Benjamin Rabbit Couldn't Have Had a Better Week! (And Flopsy, Mopsy, or Cottontail for that Matter)

Hello Beautifuls,

We had the privilege of having a Mother's Day party for the branch which was very sweet. One of the members bought roses for all of the moms in attendance and there was cultural food, Latin music, and Hispanic people. I am always so happy to spend time with the amazing members we have.

Skype home in the Netherlands was a bit blurry but very necessary and I loved it and them so much.

Also, I loved it because it gave me some time to reflect on the wonderful mother I have. My mother has always been there to help me through everything, and I love her so much. The missionaries were asked to do a special musical number at the party and we sang two lovely songs, which read:

"Mother, I love you; mother, I do. Father in Heaven has sent me to you. When I am near you, I love to hear you Singing so softly that you love me too."

"I know a name, a glorious name, Dearer than any other. Listen, I’ll whisper the name to you: It is the name of mother. Mother, so tender and kind and true, I love you, I love you. Mother, so tender and kind and true, I love you."

It's true! Mother's are amazing. I saw it in my home and I have seen countless courageous, determined, caring mothers here on my mission. What an amazing calling is that of a mother! And even more amazing that it is a calling from which one will never be released.

Mother's Day party with cute little kids.

Getting to see my mother today (Tuesday the 16th) was even better! And my whole family (+ Hannah + grandpa) for that matter! I felt such peace. It surprised me this time that I didn't cry, I just felt at peace during the call. The call didn't have to be super long either - I saw they were all doing well and were happy and that was the most important thing for me. I loved seeing Will jump on the bed and show me his dragon, and Cole pull out the wizard wand he bought. They were happy and healthy, how much more can a missionary hope for their family?

Sister Chung is doing amazingly, as normal. Her bright spirit and friendly demeanor can lighten anyone's bad day. She makes the best out of every situation and has the prized ability I have not yet obtained of being able to laugh at oneself when everything goes wrong! She is a ray of sunshine on cloudy days.

Chistoso stories (the funny part):

Story one: Well, there is a member family that has had a bunny since about Christmas. This bunny is very good at getting lost, and sometimes the bunny is lost for a week before the family finds it. As we were driving to a dinner appointment at their house Sister Chung said: "is that a rabbit?" The car jerked to a stop as I looked out the window and said, "Roger rabbit?"

I pulled over and we called the family at which point one of the young men in the family rode a bike over to our location and a bunny hunt ensued. Most of you think your Easter Egg hunts are exciting, but hunting the bunny is infinitely harder and gets you a lot more exercise. We wildly ran around hedges and bushes, ran across streets and stuck our heads under cars as Roger ran from place to place.

At long last Roger, hopefully tired (we were), stopped under a car. I stuck out my hand to coax Roger towards me. Luckily, he fell for it as I began to stroke his coat. A crowd was gathered from interested neighbors whose plants and flowers had been devoured by said rabbit. There we cheers and applause as I grabbed him around the middle and triumphantly held the rabbit in my arms. He's probably lost again given this was on Wednesday, but for the time being he was safe and ready to be a house bunny again.

Story two: In mission cars if we ever want to back out the non-designated driver must get out of the car and stand behind the car to back the driver. My way of combatting this in church parking lots is just never parking correctly and parking across several spaces so that I can just go out straight. Sister Chung finds this hilarious because it generally ends up that the car is in obscure spots in the parking lot depending on how I feel each day. (Don't worry if anyone is there I park normally but typically no one is).

Fanny's birthday was last week so we took a picture. :) 73 years young.

A little Hispanic girl picked flowers for us, which we really enjoyed and thought was sweet.

Hermana Bejarano makes amazing food! :)

I'm not really sure if I was trying to fly in this one or what...

Corie took us out to eat and it was really sweet. <3

Tender Mercy: Sister Chung and I were knocking this last week and ran into a lady who needed help moving things so we enlisted the help of the Elders and we all went over and helped her. Her name is Corie and she is a complete darling. She took us out to eat pizza at a cute local Mineola place afterwards called Barosa. She really showed so much kindness towards all of us and even offered to make us quilts for our help! And then we went back yesterday to move some more things and she took us out to another really nice Garden City restaurant called Leo's. My cheeseburger was delicious and I highly recommend Leo's to anyone who wants to visit it!

Mostly it was a joy to see her so grateful for something that was so miniscule to each of us. We love serving and helping, but for her it meant so much which was beautiful.

I love you all, don't do anything too crazy this week. ;)

Warm Affections,

Hermana Ally Voss