The Yellow Canary

Hello my dearlings!

Rain, rain everywhere! I can't believe how much rain we've had here and it sounds like you've had rain there! Oh my goodness! I love the rain. Except for when it makes everything hot and muggy:( 

I got the most beautiful package in the mail today. Holy smokes! You really spoiled me! So many beautiful things! I'm one lucky Sister:) Packages and snail mail mean so much to a little Sister! Many many many thanks! Beautiful!

This has been a really crazy week and it's about to get crazier because we have a baptism this weekend. Our lovely little Tatiana is going to be getting baptized this weekend and I'm so excited. But more than me she is beyond enthused! She can't wait. I love baptisms!

This week was once again a very crazy and as always bizarre. I. Love. My. Life. Really! It's so awesome the amount of crazy things we see in a week. This week we went to the home of one of the recent converts in the ward. He is in his 60's and suffers from epilepsy, it's made him slightly different, but he is oh so kind. But everytime we go to his house I cannot control myself. I laugh and laugh. Most of the time I don't even know why I'm laughing. So last week I decided that I would do my very best to keep a straight face. I prayed and prayed that somehow I could be able to keep it together. Well, we sat down and for some reason he started telling his parents (who are not members) that I'm from Ohio and that I speak AMAZING spanish for someone from Ohio. Well, as you can guess my poker face didn't last too long. I've never even been to Ohio. And no matter how many times I tried to tell him I was from Utah he insisted that I was from Ohio. The things I learn about myself. 

On Friday we had a dinner appointment with one of the families in our ward. Their an older couple in their 60's from Mexico. For some reason most of our dinner appointments include us eating by ourselves and the family watching us. It's pretty weird. I've never eaten with an audience before. But I must say my poise for Sisters is rocking! You should see the way I rock table manners. Anyway, so the Sister comes in with a bowl of soup and then the plate of food, she sets it in front of us and goes into the living room and sits down. Her husband turned on elevator music and sits down in another chair and then we realized that they were both asleep. Sound asleep. REM cylce sleep. It was incredible. So we ate  and sat there for a while. Then Sister Lucas said, "So what do we do in these situations?". Sister Cantu and I laughed because honestly these situations don't usually happen. Eventually their daughter walked in and woke them up so we didn't have to. It was pretty memorable. 

This week I've been studying the pamphlets that we hand out to our investigators. I realized a couple days ago that it's kind of hypocritical to have my investigators study the pamphlets if I never have myself. So as I've been reading I've realized a lot of small simple truths that have really strengthened my testimony. This week I was reading in the Restoration pamphlet and I was answering the little questions in the back of the pamphlet and marking the scriptures, and I was really struck by a scripture in Malachi 2:10  that says, 

"Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?"

It really struck me. I've thought about these questions a lot. It has made me really think about the way I treat everyone. My own family. My friends. My investigators, companions, strangers I meet on the metro. I think if we could really embody the answers to these questions we would always treat others kindly.  Never forget that you are a child of God, as such your family is all around you. That is something I've learned on my mission. I have family everywhere. Family from Haiti, Ottawa, France, Switzerland, Tahiti, Colombia, Mexico, Ivory Coast, China, Montreal, Utah...Ohio. Family is the most precious word to me. I love my family. They have brought me immense joy, immense love, and undeniable happiness. Have we not all one Father?

I hope that you all have a lovely week. Enjoy the beautiful summer rain. Play in the puddles. Eat watermelon. Smell those gorgeous roses in the backyard. And when you look up remember there is someone always watching over you. 

I love you.

Sister Perkins