Marriage Counseling

Happy Easter plus one!

This was the week when all the Catholics come out, so we had many fun experiences trying to teach about the Restoration. People are very nice (for the most part) but not too receptive to the idea of a living prophet. Or maybe they just don't want to wake up on Sundays at 9 am. That could be the reason.

Anywho, I've decided that my attitude about Santiago needs to change a bit. This past week I realized that what I want (which is to find and baptize a family or at least one person here before I leave) is secondary to the plans of the Lord, and I have a strong feeling that the greatest need right now is helping to strengthen and fortify the branch. President Ward's hinted that that's what he'd like us to do, but I've been stubborn and shoving that thought off to the side, thinking, "We'll show him! We can have baptisms here in Santiago even if it is the Catholic capital of Panama!" I think I finally realized that even though we still work hard to preach the gospel to everyone here, I need to focus on the needs of the area as well.

One of those needs is to strengthen the young families that are here. We have a branch with a bunch of young, recent convert couples and many (if not all) of them have a few marital issues that they're trying to work out before they can prepare themselves to go to the temple. Yesterday we decided to take Elder Robison (the senior missionary) with us to one of these couples' houses to give them some help after they had a big fight before church. Basically, we sat in the middle and translated while Elder Robison gave them some pointers on how they could strengthen their marriage and overcome some of their problems. Whenever the husband or wife would mention something that the other did that bothered them, Elder Robison would just chuckle and say, "Yep. Been there." I think in the end it was nice for them to realize that everyone's got problems and sometimes you just need to laugh about the differences. Hna. Aguero and I, not being married ourselves, didn't have too much knowledge to impart, but we did suggest that they settle arguments with paper-rock-scissors...and a little gospel on the side. I didn't think marriage counseling would be part of my job description as a missionary, but you never know exactly what people are going to need you for. Why do I get the feeling that someday all of these things are going to be echoing in my head?

Oh yeah, just one more thing: last night we tracted into a Hindu family. That was probably my favorite thing to happen this past week. The dad and son were the only ones who spoke Spanish, so we taught a very, very simplified version of the first lesson, using pictures and many hand gestures. I felt odd teaching about God while I was looking at pictures of Shiva and Vishnu on the wall, but it was fun. They were nice. I wonder how Scott did that for 2 years...

I love missionary work. It's a crazy little box of chocolates.

Love you all and have a great week!

Hna. Brewster