The sister missionaries and I just had the second discussion with my neighbors, Mirta and Pelusa.  Mirta is reading the Book of Mormon I gave her.  She has read the pamphlets on the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, and the Joseph Smith Story.  She not only read them, she studied the vocabulary, and answered the questions at the back of each one.  She is a sponge for spiritual truth.  She has said the closing prayer twice in the discussions now, and they are sincere.  She asked Heavenly Father to bless me.  That made me feel so humble that she would think of me.   I have been praying a lot for the two of them, and now she is praying for me.  How wonderful is that?  The last few days, I have been so happy, and now I know why.  

Jerry and I went to the temple and saw another of our volunteers get sealed to her husband.  Florencia Galli and Lawrence are champion hip-hop dancers.  We haven't seen them dance, but we saw a video of her dancing in a competition, and she was amazing!!  She used to have piercings and blue hair.  She went to church and said to herself, "If anyone says anything about the way I look, I will never go back."  No one did.  They welcomed her with open arms.  She felt at home.  Little by little, the piercings disappeared.  The hair went from blue to blond, then to brown.  She dresses stylish but modestly and is very professional when she works with people who come into our office.  She is so kind and not judgemental.  What a wonderful example of the pure love of Christ!  

She met and married Lawrence.  He was later baptized, and as a new member, worked on his testimony.  We saw him in the Investigator's Class in Sunday School when we visited their ward, and he had his scriptures, aked questions, made comments, and was a great example of a new convert gaining understanding line upon line.   She led the music in Sacrament Meeting, and is the Young Women's President in their ward.  They are dedicated and strong in the gospel.


 In the temple, Lawrence was emotional, which surprised Florencia.   It touched all of us to see them together in the Celestial Room, surrounded by the beauty of the room and their friends.  We were very humbled to be included in that group.  The spirit was strong, and we basked in the joy and love we felt.


I hope to have some pictures from others.  I dropped my new camera and it fell on the lens.  (That was a sad day.)  So I will wait to post pictures. 


We got together for lunch with a senior couple who is serving in the Montevideo Temple, Garth and Kim Goates from West Valley, Salt Lake City.  We had a great time. They came to our apartment and were so impressed with the view and the wood floors, etc. It was fun to have someone come to see us. We walked to the mall and had lunch and then looked around for a little bit. It was a fun afternoon. I have some pictures of that day that they emailed me.

Garth and Jerry are about the same height.  Kim is a little
taller than me. We look very American when we are together.

This is in our apartment.

We walked on the Rambla to get to the mall.  On the way we stopped to take pictures.  Garth really looked like Mohamad Gandhi in the second one.


At the market, I found an 8 x 10 of the Plaza Independencia
that included our building in it.  I was so excited, so I bought it.                                                                l       
This is a snapshot of the picture.                        I

If you follow the line down from the two I's, that is our building.   I can't label or put markers on this picture, but it gives you an idea anyway.  We are in the center of Montevideo.

We are so blessed to be here and to have wonderful people around us.  We work with the cream of the crop young people in this area.  They are the future leaders of the church here.  We can see the effect of recent and past missionary efforts all around us and now we are becoming part of it.  What an amazing opportunity this is!   Thank you for your prayers.  We can feel them.  We love you and pray for you.  May the Lord bless you.