December 12, 2007 Letter

I popped the question…

… we arrived for an appointment with a darling young woman named Cathrin, but she wasn´t there, surprisingly. Her mom said she´ll be back late at night. Well, we thought, as we walked down the street, stopping a while later on the corner. Who can we go visit? And as we were discussing the next visit, a boy, Cathrin´s brother, ran up to us and told us she was home. (that NEVER happens, by the way) Sweet! So we walked all the way back and sat down with her. She has been understanding our messages very well and has many good questions (she´s very intelligent…unlike some Dominicans… It´s TRUE!) ANyway, we were reading in Alma 31, since she didn´t have time to read it herself. And when we were talking about the principles therein, I found myself, unexpectedly, suddenly asking her if she wanted to follow Christ´s example and prepare to be baptized... Well, to our surprise, she accepted. I thought, ¨where did that come from, Julie?? I dunno, you tell ME. Well -I- wasn´t expecting that. It must have been that Spirit guy… Yeah…¨ (yes, I´m a skits-o) We are excited to help her be best prepared for her big day. She has the sweetest smile, and we can see her little seedling of faith grow brighter already. =)

Had a fantastic baptism the other day for Selichel, a darling young lady who feels so different now as a new member of the church. Clean and renewed, as she´s taken a big step into a new, better life. We are excited for her. She will need lots of support from her parents, friends, and us from now on.

We have also set a couple more baptism dates this week that were definitely encouraged by the Spirit. We will be diligent in working with these people so they are prepared.

At this last fast and testimony meeting, there´s a nice kid named Jeffrey (that isn´t capable of speaking normally but is always happy and friendly) we continue to visit him and his siblings that are new members. Jeffery sat in front of me in church and he kept lookin´ back at me and pointing at the pulpit as people bore their testimonies... I urged him to go up there and do the same. He hesitated... I said, go on Jeffrey! Go share your testimony too! And with a big smile on his face he walked up there and when he talked the words didn´t make sense, but I knew that he had an enormous tesimony that had been hiding deep in his heart. That was probably the first time he´d ever shared it! Great kid. :)

wait WHAT?? Mom and Dad have an IPOD?!?... wha-- When did this happen?? Now that´s some big new I never got… lucky ducks. I´m so proud of you! ^_^

… Now how ´bout high-speed Internet? … har-har

Phone call home: well… It´s absolutely fine to conference call to JR and Mel and staff, they ARE family, right? Yup. I´ll love to talk to everybody at once! Hee-hee. I have a feeling I´ll be doing most of the talking, just since I´ve been recieving updates from you all, and I just might have more interesting info to share. Cuz yer all curious, I know it. ;) Speaking of JR, what´s JR´s family blog address? Could someone send it to me please? Thanks. Mom: that package I got did have the gum, Lego magazine pages, the yummy dried pears, and the other stuff. That was all right? No sign of the other packages yet. Thanks again!! Still don´t know about the ¨pick-up-from-the-mish¨ situation. Still trying to get a for sure answer if I will be able to be released here or not. But either way, parent pick-ups have been done before.

EEP! Times up, gotta roll. Any more questions? no time to proofread...

Love to family and friends, especially MOM and DAD!!! ^_ ^

Hna Julie Benson