5-17-10 "Roger Federer, An Apostle, and Other People I Met This Week"

Before you go crazy, no, I didn't actually meet Roger Federer. Or an apostle. But I really wanted to have a catchy subject line. This is the best I could come up with. Last Monday, Sister Mullins

went to get a haircut. As I'm sitting there, avoiding the magazines, I see one with the prince of tennis himself on the cover. So tempting! I just wanted to open it up and read all about him, but that would not have been good. So I didn't. However, the same salon also had the radio playing in the background, and I'm pretty sure I heard both a new Train song and a new Lifehouse song. Torture! Because they were both good songs, and now I won't get to hear them again until...well, you know when. But while we're on the subject, be sure to keep me posted about the French OPen and Wimbledon when they occur. I really hope our champ is able to defend both titles. And that they had time to rebuild the graveyard of chamions. Come to think of it, I was in London during Wimbledon. That had never occured to me until now. What was I thinking, not going to watch?!? Oh, yeah, I wasn't yet the diehard tennis fan I am now.

Next, the apostle. We had a media referral this week for someone in one of our gated neighborhods. I am always cautious about approaching people in there because I don't want the church to get a bad name. Technically, you are supposed to go through the front gate where you tell a guard exactly who you are visiting, and they they either check your name off the list or call that person to make sure it's okay. But we have our ways of getting in. Anyway, we have a less-active member we visit in there, so after we visited him, we decided to contact the referral. I only a little bit apprehensively knocked on the door. When someone answered, we asked if the person was home. (We had no phone number for him; otherwise, we would have set up an appointment.) He was in, so we went in and sat down. He and his wife just came over from Africa, and his is an "apostle" in the apostolic religion or something. He wants to help us spread the gospel. We testified about the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the priesthood, but in the end he was mostly looking for "materials," since he had to leave most of his in Africa. We gave them a copy of the Bible and the Book of Mormon, along with some DVDs. We even gave him some pass-along cards for free copies of the Bible. I hope he used them. That would be neat: a non-member giving out pass along cards.

Yes, I did get the box. The shirts fit wonderfully, and I have been enjoying them a lot. They will be perfect when the heat of the summer comes, which it basically almost has, just not in full swing. You'll be jealous, Dad, when I tell you that people are already harvesting tomatoes. The growing season is super long here. I'm always stunned, no matter how many times people tell me that.

I saw Sister Tetreault this week. She loved your letter, Mom. She couldn't stop praising it, and how much it had lifted her spirits. She let me read it, and you yourself are quite the writer, too. Don't forget that. Especially in your new/ofrmer calling. You will be just the right woman for the task. I'm sure the Lord is putting you there for a reason. Aren't you glad now that you didn't sign on to be the producer of another fall musical? The Lord has ways of telling us to hold back on certain opportunities when more important ones are on the horizon. You have a way of inspiring women to understand their eternal potential, and the women of the stake will be blessed by your love and charity.

Hmmm, the ward talent show was not bad. Highlights for me were a 7-yaer-old girl singing "Deep in the Heart of Texas," a 3-year-old boy doing his own version of hip-hop dancing while his sister and her friend jumped rope, a girl with mad hula-hooping skills, and a 10-year-old boy with a great jazz voice singing "Basin Street Blues."

I wish I had more to say, but instead I'm including some pictures, each worth 1000 words. Hopefully that will be enough.

1: Me and Sister Mullins, just this morning
2: Me, Sister Hoskins, and Sister Christensen at the temple
3 and 4: Some members of one of my favorite families in Tomball

Love and joy come to you,
Sister Whitney Mikell Sorensen P.S. Before I even opened the card, Mom, I thought of the clown story. Freaky, the way our minds work the same. You might even say, "we're the same." :)