26 March 2012
Dear Family,
   First order of business.  Happy birthday Kyle!  I hope you enjoyed the Thai food!  Sounds like fun.
   Good luck Doug in all your tests!
   Be healthy Paul!
   Cherylty never faileth! 
   Good luck with school Kevin!
   Be a great mom, Dani! 
   Be a great teacher, Mom!  I know you are doing a lot to help the Spanish branch and also to just help people!  Yay!  you are an inspiration!
   Good luck in the stake, at work, with retirement, with your book, with the family, Dad!  It really sounds like the stake is doing good!  It`s in good hands.
    Eddy got baptized!   Por fin!  But he has changed a lot.  He`s 29 years old and missionaries have been teaching him on and off for three years.  He loves his family a lot.  He really cares about what happens with them, and some family trials have softened his heart.  I have never seen him so happy like these past few days.  He got baptized on Saturday and we visited him yesterday.  He was joking and talking about how long it`s taken him to get where he is.  For the first time, he stayed in all the classes, and he was encouraging the rest of his family to stay for the rest of the classes too.  He climbed a tree to get us some fruit.  It`s a weird fruit.  It`s white and creamy inside.  Anyway, he was really high up there and we were telling him not to die.  Even though he doesn`t have sins right now, doesn`t mean that it`s a good time to die.  It`s amazing how the gospel can change a person.  He is really different now.  I mean, really different.
    The family that is progressing the most right now is Claudia, Enrique, Jose Enrique (se llama Junior), Rodrigo, and Saeed.  They are praying as a family, but Enrique is kind of timid and his kids are really smart and they like to talk.  So, I think a lot of the time he doesn`t want to talk because he`s afraid of saying something wrong and then having his kids correct him.  They can be just a little harsh.  Anyway, he says over and over that he isn`t ready to get baptized.  We`ve read the book of Mormon with them one time.  Alma 32.  We had a really awesome lesson about the Atonement with them, but Enrique wasn`t there.  We talked about what is the atonement and how Christ already paid for everything that we have done and now we have to accept the sacrifice through our repentance and baptism.  All the kids got it super well.  They are super smart.  Jose Enrique is 16, Rodrigo 12, and Saeed 8.   I think we are going to have basically the same lesson with Enrique.  Maybe just with him.  He`s a little timid.  We celebrated Rodrigo`s birthday this Wednesday!  He`s a very sincere kid.  Since there isn`t light at Enrique and Claudia`s house, we celebrated in Presidente Mercado`s house.  It was a good experience because I could see how comfortable Enrique was with everything.  He felt good in the branch president`s house.  This is a good sign!  I felt really happy Wednesday night. 
    Friday night we visited a member family.  Their oldest son accompanies us a lot.  His name is William.  He`s awesome!  He always teaches really well and tells our investigators to listen to us and do the things that we teach because we`re called by God.  Whoa!   We got to know his family a little bit more and gain more of their confidence.  On Sunday their other returned missionary son, Wiston, had a lot more confidence with us.  It`s good to see the changes that happen when we take time to show that we love people.  Wiston and William were companions on their missions!  Weird!  Only for one transfer. Anyway, this Sunday Wiston was a lot more friendly towards us and I asked him to cuidar (take care of, but cuidar is a better word) Enrique in the Priesthood class. And he was just like, yeah, I`ll look out for him hermana.  No se preocupe. 
    I love the members here!  Joao, our mission leader had everything ready for the baptism.  He is really good too.  We celebrated Hna Josefa`s birthday Sunday night and sang some hymns with Hno Eduardo and his guitar.  We all said something nice about Hna Josefa.  She`s a really sweet and powerful lady.  Super strong in the gospel.  haha.  Hna Zapeta said the hymn singing was a little evangelical.  And it was.  haha  but it was good! 
    Mom, my clothes are doing very well.  I think I might have lost a little bit of weight.  Or my clothes are stretching out a bit.  I haven`t changed very much.  
   Tonight we have two FHES.  One with a less active family (Yader and Angelica) and another with Claudia and Enrique.  Pray for us!  Pray that we`ll have the opportunity to talk to Enrique alone! 
I love you all a lot.  Thanks for your letters and the news and your love and your prayers and for being my family! 
Love, love, love
Hna Tew