of those houses in our Zone. The missionaries inherited a pigstye and they weren't willing to spend much effort cleaning up after the previous tenants. I have seen the house before and it was bad and it did look better but it was a half-hearted effort. I made an appointment to come over and help them the rest of the way. Brake the cycle is the theme.
One of the things we love about living here in Azua is the open door policy of almost everyone. If someone is home the door is usually open and the neighbors just come in and out at will. If you have children your kids don't even need to be home but their friends will be coming in and out or your house. Several times this week we were in teaching a family and the neighborhood kids walk in and sit down and start listening. After a few minutes, they get up a leave if they aren't interested. sometimes without a word spoken. We have never experienced anything like it.
A couple of the teaching highlights from this week were being able to teach a family about marriage and to teach another family about Priesthood blessings. As a married couple, we have a little advantage over the young missionaries when it comes to teaching about the importance of marriage. We got to meet with a great family that has 5 children that are great kids and they have been together for 12 years. They both want to get baptized but need to get married first. We are going with them to get papers and then we will be witnesses to the marriage. I wish I could say because of our great teaching but they Elders had already committed them. Another family we have been visiting shared with us that the father has a serious blood condition that can only be operated on in the USA or Austrailia. He is trying to seek the governments' permission to go to the USA for the operation. We taught him about Priesthood blessings and he asked for one. He has a firm testimony of the restoration. He feels like a blessing will help. We gave him that blessing today.
The missionaries in this Zone are very excited about the work. We do all we can to help the work. The missionaries in one area asked if I could give a few of their investigators a ride to church> I told them sure. We picked up 3 different families. The kids road in the back of the truck and when we got to the last family. The missionaries had to get out and walk. We are allowed to give rides in the back to everyone except missionaries. They were happy to walk and be greeted by 10 of their investigators. As it turned out there were others that came on their own. These Elders are on fire. THere is one elder from Peru who has been out about 9 months and he is training two missionaries (one is a visa waiter and will go to Mexico in 1.5 weeks.
To top off the week we had another Branch party. It was supposed to start at 7:30 Saturday night. At 7:30 there were 2 young adults a young woman and her little sister there. We were just ready to eat and go home but at 8:05 the church filled up. Lynette made pancakes with powdered sugar for the treats. It was cheap, it was original and everyone seemed to like them. One of our big goals is to help create some Branch unity. We were hoping to have a bigger turnout but we have to start somewhere. We all had a good time. We played a game of getting to know you Bingo where you had to find people who had done things that were listed on the Bingo card. They could only use someone's name 2 times. At first, everyone just sat in their seats but after they found out there were prizes things got crazy and animated just like we had hoped. And then, of course, we finished with some signing and dancing the Bachata.
We love it here. We fill like we are making a difference a little at a time and we are always looking for more ways to serve. If any of you have a good idea of getting people to together feel free to comment.
We love serving the Lord in this part of His vineyard.
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