THANKSGIVIIIIIINNNNNNGGGG!!!

My dear family,

WOW. This week was truly the week of miracles here in good ol´ Marcasa. First and foremost, GABRIEL GOT BAPTIZED! It was a really beautiful service this weekend. We combined his baptism with one of the Elders´ because our font is being remodeled and for me, it couldn´t have been more perfect. President and Sister Ward surprised us by showing up and we all had a traditional Panamanian arroz con pollo lunch with brownies made by Hermana Bloomfield and me (the pictures, of which, I believe are being posted on the mission blog as we speak...). Hermana Bloomfield, Elder Savio, Elder Gretsch and I sang ¨Señor, yo te seguiré¨ (Lord, I would follow thee) as a special musical number (and it was pretty special...seeing as we didn´t get to practice all together beforehand...). Gabriel bore a beautiful testimony afterwards and we were so proud of him. This decision has been a long time in the making. And yesterday he was confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What a blessing to witness that.

And now for the other miracle of the week: CAMILA AND MONICA´S FAMILY CAME TO CHURCH!!! I wrote to you all last week about how much we loved this little Colombian family and how Camilo is a professional soccer player (we found out he´s the star of the team--see if you can find anything about Sporting San Miguelito on the Internet). They had told us that they would be able to come to church with us on Sunday if Camilo´s team won their big game this Friday. Since the beginning of our missions, there has been nothing Hermana Bloomfield and I have wanted more than to have a family come to sacrament meeting (and eventually get baptized, of course). Well, in district meeting this past week, our district made a ¨vow¨ with the Lord: if we get at least 20 lessons and 140 contacts each week for the rest of the year, He´ll bless us with a family to baptize. I can honestly say that I have never worked harder than I did last week to ensure that we made our goal. As part of our determination to get Camilo and Monica to come to church, we decided to fast and pray for them to be able to win their soccer game so that they could come. Yes, I know it might sound odd fasting and praying for a soccer game, but what we really wanted more than anything was for them to come to church and for their family to be supported through the rest of the year. Camilo actually asked us if we´d pray for his team because if they lost and got kicked out of the playoffs, they would be out of work for the Christmas season. Of course we didn´t want that to happen, so we promised him we´d be praying for him. We thought about asking President for permission to go watch the game but unfortunately it didn´t start until 9:30 on Friday night, so that was out. We did however get the chance to stop by while he was warming up to wish him good luck. It was really hard to sleep that night. I remember as I was going to bed thinking that it really didn´t matter if they won their game or not; we´d done our part and the Lord would provide. We were fasting and praying that they would be able to come to church and that their family would be blessed. If winning a soccer game didn´t do it, there´d be another way.

On Saturday morning we got a phone call from Monica. They lost the soccer game. HOWEVER...our small moment of saddness was quickly ebbed when they told us, ¨Well, we´re going to come to church with you anyway.¨ I can´t tell you how absolutely elated we were when we picked up Camilo, Monica and their sons Mateo and Juan Jose for church yesterday morning. I couldn´t contain the grins when we walked into sacrament meeting and all the members just stared at this beautiful family filing into the pew with us. Immediately after sacrament meeting the members came up to introduce themselves, invite the kids to primary and ask Camilo for soccer tips :). It was a happy moment. They ended up sticking it out through the whole 3-hour block and seemed to really enjoy it. (All except the whole crowded room in Panama with limited fans thing, which no one enjoys.)
We stopped by their house again last night to make sure they hadn´t been too overwhelmed and they assured us that it was a good experience. And they absolutley love us :) (p.s. Angie, you have to accept Monica as my friend on Facebook.)

The even better news is that we have an appointment tonight with Camilo´s teammate Mario and his family. Camilo had been talking to him about our lessons with them and took us over to their apartment last week (that´s right--he´s already giving us REFERENCES). Tonight is the follow up appointment and we are pumped to have another family. We joked that we´re going to end up baptizing a professional soccer team :) I don´t see why not... We just pray that they can continue to grow and progress in their knowledge and study of the gospel. After seeing the blessings of it in our own lives, it´s hard to keep it from others whom we love so much. And we are in love with this family, let me tell you. Pray for them!

So there you have it. Just a little taste of the amazing things we´ve been able to experience this past week, which comes right in time for Thanksgiving. Just so you all know, I could not be more thankful for each one of you. For your prayers, your thoughts, your letters and everything you do. I´ll miss the Thanksgiving table banter this year but next year we´ll just have more material :).

I love you all and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

love,
Sister Brewster