Oh Happy Day!: 11 March 2014

Dear Family,

Well I would like to start out my email this week with the announcement that I have now officially eaten the "Royal Rat" of Belize. You should all Google "gibnut" and read about it. (I think that is how you spell it.) It is a ratish like animal that the Belizeans fed the Queen the last time that she came here. Therefore it is now known as the Royal Rat. haha! I am pretty sure that she didn't like it much. It wasn't too bad though. Luckily the people feeding us knew how to cook it well. That was just a little adventure that I had this week.

This Sunday Nester, Shania, and Matthew Vanegas all got baptized. Their mom is an inactive member that we have been working with. It has been quite the adventure to teach these crazy kids admist the crazy things that have been going on in their family lately. (Their oldest brother ((I knew him)) went missing for two weeks and was found dead and almost completely devoured by the vultures, another one of their sisters has been cutting herself and running away to get attention and there are always a billion crazy people at their house smoking weed.) It was a miracle that everything went well and they were able to get baptized. The older kids in the family are crazy but we are hoping that the gospel can really help these kids to live a better life. That is the best part about the gospel! It truly improves lives. Everything went well with the baptisms except that they didn't want to get out of the water. After the third baptism, Nester stayed to swim and Shania was trying to jump back in. Oh dear. Crazy kids. They finally listened to us and got out of the water to change their clothes. It was a good day.

This Monday was a holiday here is Belize so everyone was out of school and work. To celebrate, the branch had a big picnic. It was great and a lot of people came and enjoyed themselves. People were playing volley ball, baseball, and football (soccer). Others were flying kites, chatting, or playing Monopoly. And of course the food was some good ole rice and beans with home made ice cream. It was pretty darn fun. I came home very sunburned, like always, and grateful that it was pday so I could take a nap.

Well congratulations to The Smith Family!! I can't wait to see my new niece...number 3! haha. Oh, Dad, you asked for a more specific date. The flight has not been scheduled yet but I am pretty sure I will be flying home on the 29th of May. Well I hope all is well. I love you all!

Sista Heap