Meet Gift

 When the Hale’s left they left a backpack for Gift. You should have seen the smile on his face when he saw this soccer ball!!

 

Gift is 15 years old. He always has this huge smile on his face! Once the missionaries started teaching him, he never missed coming to church for months! He loves it! The bishop of the ward where Gift lives didn't think he should be baptized because he didn't have any family support and because he was so young, but the missionaries were persistent and the bishop eventually gave his approval.

Gift was living with his "auntie," as she was called. He is an orphan.  A member of the ward started tutoring Gift to help him do better in school. I asked him what he liked best about school and his answer was, "Anything when I learn something new!" He said he liked math, but I learned later that he doesn't know his multiplication tables.  FYI the schools here are extremely poor...poor as far as facilities goes, poor in having qualified teachers and too many students: 100-150 students in a classroom! The schools are split into 2 or 3 sections where part of the students come for a couple of hours, part come a few hours later and the rest come even later.  

The man tutoring Gift has since taken him in as a foster child through a program called Mother's Without Borders. And another part of his story is that his "auntie" is now coming to church and being taught by the missionaries, along with one of her friends.