Full Circle

I'm sure anyone who reads this will know that before we went on our mission to Brazil in 2014, we were "visa waiters" in Boston.  We were so excited to come back here, and assumed we'd be able to see some of the people with whom we had worked before.  On the map, they're fairly close to us.  Actual driving on old, horrible roads - they're quite far away.  But we have really felt like we especially needed to go see one couple.  We actually posted a picture with them on June 7, 2014.  We had assisted some AMAZING Sister Missionaries in helping a man named Reginaldo quit smoking and do a few other things to prepare for baptism.  He did quit, and he and his darling girlfriend, Nina, got married.  Sadly, a year later Reginaldo started struggling with questions.  (But he stayed smoke free - whew!)  After an already-full day on Saturday, we went North and spent a couple hours with them.  It was SO good to see them!  As we started to discuss concerns, some real anger and emotion surfaced, and we were both thinking maybe we needed to make a quicker-than-planned exit.  But then we bore our Testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to him, and the Spirit was able to enter the room, and the rest of the discussion was done in love.  People can't argue with what you know.  And we DO know!

So good to be with them again!

Besides spending an unfortunate amount of time in bed this week (don't worry - we're better now), we did really fun things like take the Church mops to the laundromat so they could actually clean, and did our best to make the part of the gym where we have Sacrament Meeting look a little more presentable.  It's so sad - the Church is often completely out of toilet paper, and is seldom vacuumed nor is the trash dumped, except for the three times we've done it.  So one of our New Year's Resolutions is to find out who's in charge of overseeing the cleaning, and help to get everyone on a schedule!  (Yes, we have lofty goals!!!)  It's so important to treat our Church Buildings with respect.

How we found the piano last Sunday.  (The lower panel has always been off.)
My brother, who is a professional piano tuner, will be so unhappy to know
I looked on Youtube for instructions to fix the stuck damper pedal -
Unfortunately, this piano has a more complicated problem.  :(