Sarah, Sean and Ashley

I really don't know where to begin with Sarah and her children Sean age 12 and Ashley age 9. They live on the 18th floor of this building that we would call the "projects" half the time the elevators get stuck and people have to be rescued by the fire dept. We witnessed a rescue at the first visit but thankfully our elevator did make it up and down without incident. Sarah is from Brazil and she and the children speak Portuguese, some Dutch and a little English. Sean is also learning French in school. Sarah was married in the temple years ago and has since divorced and has not had contact with the church except maybe about once a year she will call the bishop and tells him that she wants baptism for the children. She then promises to come to church but never does. On Wed we went with the Elders to visit them. They searched through the house to find the Book of Mormon the Sister Missionaries had given them years ago. We gave them a children's version of the Book of Mormon for Ashley and challenged them to do some reading before we returned on Sat. She called and asked us if we could stay longer on Sat and have lunch with them. When we got there, Mom had slept in and could not prepare the Salmon dish she had promised but went to the store to buy something special from the freezer section of her favorite store. While we were showing a DVD and talked about what they had been studying, I could smell the lunch cooking. I could tell it was some kind of "Fish" Now some of you know that Ben absolutely HATES fish of any kind. He was such a trooper, he ate it, did not complain, did not trow up of even turn green. I am really proud of him. I'm actually even proud of myself because there were several types of fish in the dish and some of them really looked creepy crawly. I just had to swallow them whole and not think about it.

They promised to come to church today so the four of us Missionaries fasted and prayed that this time she would actually come. Yesterday after we left she called the Elders several times and told them that she did not think she could make herself come and not to count on them. They tried each time to cheer her on but she said NO. Well our faithful Elders finally told her that fine, you can stay home but we are coming for the children. The missionaries are told not to give rides because of Insurance problems, so.....our dedicated Elders showed up at the door ready to take the children on the public transit system. When they got there Sarah had changed her mind and came along. Prayers do get answered. When they walked into the church bldg. she told me that she was afraid that everyone would be able to tell that she smoked but I assured her that she would be fine. She was one nervous puppy but her children were thrilled to be there. Several members remembered her and welcomed her. After the 3 hours, Ashley told her Mom that she wanted to come every week and Sean is being picked up tonight by one of the Young Men leaders to come to a bishops fireside for the youth. Those children need the church and good leadership so much. Sean is such a tender little protector of his Mom and sister as you can tell by the picture. He will really benefit from having good priesthood mentors in the church.
We have an appointment to visit with them Wed. Hopefully things will really work out for them this time.