December 29, 2015
Here we are at the end of 2015. We last wrote we had just pasted our year
anniversary (Sept) being on our mission. And now here it is the end of December. We really are terrible journal keepers, so it
stands to reason that we would be bad at keeping our blog up to date also.
Let me tell you about the Joachim family. We had President Boucher (Mission President)
here for our Branch Conference (ward conference). Jean Joachim was a freelance minister and was
looking for a place to preach. We talked
to him and invited him to our Gospel Principles class. He is from Haiti and spoke some English, but
speaks French creole. He stayed for
priesthood. We set a time to visit him
and his family. His wife Mari, daughters,
Kuchnide and Elizabeth. What are the
odds that just a couple of months prior, the Richards family move into the
branch and brother Richards served his mission in France. To make a very long
story short, we baptized them October 10th. It was a special week for Jean as he was
sworn in as a citizen of the United States on October 9th, baptized
on the 10th and received the gift of the Holy Ghost on 11th
and a week later received the Aaronic Priesthood. It has been such a wonderful
experience to see them grow in the gospel.
He has prepared the sacrament, passed the sacrament, and now has blessed
the sacrament twice in his English that is getting better. Mari really struggles with English, but her
desire is to become a better English speaker.
Right now she has to work on Sunday and that is very hard. They also have two children that live in New
Jersey and the elders are teaching them.
We are preparing them to go to the temple in a year.
We have had lots of disappointments and some successes as we
look at the year. We have grown and developed.
From the things we have experienced we can’t believe that every senior couple
in the church is not out there on a mission! Yes we have missed a wedding,
priesthood ordinations, baptisms and even two grandchildren getting ready and
leaving on missions. But as we look back over the last fifteen months, we are
ever so grateful to be privileged to serve the Lord. When we serve the Lord WE are the ones that receive
the blessings and growth.
