Monday, December 15, 2014

Week #68 - Christmas is Fast Approaching

Hola mi familia!

How exciting that you got to visit gma Judy and then that she was able to come down for Christmas with you! That is super neat! (In your Christmas plans you better make sure you have time for computer gaming! That needs to be a tradition that lasts ;)

The work has been going pretty awesome! We had exchanges this past week. I got to go down to Bryant for a day. I love teaching English but I love teaching in Spanish more. (It just comes more naturally, probably because of all the practice.) I've said it before and I'll say it again, the gospel is true but it is truer in Spanish!

We have been working like crazy to get all of our investigators to the branch Christmas party. (We really want it to be a huge success) So we have been calling, txting, showing up randomly just to invite people. It has been great! The Christmas party was this past Friday and we were able to get 12 of our investigators there! It was an absolute Christmas miracle! Our investigators brought friends and family it was crazy! At the Christmas party there was a bunch of pollo, arroz, y frijoles, (my companion and I were put in charge of warming up 360 tortillas! needless to say my fingertips were a little singed after that...oops), there was an awesome Christmas program and nativity, Santa Claus - with actual gifts, and a dance! It was an absolute blast! I have never had so much excitement and fun at a church activity. And our investigators loved it!  Even Elizabeth came - she is so impressed with how kind everyone is!


I love the gospel it is so true! You can just tell with Elizabeth a greater energy and happiness in her life! And she is actually excited about God and religion. Her friend Araseli is one of our investigators as well, and Araseli told us that she was talking with Elizabeth the other day, and for the first time in the 5 years that she has been friends with her she has never once heard Elizabeth talk about God until yesterday!!!! AHHHHHH progress!

And there really are awesome experiences just waiting for us as we talk with EVERYONE about the gospel. It was late one night and all of our plans fell through so we went to Shackleford trailers to try and contact some potentials. There was a guy sitting out in front of his trailer smoking. We went up to talk to him. You could tell at first he was NOT interested, Hna Warner kept trying to share the gospel and in my mind I realized that I was telling myself, "He's not interested. We are wasting our time and his. We should just leave..." then I realized what I was doing and immediately started praying for charity for this man and to have a desire to better be able to help him feel the Spirit. All of the sudden, out of nowhere he started talking about his life. How he had quit drinking and had stopped for 3 years now. And how he was struggling with quitting smoking. He had quit once for 9 months but had slipped back into it.. We were able to share the Book of Mormon with him and testify how it could help him develop the spiritual strength that he needed to quit. He finally accepted the Book of Mormon, came to the Christmas activity. And we later found out that he is actually the nephew of  one of our recent converts!

We had gumbo Sunday evening with the Franklin family. Can I say, DELICIOUS! Plus I found out that I actually do like shrimp (the texture still isn't my favorite) but it tastes pretty good. ;) Missions truly do change you. lol

I love you!
Hermana Ives

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