Honestly,
it was one of my best Christmases ever. It was hard as crap too, being
my first Christmas away from home, but it sure did mean a lot to me. We
had a list passed around to our relief societies last Sunday for people
to sign up for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day visits so that we weren't
just stopping by unexpectedly or wasting time at the house. And when we
made these visits, I may have been completely sick of He is the Gift,
but it was worth it to get to talk to all these people I've met and come
to love the past 5 months and hear them bare their testimonies and know
that my time here is being well-spent.
The
last family we visited on Christmas Eve has a 20-something year old
depressed and probably autistic son. The last couple times we had gone
over there, this guy straight-up told us he wasn't sure if God loved him
or even existed. But this time, after the video, he was just sobbing
saying how grateful he is for Jesus Christ. That was a visit I'll
remember.
On Christmas Day, we walked out of
one of visits to find it was snowing! A Christmas miracle! And then we
went to Chad's house. After the video, his wife, Raj, told us her
conversion story about how she immigrated from India to Africa where she
met Christians for the first time. Then she immigrated to California,
married Chad, was led to St. Johns for no apparent reason at the time
and then joined the Mormon church. The spirit there was incredible.
Nothing
important happened on Friday to be perfectly honest. Other than me
being super on-point with my new sweater vest. But on Saturday, we went
down to a town called Young for a baptism of Elder Knight's. It was
pretty cool. We came back, taught Edgar (we're talking about January 17
for baptism) some commandments, and then we presented Matt and Gloria
with a 15-step program to quit smoking that I guess our mission uses.
There's 15 steps they have to follow every single day for a week, but
the coolest part was when Matt and Gloria had to crush their cigarettes
before we taught the actual steps. Matt did it without hesitating, but
it took Gloria a moment before she could bring herself to do it. But
with tears in her eyes, she crushed them in her hand and threw them
away. And then even though she said she didn't know how she could live
without it for seven days, she gave us her coffee to hold onto for the
week (cuz one of the steps is no coffee, tea, or alcohol).
Guess
who came to church on Sunday! Louie Quiroz! And guess who pulled Chad
aside and said he wants to be baptized! Louie Quiroz! After a few months
not knowing if we'd get him back, he came on his own, knowing what he
needed to do. We have a date for January 10th! I'm so ridiculously happy
about it!
It's gonna be a good transfer, guys.
I'm
glad you enjoyed Into the Woods. I really want to see it. And I'm glad
Dad's talk went well. I enjoyed the pictures too! Here's a picture of my
cat shirts from Sally Jones. They're pretty fantastic.
I love you guys a whole lot! I'll write you next year! ;) Hahahhahahahahaha ugh puke gross
No comments:
Post a Comment