One Year

This time last year my oldest came to me.

"Mom. Zoe Hastings is missing."

"What?!"

"Zoe Hastings is missing."

The idea was so incomprehensible. I couldn't understand what he was saying to me.

"She was going to mission prep and never showed up."

Something must have happened. We prayed.

"Please find Zoe."

There was a little part of me that hoped that she was hiding out with a friend, but that was a very thing hope and would've been completely out of character for her.

Hardly had we any time to wrap our brains around the fact that she was missing, when the news came that she was found. It was not the outcome we wanted. Her body was found inside the family's wrecked minivan. The reports stated "obvious homicidal violence".

"Who would hurt Zoe?" I asked.

"Who would hurt Zoe?" my daughter asked.

It is the question everybody wanted answered.

I've known the Hastings family since shortly after Kermit and I were married. I worked with her grandfather when I was on an activity committee for our church. Two summers ago her mother was camp nurse at our Stake Young Women's camp and I had the great joy of getting to know her. The summer before that Zoe was a Youth Camp Leader at camp. That was the first year I worked with  the 4th year campers. Zoe was one of the youth leaders assigned to our group. She made the adult leader job much easier.

From what little time I spent with Zoe, this is what I know. She was a bright, happy light in a dark world. She was always smiling. Always helpful. She exuded happiness. She was always willing to serve, to help anyone. She was kind and loving and was loved in return. She radiated joy. It was felt by many. There were well over 1,000 at the funeral. Friends. Family. Classmates. People she had never met. All were touched by her goodness.

It's been a year since Zoe was taken. I am grateful that I knew her. I'm grateful that my kids knew her. I'm grateful that her goodness lives on. She was so wonderful and I know that Heavenly Father welcomed her warmly home. Life does not always go as planned, but Heavenly Father turns all things to good.

The Other Side

The latest news from Elder Monzingo. Also, noteworthy but not included in this: He spent 2 days renewing his visa and it is always hot in Brazil. Oh, and a big shout out to the Activity Day girls (8-11 yr olds) from the Kaufman Ward. He finally got the care package you sent.

So this week the other side of the couple that needed their records
redone decided to be rebaptized. That was cool. Talking with him was
very cool. He really knows quite a bit about the gospel and has a very
strong testimony of it all. I don't know why exactly he waited as long
as he did but I was very happy to be able to see him make that next
step. They told us that they are trying for next year to get them all to
the temple. I hope I get news about that. That will be cool. 

Also I got a box from the Kaufman Ward Activity Day group. We ate PB&J seeing
as how my companion had some Pineapple J. Also sour patch kids. Also
I'm not sure when but we will be brid like and eat the sunflower
seeds. That was cool getting the stuff. 

But this week was good.
Although now we are unfortunately going to have to let go Ademar and
family. The only people that are actually doing anything are the ones
that have been baptized(which we aren't letting go) Everyone else just
seems to have lost all interest. SO yeah. That's gonna be interesting.
i'll tell y'all how it goes. I love you guys.

Conference Miracles

From Elder Monzingo:

Welp nows the part where you all tell me if you went and  watched
conference cause i's like, important and stuff so yeah. But I liked it
a lot. And it really does bring miracles. There was someone that
during the preisthood session he was passing the chapel and decided to
see what it was like inside, saw a friend of his, stayed, watched,
liked it and came back the next day to watch the other 2 sessions. So
that was rather cool. I hope that he decides that everything else is
as good as conference. But one of the talks that I really liked quite
a bit was Elder Rasband's. He talked about not forgetting who we are
and our heritage and the things that have happened in our past. Always
remember that you are all children of God and that he is here to help
you. Also I really really liked President Russell M. Nelson´s talk. He
talked a lot about joy. ANd how it is that we need to have joy in
every moment. Even when we soffer. ANd also one thing he said that I
rather liked was "if we follow the worlds standard for happiness we
will never have joy" At least I think that was it seeing as how I
listened in Portuguese. But really there are things in the world so
much more happy than you can imagine. But the gospel has the most
happy things. ALWAYS. I love you guys. Choose the Right

Also I didn't like any of these photos but this is what happens when
you go on a split with your district leader and he got a box from home
and the actual mint ones he likes but prefers strawberry and he was
happy with stuff you did in his area with his companion. So yeah. Also
it was almost full and it was pretty much all gone like one day after.
So yeah.

