SWEET IS THE WORK--September 13th, 2010

Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I LOVE you!

First of all, happy happy birthday, dearest Chris and Maa! I'm praying for you to receive birthday cake and icecream falling from the sky like in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Let me know if you get it.

Chris: I don't know if you ever get these, but an Elder here gave me a MAGIC CARD the other day. And you won't believe what it is--it's called "Timeless Missionaries" and has a great little blurb about how they save the souls of those they teach and never grow weary. Soon I will take a picture of it and send it to you. I couldn't stop thinking about how I wanted to show it to you the whole day! I hope Hawaii was great! Did you two happen to meet a tall sister working at the PCC--she uses a cane and has had some brain damage, but her name is Brandy. She was in my missionary prep class and she has an amazing story. I hope you got to hear some of it.

Anyway. I'm in this crazy CyberCafe where there are lots of teenage boys giggling together over computer games. Weirdies. We now have TWO baptisms planned for the 16th of October! WEEEEEEEEEEEE! The other is Liba--an older woman who is very, shall we say, simple minded. The first time we challenged her to baptism she said no because that kind of baptism would hurt her back too much. But lately she's been making loads of progress. She's getting the hang of praying in her own words, which was really hard for her before. And sometimes, after we read something in the Book of Mormon that she thinks is especially beautiful she'll yell out "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!" It's really funny. But we taught her about the plan of salvation and about baptism last week. At first, when we invited her to be baptised, she said no again. But then we read in Mosiah 18 and in 3 Nephi about following Christ's example and we felt prompted to promise her blessings regarding her husband's health(he's been in the hospital for a long while now) and she really felt the spirit and said yes and began to cry. It was amazing. In all, Brno has SIX pending baptisms! SIX! It's incredible. Lately we've been talking about bringing up baptism earlier in our relationships with investigators and it's been really great to see such results.

So many miracles have happened this past week. I met a ROMANIAN boy (about my age) on Saturday who spoke great English. There's also a Romanian man in our ward, so we've invited them both to Family Home Eveing tonight...hopefully some good will come of it. It's incredible how the Lord takes His work into His own hands. The hard part is being willing to follow promptings that seem obscure or unclear and having the faith that it will work out. But every time I do, my heart feels as though it will explode from that cavity in my chest because it's grown so big, even if it seems like nothing's come from it.

Danielle: Don't worry, reffing will get easier. I felt like that my first few times reffing volleyball. Just act like you know what you're doing and they'll listen to you. I LOVED your letter--I couldn't stop laughing over it. You're great. Remember: never be ashamed of who you are or the truth that you know about life on earth and what's really important. It's difficult seeing friends make poor choices--I went through it too. But you have the opportunity to allow others to feel of the happiness that radiates from someone who's clean and who harbors within her the glory of the truth. Isn't it wonderful, that we know so much about who we are, where we've come from, and why we're here? That's the thing I wish everyone could understand.

Family, I love you SO SO much! I'm sending you all an e-kiss with this letter. Cau!

Sestra Dean