A Tender Mercy...

About 7PM this evening (Sunday) the phone rang, it was an odd area code so Todd went in the other room thinking it was a political ad or something.  The lady on the other end said "habla español" and mentioned she was calling from Arkansas.  Todd realized this was a family that Elder Blackburn has mentioned several times in his letters - they frequently take the Elders to fun places on p-day, feed them dinner and has them over for holiday's and other occasions.  It seems like in every mission there is a family that loves the Elders and becomes their "home away from home".  These are always special people, because they continue to give this service even though the missionaries come and go in and out of their lives.  It takes a commitment to the gospel and service that few of us obtain.  After brushing the rust off of his brain, Todd conversed in Spanish and could hear Hayden in the background...we learned that they are converts of about four years from El Salvador - the father grew up in the states.  Their two-year old daughter loves Hayden and they said we should be proud of him - he works hard, is engaged in the work and is very well behaved...needless to say, this makes us very proud.  Just today, Jonia gave a missionary report in Sacrament meeting, so to hear from his mission was a tender mercy on this nice beautiful fall day.