Birthday Blessings :) WOW!!!!

Received April 12, 2010

Bon Dia pa Tur Gende!

Mi Ta Spera Ku Boso Tabatin un Seman Hopi Dushi i Ku Boso ta Bai tin un Seman Yen Yen di Felicidat I Exito!

Hey family and Friends!

I thought I would throw down a little Papiamentu for you guys. If any of you understand it write me back and tell me what it says. I would be impressed.

Well thank you so much for all of your birthday wishes, support and prayers. As I said last week, this has been a super busy time on the island of Curacao. So those prayers were needed big time. Not only were they needed but they have helped so much.

A lot of you are asking about my birthday -- it was amazing! I woke up and had a great surprise. I opened a letter and it was full of pictures! I couldn't believe it! It was perfect. And then we went to church and it was even better! Heavenly Father truly does know and love us because I got a huge birthday present this past week. We had 11 investigators in church yesterday. Something that hasn't happened on this island for a LONG time (if ever). I am not being prideful because there was nothing that we did to get these people in church. They were all blessed by a loving Heavenly Father who knows that there are two young men in Curacao who are completely lost but still trying their best, and he sure blessed us.

Eight of those investigators came from two families that were referrals from the branch president's family. They are both way cool families and are way into our message! I am really excited for these two miracles that we have been given. They both came to us in phone calls. We didn't do a thing to find these people. The Lord just blessed us with these awesome golden investigators. Both families are from the Dominican and they are really excited about the first few lessons that we have shared with them.

We met them for the first time on Wednesday. It rained all day on Wednesday so it was a perfect day. Those of you who know me know how much I love the rain :), it was awesome! Anyways, we met up with the branch president's family and went to get to know these two awesome families. The first family is Iris and her daughter, and her daughter's daughters. They are all just awesome and they are all reading in the Book of Mormon. Their daughters said that they would rather have it in Papiamentu when we went over on Saturday so that is just awesome. They all came to church yesterday and they absolutely loved it. When I asked them if they were coming back next week they said you betchya! I was pumped!

The second family is also way cool. Monica is the grandma. Jose and Gladis are the parents. And there are two teenage boys. Jose is so into the message. We taught the Joseph Smith story and he loved it. He took away one principle and has applied it to everything in his life. If you are lacking knowledge ask God and he will tell you! They all came to church yesterday and they absolutely loved it as well.
We are pumped to have these two awesome families. But we are also pumped to get some more youth into the church! These kids are so awesome. I know that this is what they need and I am so excited for them. Like I said before, these are miracles in my eyes and I am so thankful that Our loving Heavenly Father loves us and is always willing to bless us.

The Burnabella family is doing great. They have made plans to fly to Venezuela to get married towards the end of April. They will be back sometime in May to get baptized. I may not be here when that happens but it doesn't matter. I couldn't be happier for them.

I had an amazing experience this week. On Friday we woke up and drove to the other side of the island. We had a cida with one of our investigators in the afternoon and I have been studying a lot about God's love for his children. We were both pumped to teach that lesson. Well we got to the other side of the island, had our lunch appointment, and then got a call from the investigator who said she couldn't do it. I was so discouraged. Things kind of kept falling those two days and so I was kind of bummed. I was thinking of who we could visit and a recent convert's name popped into my head. We went and she said, "I knew God would answer my prayers!" It turns out that she had been going through a really hard time in her life. All of her family is getting ready to move to Holland and she is going through a bunch of medical problems. She said she felt so alone and she only wanted somebody to talk to. She also suffers from depression and she told us how depressed she was. She said "today I asked God to help me, to just give me anything, anyone to talk to, and then you Elders came to my door.

I was so shocked and amazed at the way God had led us to her house to answer her prayers. Not only were we there but I had studied all morning and had a book full of scriptures about God's perfect love for his children. I know for a fact that God led us directly to one of his children who was in need. At the end of that lesson I was so thankful that I had the opportunity to be a part of that experience. It was just awesome!

A funny story and then I have to go. We were teaching the Dominican family and here in the Caribbean they have these windows that are just panes of glass that fold out to let air in. They had their windows open and the curtains were covering the window. I was teaching and then something started to come through the curtain and right as I turned around the curtain fell and something fell on me. I let out a high squealed Mckay and I screamed. Then a cat came crawling out of the curtain. I felt like such a wimp but we also had a good laugh.

God loves us and we are His children. There is no doubt about that in my mind! Thank you so much (all of you) for all that you do for me. Thank you as well for the example that you are to me in your service to others. We are the Lord's hands here and I know that when we serve as the instruments that we truly are, amazing spiritual experiences come about!