Well, On Friday morning the rain just poured down and our
area flooded all over the roads and into many yards because the power
was off, so the pump wasn't working for a couple of hours. We have some
cement build up around the house so we didn't get rain into the house,
but our yard and driveway were flooded. We took a walk in the middle of
it and drenched ourselves in water up to our ankles. That was a pretty
dumb thing to do, because the water in the ditches is pretty polluted
with sewage.
What has that to do with robbery? We, it seems that
in the middle of that rainy night, someone decided to climb over our
fence and steal our two white lounge chairs. That had to be quite a
task for them, since the circular barbed wire had to be cut and they had
to wade through the ditch behind our fence to get to our yard in the
first place. We had other things in our yard which were more valuable
but they were not touched, like Elder Beutler's running shoes and our
garden equipment. It just seemed like a lot of trouble for someone to
go through just to get two $5 lounge chairs. I couldn't help but think
that thieves have to live in fear all of their lives. Ironically, I
reread Elder Robert C. Gay's conference talk, entitled "What Shall a
Man Give in Exchange for His Soul?" the next day.
Today, Elder Beutler was able to baptize two people,
Paul and Carla Ramsaywack. We met them on a ferry on the way home from
Suriname last month. They are in their early fifties and have a
daughter and her two children living with them. The grandchildren love
going to Primary and their daughter is a beautiful little mother who is
trying to put her life together after having been in an abusive marriage
for several years. It has been so rewarding to know them. They have a
lot of compassion and love to give to others.
One of the real rewards which we have discovered
here is that there are so many people who are so unselfish with their
means. They are people who don't have a lot but they share what the have
with us. There is an auto-mechanic who also has a small dairy. When
we have him fix one of the mission cars, he always gives us some of his
raw milk from his dairy. There is another family who owns a bakery. We
buy treats there sometimes and she always puts rolls or a loaf of bread
in the bag for us to share with the elders. One last example, we had a
tire that was almost flat and a taxi driver past us on the road and
stopped us to tell us that it was flat. Then a bus driver had us follow
him to the nearest tire repair shop to get it fixed. That was a real
sacrifice of time for those people who are usually in such a big hurry
to get their customers where ever they need to go on time. So we are
finding many friends in our little corner of the mission here.
Amy, we hope that you are making your adjustment to
your new area quickly. With Christmas coming soon, we hope that you
make lots of good contacts to share the gospel with during the season.
We love all of you and hope that you have a great month of celebrating
with your families and friends. Love from Elder and Sister Beutler
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