Elder David y Hna. Pam Johnson

Pam’s E-mail letter to her family on Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Hola everyone,
Thank you to all who have sent an e-mail, what a treat. Mom and Dad, thanks for keeping us posted on your travels. And Gary, your pictures are awesome, thanks for sending them. This past weekend has been another long week. Yes, our weekend seemed like a week. We try to meet as many needs as we can for the missionaries. Today, Monday morning, as we were returning home, we started going over what we had done and we thought what we had done was last week. We are getting in a lot of service hours and they are starting to blend together. But as I was thinking about the time we are giving to travel long distances just to meet with a small group of people or to deliver irons, mail, food, cell phones, whatever we need to do to be the best help. I kept on thinking of the scripture in Mosiah 2:17 which reads “…when you are in the service of your fellow beings ye are in the service of your God.” I know that you do not have to be on a mission to be of service to your fellow beings or of service to our Heavenly Father but it put ever thing into perspective as I wondered if my service is of good or if it really is important. And I can testify to you, my family, that what we are doing and what you have done or are doing (especially for us) is important. I know that by simple works we can make a difference and I know if the work is of good report it will be accepted by our Lord.

We saw our first big traffic accident this weekend; you would think there would be a lot more. We have seen some near misses and some large trucks fallen into their deep ditches that they have but not rollovers and multiple vehicles like we saw this weekend. There were 2 police cars and an ambulance there as well and the sad thing is to see is that these official vehicles are some of the most beat up vehicles, just like the taxi’s.

We have seen our scooters and motores (mow-toe-ray) haul some interesting and large things. It is not unusual to see them with 2-5 people, or hauling large objects (like double size mattresses or washing machines). But today in our travels back to the capitol, we saw a motore with two baskets one on each side. And in these baskets, each one had a goat inside that was hog tied and they were sitting on their bottoms with their legs and heads out of the top of the baskets. They actually were quite content looking; it really was the fun spot of the day.

I can’t think of anything more to bore you all with so I guess it is time to say good-bye. We love you so much and many times when I am saying our family prayers the tears just seem to pop up when I pray for my family. Sometimes I don’t quite make it through. I can’t express to all of you the love we have for our parents, our children, our grandchildren and siblings. You all are our true treasures of life. Take care everyone.

Lots of love,
Shrek and Donkey
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo