Good start to 2017

Well, that was a great opening to a new year.  We had a great Christmas and New Year's, and then a baptism last Saturday. I've got some pictures to send now!  Some from Christmas (that picture of the main course at Christmas is dog...), and a picture of the baptism.  Her name's Marie, and she's 18 years old.  We've been teaching her for almost a month.  Her grandma, a member, introduced us to her, and she had already decided to be baptized before we even met her.  Now we are trying to teach her mother, who has a busy work schedule and can't find time to meet with us or go to church, but between random visits with her daughter, and from when the grandmother was being taught, she's already got a decent understanding of the Gospel, and she's really only being blocked by her work.

Office work has gone really quiet since Christmas ended.  All we've had to do are the weekly key indicators, but once all of those are sent in, I can finish in about half an hour, so we've mostly been in our area instead of in the office.  But even that is quiet!  Everyone went home to their outer island for Christmas, and most still haven't come back yet, so our area isn't just quiet, it's empty!  There's still some people, but there's a noticeable difference in how many people are walking around, and it feels a little strange.  But they'll be trickling back in the next week or so.

Anyway, that's about it for now.  Talk next week!

Elda Van

P.S.  Most people here don't have patriarchal blessings, but from what I've heard, surprisingly most of the ones that do are mostly fromManasseh or Ephraim.