It's Not All About You - It's About The People All Around You

Since our transfer to the English ward we have kept super busy. We have 20-30 English families that we will try to see each month. They are all so kind to us and we love being able to teach and visit with them.

Last weekend we were able to go to the Young Single Adult Fireside that President Woods was speaking at and he shared some great ideas with them. One of his quotes that I loved is, “It’s not all about you - it’s about the people all around you.” It struck a chord with me and with many of the youth that were there.

Monday, I turned 49 - I feel old just saying it. It was a great day. We visited the Espinoza family and then Don took me out for dinner at the Superior Grille and we got to visit with Rocio. Next year we’ll be having our Homecoming and my 50th birthday all at the same time. I’ll really feel old then. See pictures below.

We had a couple of special visits this week. We visited Alice Smith, she’s 81 and very frail. She opened up to us and told us that her husband died last year and she was clearly still shaken from it. We shared our testimonies and had a prayer with her. As we left, she asked us to come back again. She was so sweet.

We also visited a single sister in the ward who is going thru some difficult times and has a lot of decisions to make in her life. She has a law degree and is thinking about going back to school to get a masters degree in Social Work. We visited with her for three hours - but it didn’t really seem like that long. Don gave her a blessing and she wrote us a very sweet thank you note later.

Saturday we went to Ruth Kinnion’s baptism and took a lot of pictures. It was a great baptism with lots of people there to support her. Elder Peterson and his family were all back for vacation and they all came to the baptism as well. Don took lots of pictures, made a book for her and gave it to her on Sunday. She was so happy. Here is the Smile Box I made for her baptism.




We also found out that the Spanish and English wards will officially separate their Primary and youth programs on Sept 7th. They have been combined since Katrina. Now each ward will have to staff their own Primary, Young Women’s and Young Men’s. We will change to 1pm Church meetings. We are very excited about that, right now our meetings start at 9am.

This week we realized that we only have one more full year on our mission. Time sure does fly and we sure do love the people here in New Orleans.