Dear Family, It is Sunday afternoon and it’s raining. We have been to church which was great. Sister Peterson and Sister Linares played a duet of “When Ever I hear The Song of a Bird” on the piano. It was incredible and there weren’t many dry eyes afterwards. This is the Peterson’s last Sunday here because next week is General Conference. They leave for home on October the 8th. What a great couple they have been. A family of three was also confirmed also in sacrament meeting.
Now I will go back to Monday. We went downtown with the Bradshaw’s who are the newest couple here. They are from Galveston Texas, and this is their 2nd mission. They served in the London Temple about a year ago. They have strong accents which we love to hear. Unfortunately, when the hurricane hit, their home received a lot of water damage. They had been renting it but it was empty when the hurricane hit and luckily everything is in storage somewhere else. They are not on our shift but we see them at other activities.
Veronica, the girl who Tom gave the blessing to came over to eat on Monday. We have watched her on a rollercoaster ride this past week.
She loved coming for dinner and seemed so much happier that day. She still had a few bad days during the week, but some sisters from Portugal befriended her and that seemed to help a lot. She left yesterday afternoon for home. She gave us a very sweet hand made note expressing her gratitude. You never know who will be placed in your path but I don’t think it was just coincidence that she came here. We pray that she will do well at home and return when she can to the Temple.
On Tuesday it was the wedding of Naomi the girl from the temple office that we have already mentioned. She was a beautiful bride and so happy. As we also mentioned Tom had been counting down for her the days till she would get married. She had obviously told her family from Italy about it because when they saw Tom they said, you’re the one who has been teasing her! Naomi wanted a picture of us with them afterwards because of the joke!
After they finished taking pictures on the Temple grounds, they had a program in the chapel. Her parents spoke, his Mother spoke, the Bishop spoke, and there were two musical numbers. It was just like a sacrament meeting I guess it is customary here. Then we went in to the cultural hall for the reception. Jean Lyman one of the Temple Missionaries decorated the hall for them. 
It looked very nice and there were a lot of little Hor’deurves served. While we were eating, a girl who had come from Italy for the wedding came up to talk to us. Dad had his Missionary tag on and she had noticed our name. Sister Zafarana had served part of her Mission on Temple square and spent the last of her Mission in Arcadia Californai Mission.
She asked if we had a son serve there and of course we replied that Paul was there. She remembered him and asked about him. Again what a small world we live in! She is going to General Conference and wanted some information if they were having a mission reunion.
Linda Lovera, the girl from Scott’s mission is still here and comes to our ward. She is watching a three year old boy for a job. She has to do that for at least three months before she goes back to Venezuela to visit. Things are very unsettled there and she wants to be sure she can come back. She is active with Institute and the Single Adults. We need to have her over again.
The Temple was very busy last week. It was a Portuguese stake week. They really come in big groups and spend their whole time in the Temple. There is a very short Portuguese worker who comes quite often named Maria Monteiro (she speaks almost perfect English and is kind of sassy in her speech). We have struck up a friendship with her. We are not sure but Jeff may know her. I asked her yesterday if she might have known Anna Ferreira. She asked if her Mom’s name is Evon and it is so we are sure we are talking about the same person. She is going to find out what she is doing now. Anna was the girl that came to Utah at the time Jeff had his homecoming and later came to BYU for school. She sang a song with Jeff at his homecoming. How small the world becomes when you are involved in the church!
Dad was in mourning yesterday because BYU had a bye week-but #7 and climbing! We don’t really have any strong rivalry’s with anyone here yet except for a few MTC missionaries here and there but they come and go.
Kristy informed us about her last doctor visit and it makes it sound like she can have Phoebe any day! We are glad she put us on alert and we pray that they will get a room with internet access so we can see them all and talk to them during her stay. I told Kristy to just imagine that Dad is in there videoing and that she would feel right at home! Those in the family know what I’m talking about!
We love the work here and we feel so incredibly blessed. We have and will have many experiences that we will never forget. The gospel affords us so many blessings. A wonderful family who supports us and experiences which strengthen our testimonies. We love a pray fervently for all of you and hope you are feeling the blessings too. Love to all Mom & Dad
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