Feliz Navidad!!

December 21, 2020

Escrituras 

I wasn't as good as writing in my phone about my scriptures this week. I read Abinadi and his words. He is the best. So much faith and diligence. He taught simply but with "power and authority." I love Almas courage so much as well. Lots of good verses about the authority, priesthood. Also when Ammon goes and helps the people of King Limhi is just so many miracles. The people of Alma being put into bandage, despite their constant righteousness, and their trust in the lord and deliverance. Some suoer aplicable stuff. And then the people all come together, it would be such a happy time. And then today I read about the sons of Mosiah and Alma and their conversion again. Their rebirth of spirit. I could write a lot more but this'll have to suffice. Here are just a couple verses I especially loved although there are a lot more haha 

Mosiah 4

9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

Mosiah 27

For, said he, I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit.

25 And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;

26 And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.

Wed Devo 

Fresh Testimony!! Use what revelation you've just recieved. God is always speaking to His children, and especially his missioanrues. FB to find. Be creative, real. 

Friday

Woke up to gunshots. 3:35am. I like jumped out of bed haha. 

Sat

One of the funnest nights of my mission!!!!!! Ah man it actually felt like Christmas I loved it so much. We went out as a district, Elder Jenkins is the absolute best. But I should start with the dinner bc it was incredible. Straight fire. A member made us tamales and this mexican hot chocolate thing w cinnamon. Wow the tamales were incredible, thats the first time I've had the chicken ones and they were so good. And the abuelita, hot chocolate stuff, was dang good too. It is so fun to eat traditional things, I love the Mexican people!!! Alroght w the villancicos, so it was me, Elder Hannemann, Elder Jenkins, Elder Woods, and then the other two elders had to come a little later because they had a lesson. As well we had the 3 Fort Bliss sisters and the two hermanas. It was so much fun to be able to be together and spread some Christmas spirit. The spirit was honestly really strong, especially as we sang Silent Night. O Noche de Luz en español. We went to a few of the 1st ward elders members and then some of ours so most was singing in english, and a few in spanish. We went to these one people who sell cookies in this parlkng lot haha they are funny but super nice and i bought some cookies from them and they were actually wayyy good. Then we went to a recent convert family, La familiia Calzada, y son muy muy amables. Los quiero jaja aunque fue la primera vez que conocimos en persona. And then we went to the Calderón!!! Oh my gosh they are so nice but we haven't been able to set anything up because they don't really like over technology haha. But so we go over there and they bever responded to my text if we could come by but we wanted an excuse to go over and see them so we just went and knocked but they didnt answer so we just started singing until they opened the door hahaha. They loved it!!  Hermana Hernandez so she ran up and gave them a hug. And earlier this week on Wednesday we had quite a few lessons fall through so i was just contacting. And i called the Calderón and talked to the son Jaime, for like 10 minutes hes way dope. But if es sick bc he was like what's up bro! And the dad, Jimmy, too bc I've talked to him on FB quite a bit haha they were soooo nice and they said we could come over whenever!! So we, us and the hermananas hahah, are going over to have a lesson with them tomorrow at 8:30!!!! I couldn't stop smiling after that, I was soooo happy!!! Haha and then we got back in the car and Elder Jenkins has real Christmas music hahahha so he played Michael Bublé and Kelly Clarkson and it was the best thing ever. And then we finished up by stopping by los Gutierrez!!! Híjole tengo tanto amor por Hermano Gutierrez. 

Saturday en breve resumen 

Food bank 

The Chosen

Lessons

Tamales twice

Abuelita 

Villancicos!!!! Ayy mi corazón 

Galletas

Michael Buble

Los Calderón!!!!!!! 

Gutierrez!!!!!

Sunday

In person church!!! Really good talk, white guy from high council who served in Uruguay. All the mexicana are tiny!!! So funny since I've never met most of them in person. Got to pass the sacrament! There were probably 40 people max I would guess. Our ward is pretty old. 

Made a vid for FB

Watched The Chosen. Good but interesting haha

Made Chicken Chicken!! 

Los Calderón 

Ayyyyyy Mama y Papa I am so happy I can't contain my joy!!!! We had a lesson with the familia Calderon and they are so awesome. The spirit in their home in almost palbable. They habe so much genuine love for one another. Their circumstances and personalities and upbringing and completely different than me and us as a family but I felt so much love for them and it reminded me so much of our home. I truly felt the love, the absolutely pure love of our Savior Jesus Christ. We were there from about 8:30 to 9:40. It was late but they are so fun and talk so much we couldn't start the lesson until 9:10. But we talked about the plan of salvation, that we lived with God before this life, that it is no coincidence that they are together right now and that we are talking to them. As well about our Savior and that by Him and through Him we can live with our families for eternity. Ah the spirit was so strong. They have a real desire to have these blessings I'm so excited about them. I seriously don't know if I'll be able to sleep!! Hhahah.  I wanted to hop on Matt's thing tonight and see the family but the lesson with them made it worth it, to try and help this family have the same eternal blessings we have. 

In other things, this week

We have a couple new people we found, one had a bap date previously but just kinda fell off, had some questions and then fell out of contact with her bc of covid. Her names Maricela, she's cool! Gustavo could also be cool too! He's the guy that called on Thursday night when we were on the phone. He has been with his family but we are going to talk to him tomorrow. Juana has been busy with her family so we haven't had a lesson with her sadly. Hopefully its just shes been with family and isn't like distancing herself. Leon hasn't answered since he left to Jaurez. But he still has the Book of Mormón we dropped off to him so hopefully he'll get back with us too. We had a really good lesson with Margarita about life after death and she really liked it. Now we just need to get her reading the LdM. I also think family history could be good for her, spirit of Elijah baby. Alfredo has been tough, we had one lesson but then he had to go in the middle of the second one, I guess he had to go fix the plumbing. His road is a slow but hopefully steady one i think. I met this kid on FB named Leónsito from Honduras who seems pretty cool. Maybe interested in the LdM. Developing story there for sure. Had a really cool experience with an inactive couple. They are good friends w Hno Alva and they love the missionaries so they said they needed service but really they just wanted to feed us, so she made us steak, shrimp, and mashed potatoes. And we are going back there on Christmas for dinner, shes going to make tamales!!! Speaking of, we've had tamales a couple times now and they are dang good, especially the chicken ones. I'm super excited. 

Basically this week has been good!! It started out slow but I saw as appointments fell there were really other things that needed to happen, other people to be contacted. Eventually. It took maybe 2.5 hours of calling to make the one we needed but I saw there was always a silver lining, a hidden gem amongst what first appeared to be a night without impact. And it's starting to feel like Christmas with the caroling, Mexican traditions, and other fun things. It isn't the same, I still miss you guys all like crazy but I love it here too. I love you so much and can't wait to talk even if its just for a sec!! Have so much fun up in Park City!!! Talk to you soon!!