The Prophets

From Elder Monzingo:

So this week I ended up talking a lot about prophets. There were a lot
of people that we taught that didn´t quite get what a prophet is.
You´d honestly be surprised at how many people don´´t understand like
what a prophet is. And so there were like 3 people this week that we
shared the first lesson with that were shown a lot of scriptures
telling them what is a prophet and that yes we should have them today
and yes they are rather needed in our lives. which is cool. It´s
really awesome being able to show people in the scriptures the stuff.
But this next week everyone here has an assignment. For those who
don´t know this weekend there will be this thing called general
conference. It´s a conference transmitted on the internet and by
satellite where the living prophet, Like Moses, Noah, Isaiah,
Abraham,etc.etc.etc., and the living 12 apostles, like Peter, James,
John, Matthew, Luke, Judas, The other Judas, Thomas, Andrew, the other
James, Phillip, Bartholomew, Lebbaeus, and Simon. And I´m inviting you
all. Go to Lds.org look for general conference to see what times there
are and then go watch it in one of those times. I can promise you all
that it will be some of the best 2 hours of your life. I love you guys

Also this is me and my companion eating açai a few weeks ago

All Good Things to Those That Wait

So the transfer was yesterday. Elder Wilzbach that lives with us got
sent out of here. But Elder Steindorf and i are still here to work in
Bragança. But this week a cool thing happened. Ananda finally got
baptized. After this strange back and forth of wanting to and then not
doing it with people talking stuff and getting her uninterested and
then being interested again and on and on and on, she finally decided
to do it. The awesome part wasn´t necessarily that but that when she
did it she was more firm about her decision than she had ever been
before. So it was really cool to be able to be here for that. The next
part of this family will be the parents. They are sending in the stuff
to get married this week (at least that´s the plan) and then whenever
they are officially married they want to be baptized the same day
after we do some sort of wedding ceremony in the church. So it should
be cool.  But this week was like, a little bit weird, I was on splits
with other missionaries for the largest part of the week and then as
part of that I was on a bus for the largest part of the morning just
about every day. But it was cool. This week was honestly very
interesting with some interesting things that happened on the other
side of the city with the other missionaries. And I overall liked how
the week went. But now it´s the start of a new transfer and time to do
even better now than we ddi these past 6 weeks. I love you guys

PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO EVERY WORD

No. He didn't get eaten by a snake.

Alright, I guess like no one read email stuff that I sent last week or
something like that because I got like 3 emails from people that were
like "WHERE ARE YOU!?!?!?!?!?! Did you get eaten by a snake?????" So
evidently they didn´t see the part last week that said "Also my P-day
next week will be Tuesday because we will have an area seventy here
talking to us Monday." But talking about the guy Elder Sergio
Antunes. he was really cool. We spent the whole day with him which was
really cool. He was very funny and knows a lot about the scriptures.
He talked a lot about the sacrament and different things and there is
the necessity for 2 cures. Water and Blood, Better known as baptism
and the sacrament. I thought the guy was really awesome. it would be
cool to some day just like sit down with somebody that has that much
knowledge and just let him teach ya stuff. Also I have like 9 months
in my mission so we celebrated with pastels. Which was good. They
tasted good. One was almost like a doughnut, which don´t exist here so
it was great. But I also got to see Old companions and people I knew.
So we have a picture here of everyone that arrived in Belém with me
minus a few because they are in zones rather long from us. Also with
all of my companions minus the MTC one that went to the Curitiba south
mission. But yeah it was really rather cool. I love you guys!

Interesting Encounters

This week's email from Daniel:

SO this week I made alfredo! It was AWESOME!!! Waaayyyyyy better than
the last time. Because I bought cheese that worked for the stuff. Also
it had chicken and was just rather good in general. I don´t have
pictures though. Although we did take some. Because everytime we make
food in house it´s a moment to be celebrated. Usually. But this week,
or more like the end, was rather interesting. We ran into this guy
from israel. Somehow he´s lost in brazil. Speaks broken english, much
better spanish and also french and aramaic and hebrew. SO yeah.
interesting stuff. And yeah. he´s an interesting guy. But he´s
probably heading out of here soon so yeah. But this week was good. We
had alfredo. And everyone in the family of Ademar is travelling. They
went to a city close by because(I´m forgetting how to phrase sentences
in english guys. I don´t know how to do it I just know that how I want
to do it isn´t correct) o pai da irmâ socorro(espousa do ademar)
morreu. SO yeah. The family isn´t exactly the best off but We are
going to do the best we can to help them out with that. Lots of fams
enternal. But i love you guys. Also My P-day next week will be
Tuesday. Cause there is an area seventy doing a mission tour here in
Belém Monday. So yeah. that´s like, it. Bye bye.