It has once again been way too long between posts. It seems that the closer we are getting to finishing our mission, the more busy we become. We only have 50 days left until our mission is over! Time has gone by so fast, it almost seems impossible that we have been here over 16 months. Shortly after we arrived, we had 16 missionaries working with us. When we leave, there will only be four. They will have a very heavy load on them. Our replacements have not yet been selected because the demand for full time senior missionaries is so great. We are not yet sure how long it will be before another full time senior missionary couple will be able to take over as managers. For now, one of our local Senior Service Missionaries will take over as the interim manager until the Full Time missionaries arrive. Sister Vasquez has been working as an employment service missionary for two years and is very familiar with all that we do. She and Sister Elmer will come in three days a week, so the days that the office will be open will be cut back from four days to three days. We have another couple that speaks Spanish but it will be awhile before they will be able to start serving. His brother in Columbia passed away and they had to go back to Columbia for his funeral. While they were there, his mother also passed away, so now it is up to him to take care of all the family matters before they can come back to the US. So they really aren't sure how much longer they will have to stay there until everything is taken care of. 

On April 3rd, we started our English Connect over again starting at lesson 1. This is the 3rd time around for us in teaching the 24 lessons of level 1. We enjoy doing this so much, getting to know these humble people that are trying their hardest to better themselves and to provide for their families. They had missionary transfers again so Sister Harris was transferred. She was one of the Sister Missionaries that give the Spiritual Thought in our English Class:

There is a magnolia tree right out in front of our apartment that we walk by each day on our way to the parking lot. It is in bloom now, and most of them bloom all summer long:

Last July we had a hurricane and the wind was very strong. This Magnolia tree was almost blown completely over. I thought sure that the groundskeepers would straighten it back up right after the Hurricane, which wouldn't have been too big of a job. However, their solution was to tie it to a post and hope for the best:

Each Friday, after we go to the Temple, we like to go out to eat. One of our favorite places is Papadeux, which is a nice seafood restaurant. Sarah gave Velyn a gift card for this restaurant for her birthday and mother's day, so we took advantage of it:

In one of the very first blogs that I did, I talked about a young lady that we helped at the Employment Center named Bianca. We developed a good friendship with her and have met up with her at least 4 different times after that. Yesterday, she was married in the Temple and we were able to be with her for her wedding. While we were waiting for her to come out of the Temple, one of her friends took our picture:

After their Temple Wedding, they had their reception at a venue out in the country, at a very beautiful location. They had a ring ceremony there followed by a nice meal. We got to meet some very nice people that had played an important role in her life. It was a very memorable experience for us, and we are so happy that she was able to find a good man to be her eternal companion:

We have had so many memorable and rewarding experiences while serving our mission here in Houston. It has exceeded our greatest expectations and are so grateful for this experience. We have become acquainted with so many wonderful people and have made so many new friends. At the same time, we have realized even more, how blessed we are. There are so many people that not only need help in finding a good job, but need to know that there is someone that cares about them. Many of our job seekers just need to be able to talk to someone about their problems and trials that they are facing. There are so many sad situations where people have been placed in such bad situations both mentally and financially due to the selfishness and lack of consideration of others, especially people that they thought loved them. The hardest part is not being able to help all of these people in the way that we would like to. Not all of them are able to find a job due to lack of experience, qualifications, age, or being able to speak English. It is hard to accept the fact that you can't always help everybody get what they need. However, we can know that we did our best to let them know that someone cares about them, and hopefully, lift their spirits so they can continue trying to better themselves.