Welcome to my town , Mr. Cumberbatch.

That is right. 

 

Benedict, Cumberbatch. 

You see the thing is that I met him yesterday in Belize. 

 

Well, I’m pretty sure. Somebody check his twitter account. I’m starting to doubt myself. Here's the story anyways. 

 

It was p-day.(Prep day when they shop, do laundry etc to prepare for the week)  I was with my comp, Sister H, just doing some souvenir browsing. No big deal. We start in one store and a couple walks in. The lady is real pretty, and also very nice. She smiles at me, I at her, and we exit the store. 

 

Next we move to a Rastafarian shop. I am quickly making friends with the Rasta-man who is also owner of the store. His dreads are down to his knees and he is extremely affable. The same previously mentioned couple follows us in, but I continue chatting up my buddy. Then. Something a little nuts happened. 

 

I looked up, to see the presumed-Benedict remove his glasses and say, 'thank you' while stepping out of the store. I stopped mid sentence. 

 

the curly brown hair. 

long thin frame. 

frosty blue eyes. 

deep British voice.......

 

THAT IS BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH. 

I start going nuts. I’m yelling at my newly acquired Rasta-friend. "DO YOU KNOW WHO THAT IS?!!?!?!?!? DO YOU KNOW!!"

 

"No who is it??!"

 

"WHAT!?!? THAT IS BENEDICT!! HAVE YOU SEEN SHERLOCK MAN?!?!?!?!"

 

"no! no what is that!"

 

"JUST COME WITH ME!! THAT IS A FAMOUS ACTOR!!"

 

Me, Sister H and Rasta-man run into the street to chase down Benedict. He goes into another store and I pulled out my well-developed stalking abilities (learned at BYU for a myriad of reasons--normally following Kylie's my cousins boyfriends to get some private details)

 

But then I panicked. I felt super awkward for legitimately following Benedict for a solid 20 yards. Then I got on my bike and caught up to him and his nice girlfriend. I’m starting to wonder if stalking is illegal. The conversation went like this, 

 

"Excuse me!"

 

Fear. Fear. Fear. So much adrenaline in my body.

 

".Silence....................."--me

 

"do you know where cahal pech is??"--me

 

I am star struck at this point. He says to me, 

 

'what is that?" British accent.

'a ruin.'

 

'Oh. No I don’t know where that is.'

'Ok. how long have you been in Belize?'

'a week.'

 

Then I stared at him. But he had glasses on.  I strained to see through them. They must have some serious UVB protection bc I couldn’t get through them. So I said, 

 

'Ok! Thank you!'

 

And that was it.

 

 So I actually don’t know if it was Benedict. If it was, I am very happy with my life. If not, I got a Rasta man worked up for nothing at all. Please check his twitter account. I imagine one of his recent posts would read something like this, 

 

"Wow I am having a great time here in Belize with my girlfriend who is American". 

 

Let me know what you find.

 

So apart from that, Sister H and I are tearing it up out here. It’s getting warm, but I prefer the heat to the cold. I’m getting a niiiice tan. What’s upppp.  Sun-kissed skin is the way to go. 

 

 

I can relate to Nephi and Moroni (prophets in the Book of Mormon) these days. My blood, sweat, and tears have all been laid down in Belize. Blood for falling off my bike, sweat for walking up these COLOSSAL hills every day and night, and tears for people who I love who know what we teach is true but won’t change.

 

My favorite sweet little old lady in the world died this week. Her name is M.  M is a Mayan fireball. She had more sass than I had ever before seen in all the world. She was so cute and every time we asked her to pray when visiting her she would tilt her head back and squint her eyes and smile slowly...and then come up with a ridiculously witty line to try and pawn off the prayer to someone else. Also she had one tooth. ALSO. One time. It was midday and about 95 degrees outside, and little 80 year old M walked to church at the pace of a snail. All alone. Love her.

 

She died because her grandson was drinking and his wife was throwing bottles at him in anger. This always upset M. She stepped in to stop the wife, and got her foot stuck, fell and hit her head. She was in a coma for 4 days before she died. 

 

I played piano at her funeral. How I loved that woman! She was a great example to me. I miss her a lot. But I am so grateful for the plan of salvation. I know God really does have a perfect plan for us. I know I will see M again. I can’t wait. 

 

You are all really wonderful people. I love hearing from you. Thanks for the many letters. I wish I could convey my feelings to all...the depth and breadth of my testimony. But I just can’t. But how beautiful it is to read the words of prophets every day! Both living and dead...we have countless testimonies of Christ and God the Father, and they fill me with faith! The testimonies of the living prophets are available on lds.org.  Google LDS.org general conference, you will hear prophets speak…you won’t regret it!  I love Heavenly Father's perfect plan for us. 

 

So. Go forth with faith! I know God always prepares a way. 

 

Love 

Sista Hirschi

 

ps the health fair was fun. I handed out a lot of fliers. Good things these days. I am a pro at talking to strangers on the streets:))