Los Santos Branch

We have been asked to serve in the Los Santos Branch, located in San Marcos, and we had a wonderful time on our first Sunday here. We had already met many of the branch members during visits that we made to their homes during the week, and it was nice to meet the rest of them at church. The area here is huge and there is only one branch. We were impressed at the strength of the members and the personal sacrifices that they make to attend church meetings and remain strong in the gospel. There is a big change coming to this area in regards to missionary involvement with the branch. Drum roll....We will be the ONLY missionaries serving in all of the Los Santos Zone. President Galvez met with us and explained that he has felt inspired to remove the younger Elders and have us be responsible for proselyting, new member visits/discussions, less active member visits, etc. We understand that we have LOTS of work to do and we are excited to take on the challenge and learn and grow with the great people of this region. Our church building is very "humble." We have a couple small rooms for primary and Sunday school but our sacrament services are right here in the carport/garage. Juan and Dalita are brother and sister and they are originally from Panama. One of the first visits that we made was to their home. It was a very humbling experience to see their little home. They work VERY hard and literally have nothing to show for it in their home. We walked in the pouring rain with mud caked on our shoes and were greeted by big smiles and a bare room with only a bench and a blanket hanging as the front door. They truly are such sweet kids and we look forward to working with them. This is Fabricio and he reminds Pat of some of our grandboys.These are the Elders, Elder Bedington from Chicago and Elder Antuero from Ecuador, who are currently in this area. We have been working with them and learning what we need to know about our investigators and the people that they have been working with. We have had a lot of fun with them and some crazy adventures. They will be leaving this week. They are pictured here with one of the members named Miriam.This is Fabricio's sister Suzeti. She is excited to attend the temple soon because she will be leaving to serve a full time mission in Peru. We enjoy seeing her and the excitement she has to leave in August. We will be planning her farewell dinner with the branch in the next few weeks.This family is very strong and is a great asset to the branch.