Another Week

The Missionaries

Every transfer (every six weeks) our stake presidency has an ice cream social to meet the new missionaries transferred into the stake.  This month we met at President Zivic's home.  Sister Zivic, in the red dress, is serving the ice cream.  She is originally from Uruguay.

Elder Walser, in the gray and white stripped sweater, just celebrated his 26th birthday.  It is great to see missionaries like him who have the courage to serve a mission even though they are several years older than most of the others.

Another zone conference with fantastic missionaries.

It is so refreshing to be with these young men and women.  Our hearts are touched as we feel of their great spirit and enthusiasm for the Gospel and their unselfish desire to sacrifice 18 months to two years of their young lives to serve their Lord and Savior.

The Branch

This week the members of our small, Portuguese-speaking branch had a potluck luncheon after church to honor Elder and Sister Silver, who will be completing their mission and returning to their home in Kentucky next week.  They are seated on the right side of the table.

One of the unique aspects of serving a mission is getting to know different missionaries from throughout the world.  Strong relationships are established with them and then, before you know it, they complete their mission and return home to their regular lives.  Once they leave, we will probably never see most of these people again in this life.  Our fond memories, however, will be with us always.

Now that our branch meeting on Sunday is the last one in the building, we can expect to have many more of these after church luncheons this year.

These lovely women all had birthdays in January.

A special cake was made and we all sang "Para Bens Pra Você" (Happy Birthday in Portuguese).

The Senior Missionary Couple of the Week

When we were home last spring, we had the opportunity to meet with Elder and Sister North.  They had just received their call to serve as humanitarian aid missionaries in Cape Verde.

Now they are serving in Cape Verde and adjusting to a whole new way of life.

And so it goes...