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19 March 2012

Dear Homefront,

Happy St. Paddy's Day! And just in case my box doesn't arrive in time, Happy B-Day Paps. (side note on the box, the little red box (ornament inside) and the "humorous item" were both given to me by members in my last area and are for Mom. The brown paper bag with the pictures on it is Dad's B-Day present. The letters, I would like put with my other stuff just like the other box of letters I sent home a few months ago.)
This week has been long and hard, but really good at the same time. We set Tracy, one of our investigators, for baptism in April. She is really solid. Her Mother and sister, Amber, are both recent converts to the church and just a little while ago, Tracy told them that she wanted to join as well, so that's where we come in. Just a couple days ago, the youth in the Ward had a temple trip and Tracy went along with them and Sister Tukumouatu, whose husband was helping with the youth, took her to the visitors center there. She really enjoyed herself and she definitely felt the spirit.

Other fun highlights of the week include an Irish potato bar for the Ft. Lee branch activity on St. Patrick's, green cream soda to celebrate the great week, a long day of tracting on our "Car Fast" which led us to find a new investigating family, and Elder Johnson’s "Brazilian" birthday and the humor that came with that.

So, a little more information on that one. Elder Johnson's mother is full Brazilian so he applied for dual-citizenship. Something got messed up in the courts, so legally in the US, and also actually the day he was born, is in June. However, in Brazil, his birthday is legally in March. So in explaining this to Elder Stock, our Military Relations missionary, he replied "I wish I had two birthdays." So the next night, we bought a cake at dinnertime, and just before curfew, we went to Elder and Sister Stock's apartment. As soon as Elder Stock answered, we broke into a chorus of "Happy Birthday." Moral of the story? Be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it. ;)

Hope all's well on the homefront. I love and miss you all.
With much love,
-Elder John Y. Roberts