THE TALANGA BRANCH

We loved our Sunday at the Talanga Branch. We attended there with the Gomez family. Wayne was instructed to give his talk again for practice and not to look at his notes so much this time. He did a great job. President Gomez called on me to bear my testimony in Spanish (which is about the only thing that I CAN do). And of course, I played the keyboard for Sacrament Meeting. There were probably about 50 people in attendance. We went to Sunday School where both Wayne and I were asked to read scriptures for the lesson. We did it without too many pronunciation corrections. Then I went to RS....there were four of us there....most of the women in the branch were in YW or Primary. (It is so cool to hear I Am a Child of God in Spanish)....after about a minute the Branch President came in and brought a manual and he and the RS President were visiting for a minute and then he came over to me and indicated that he wanted me to GIVE THE LESSON.....RIGHT THEN....IN SPANISH!!! For those of you who thought that nothing would ever throw Sister T for a loop....you should have been there. I just about died. I guess that he thought that I was a little more fluent in Spanish than I am because I gave my testimony in Spanish!!!

The lesson was on temples and family history. I am so humbled because of my inability with the language. We had a discussion for a few minutes, and then one of the sisters just read the lesson for us and we discussed....I can't wait until I am better with the language. I can't believe the difference even a week makes.

The people are so happy to see us come. Everyone embraces us and is so happy to have us here. There was an older man on Sunday who took my hand and just looked into my eyes and told me something. I'm not sure what it was, but he was so genuine. He looked like a migrant worker with a big white hat and jeans on. But, everyone has a white shirt and tie on for church. As we were leaving the chapel, he was leaving on his bicycle.

There was also a man in a wheelchair. We were glad to see that it was one of the wheelchairs from the church. They have a wonderful program that benefits people worldwide. We took our picture with him to send it to our contact in SLC....

The people love to have their pictures taken. This family was so happy to be at church together. I told the girl that she was my nueva amiga. She was typical of the young people here. You could just pick them up and put them in any ward in the United States. They are the very same.

We met the elders there. One of them is Elder Applewhite. He is from North Carolina and will be going home in about 2 weeks. We were so impressed with him. He and his companion are waving at us as they walk home from the church.

This week our goal is to find a car. There are several possibilities that we have. We just need to follow all of our leads and hopefully something will materialize. Thanks for all of the support you give us. It really helps to know that there are so many of you reading about our experiences.