Things Are Happening in Tempoal

Yesterday we drove to Tempoal to witness the baptism of Litzy.  She is 13 years old.  The exciting thing is that she was baptized by her older brother who was baptized just 6 months ago.  We were actually in Tempoal for his baptism, too.  We had been asked to participate in the "New Beginning" later in the day and were also invited to her baptism.  It was wonderful and then we went upstairs to the chapel for the YW program. 

We were surprised to walk into the chapel and see it decorated for the program. That's not the usual protocol but there will be time for training later.  They had organized a wonderful evening to welcome the one new Beehive, Lizty.  They spoke about the theme and purpose of YW and the importance of the Personal Progress in their lives.  Dad and I also spoke.  I had enlarged a picture of some of the YW from our ward that they sent to us 2 years ago.  I showed this picture to the girls and their parents and shared a bit about them.  I wish that I had brought my YW Medallion with me.  Dad spoke about the various new beginnings that we have during our lives and the blessing it is to start anew.
The girl's names are: Daniela, Fany, Raquel, Beatriz,Litzy, Alejandra, Mariel,Arizbeth, Sara, and Dessica.

We then drove in the dark to Tantoyuca that is only 20 minutes away.  There is no real hotel in Tempoal.  Dad still had a few letters from the missionaries to answer this week so this is the set up.  He plugs the English keyboard into the Spanish laptop and can type much quicker.  Even typing Spanish responsed is faster on the English keyboard.
This morning we arrived back at Tempoal to attend their meetings today.  And we spoke again.  Dad also had several interviews that had to be done there since it is a branch and he is in charge of the branches in the mission.  We have a wonderful missionary, Elder Castillo, who is serving as the branch president at this time in Tempoal.  His companion, Elder Franklin, serves as his counselor.  They are doing an amazing job and the attendance has risen considerably. They now have between 70-80 members there every week.  It is a big job.
Tonight we are back home to feed and send off one of our missionaries who goes home a little early tomorrow morning.  Then the zone classes begin this week.  They are a shortened version of a zone conference because the following week we will have a member of the area presidency here with us for 3 days to meet with all the missionaries again.  It's going to be another very busy, but wonderful, 2 weeks.