Christmas Week

26 Dec 2016

Feliz Navidad!!!!

This is the second (and last) Christmas I’ve got out here on the mish. Shoot, the time’s gone by fast. It only goes faster and faster. I talked to my family today and I promise, it always seems a little awkward talking to them after so long. I think I almost have to connect with ém all over again.

It’s a super neat experience being on the mish during Christmas. First off, everyone here wants you to come and celebrate with them. Maybe it’s the message we represent. Maybe it’s just that they don’t want us feeling homesick, but the members really work hard to keep us busy these days. Even if we’re not that busy, like last year, it’s a really special thing. We spend the time and season sharing the message of the true Christmas. We enjoy time together as a companionship, we may enjoy time with another companionship of missionaries, and we are given the opportunity twice each year to enjoy face-to-face time with our family. That’s something special.

This last week was pretty interesting:

Monday we had a family home evening with A* and his non-member family. They rather enjoyed the message. I enjoyed their sense of humor and their sense of a good cake. ;) Tuesday we had our district meeting and at night we had a family home evening with M* and her husband. They quite enjoyed the time, and her husband finally started to show some interest in the church. YYYAAAYYY. :D

Wednesday we visited M* and shared a message with her and her husband about the temple and the potential we all have to be an eternal family. We visited J* and he’s progressing well too. He just got here from Acapulco (the southern part of Mexico) and he’s super grateful for what we’ve shared.

Thursday we had a super stressful morning; everything, EVERYTHING went wrong. A member, J*, C*’s husband, had come to do visits with us and ALL the visits fell through. I gave him a contacting card and told him I would give him an example. I contacted a neighbor who was sitting outside in his car. We invited him to listen; he told us a bunch of crazy stories from his life (he’s lived quite the dangerous life) and then told us to come see something in his house. He pulled us into his back room and showed us a wire hanging from the roof. He said that he was planning on hanging himself the next day. Everything fell through and it was super stressful, but maybe I should have eliminated the stressful part and just trusted that things would work out anyway, because the most important was accomplished, and we were able to touch and help heal a heart.

Friday we met M*s (a recent convert) daughter and her boyfriend. We decided to teach them and they accepted, politely. They were rather uninterested and it was pretty easy to tell. We taught them about the restoration. When we shared our testimony, the boyfriend showed surprising interest. He accepted The Book of Mormon and told us he’d read it.

Christmas Pj's from my Companion's Mom

Saturday was Christmas Eve; we still accomplished a surprising amount. At the end of the day, we went with A* (the ward mission leader) to celebrate Christmas Eve. We sang a couple of Catholic Christmas Carols (look up “burrito sabanero”). It was SUPER fun.

Sunday was Christmas Day. THANK YOU everyone for the presents! They were AWESOME!

I decided one day to set some personal goals. I thought about the goals I was setting and realized that I’d set them before, but I had always kinda given up halfway. Then I had an idea. I read chapter 11 of Preach my Gospel and decided to reflect the four suggested steps on leaving commitments on myself.

I asked myself if I was really going to do it. I was able to resolve a couple of doubts I had forgotten in the enthusiasm of setting goals.

I started listing ALL the blessings, or positive consequences, of achieving my goal. Then came to verifying. I decided I could write in my journal what I did to achieve my goal and what blessings, or positive consequences, I received each day. Then I would prescribe blessings, or positive consequences, that would come the next day.

The next day, I will write how I saw these blessings fulfilled and prescribe, or promise, other blessings for the next day. Remember, RECEIVING blessings is an action. We can be given many blessings, but we have to ACCEPT them as such, and thus RECEIVE them as evidence of God’s love.

I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us. We truly have the potential to change. We can develop the faith and confidence to do it. This is one way that has helped me.

LOVE YOU ALL!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY NEW YEAR!