To all who Donate, thanks for the miracles

We have received many clothing donations in the last month, as I have already blogged. I can't tell you how many hours have been spent organizing the clothes, repacking them, and sending them out to the many islands. They have been greatly appreciated, and we pray they don't stop coming.

Some of the clothing that has been sent has been kept back specifically for the out going missionaries. We anticipate we will have sent our around 110 missionaries from Cape Verde by the end of the year. I wrote of the first departing missionary to receive clothing in an earlier blog. Since then we have send out three more Elders and the miracles keep coming. So far we are four for four in perfect fits in suits. Now by perfect fit I don't mean to say I haven't had to hem the pants or take in the waist a bit, but isn't that what happens when anyone gets a suit? President is getting very good at selecting the suits. On the second Elder, he just open the closet and said, "here try this one." A perfect fit on the very first try. On number three, we had to try on a few but again a perfect fit. On four, President opened the closet again and randomly picked one and again another perfect fit. He has joked that if  his retirement doesn't work out he is going to sell suits at Macy's. He didn't know he had such a gift. It really is exciting to then let the departing missionary gather white shirts, pick out ties, a few pair of used pants and some shoes. They come with full hearts and empty suitcases. The truth is they would be fine if we left the suitcases empty. They always modestly tell us they have what they need. Perhaps they instinctively know they have in their heart all they need to be a good missionary. But it is nice to fill those suitcases.
The miracle that always gets me is how do random suits, coming from random people, from random countries around the world fit - really fit - young men in such need? But some how they do, and they simply transform these young men. Here is a picture of the latest Elder who left last week for Brazil.