Sweet Greetings

Yay for Monday Mail Call! : )

This week we received two letters! It was pretty exciting. I was surprised to open up a letter on Indonesia stationery, thinking it was Tasya, only to learn that it was actually from Prayer! This is our first letter from this cute boy. It was addressed to someone else, but he has received several letters from me since writing this one, so he should know who I am by now. : )

Hello [sponsor], 
How are you? I hope you and your family are fine and get blessed by the Lord Jesus. Time goes by. I am in the sixth grade of primary school now. It's only by God's favor I'm in the sixth grade. I got good scores as the result of the final test. I was the second bests in class. I thank God because he loves me. On the last school holiday I just stayed home. I played with my younger siblings and friends. I have a dog as a pet. I attend the project three times a week. I learn many things in the project. I will always pray that God continues to keep you and family safe. May the lord Jesus give you success in everything you do. Amen! 
That's all about my letter. 
Shalom. 
Love, 
Prayer


It's great that Prayer's first letter was so personal and informative! I learned a lot about him even without an official intro letter. He is such a cute kid!

The second letter was from Mishel. A bit of background- in her first letter, she asked if I am married, and I said that I have been married for three and a half years, so she offers up her congratulations even though my wedding was a while ago! She also writes a response in regards to my updates about my grandfather and Brandon's grandfather (both called Pappaw) who have both been having health problems this year.

Dear sponsor Jessi, 
I greet you in the name of Jesus and wish you a happy birthday. Congratulations for your wedding. I am fine studying in a public school called "Los Angeles" of Pichanaki. I have two sisters and a brother. My mom is a housewife and my dad is a driver. All my family celebrated Mother's Day. My sisters made "Pachamanca a la Olla." That food is delicious. My mom Maria liked the food. Jessi, I will pray for your grandparents (Pappaw.) For pneumonia it is good to eat soup of ginger. I love you and thank you for your letters. 
Mishel Estefani


She is so sweet! I was glad to learn more about Mishel's family from this letter! She also drew a really sweet picture, which I will add to this post the next time I'm using my scanner. : ) Also, I looked up Pachamanca en Olla, the food Mishel likes so much. One website calls it "Andean harvest pit roast in a clay pot." This particular recipe calls for lamb and chicken, fava beans, corn, three kinds of potatoes (yams, purple potatoes and fingerling potatoes), ocas (which are a kind of tuber, apparently), lots of herbs, and a marinade created with several ingredients I've never heard of (which is kind of unusual), plus some that I don't think Mishel uses, like red wine vinegar. Anyway, it sounds like a food for a special occasion! I like learning about the kinds of foods my kids eat!


I'd also  like to ask you to pray for our Carlos, whom we are just getting to know. I am thinking he may have left Compassion's program. I check the website twice a day to see if we have any new correspondence kids, and also to see if anyone's pictures have been updated. I check the pictures by going to the "write my child" page, which shows everyone's headshots- it's an easy way to see all the pictures at once. Anyway, in Carlos' spot tonight there was a grey square that said "photo unavailable." His name is still on our account and I can still see his big picture under "my sponsorships", but this has happened before, when our correspondence kid Tae left the program. So I have a bad feeling about it. I am hoping that if Carlos is gone, and this isn't just a technical glitch, that it was for a positive reason, like his family's situation has improved or he was able to get a good job (as was the case with Tae.) We just sent birthday presents and a financial gift to Carlos because his birthday is next month. I also hope that if he's gone, he'll be able to get those, too. Anyway, I'd love it if you could pray for him. Hopefully I'll find something out for sure tomorrow (I sent an email to Compassion as soon as I got off work tonight.)