WEEK 10: ALMOST CHRISTMAS!

December 18, 2017

Last Tuesday was a little crazy here with the day of the virgin. There were fireworks almost the entire day. On Friday we went to Celaya to watch a play put on by the stake. It was the Christmas Carol, it was kind of fun to watch the play in Spanish. We contacted the people as they left the play.

On Saturday we served the Piña family by helping them get ready to paint their house. I really love the good feeling you get when you serve others. We also attended the Christmas dinner of the other ward and the food was really good. I really like the Christmas punches they have here.

I have two cool experiences to share from this week. The first is we taught the Salazar family for the second time and they have been fulfilling their commitment to pray! I invited them to be baptized in January and they accepted! That was pretty exciting, they have a lot of potential since they are new and not eternal investigators. Our other investigators are not progressing enough to be baptized  including those who had baptisimal dates for this month. I hope that this family will progress and receive the blessings of the Gospel!

The other experience was during one of our lessons I had the impression to read Chapter 7 of Moroni with our investigator. I had no idea what was in that chapter, but it was exactly what he needed and it seemed like the chapter was written directly for him. I know that God works through us to help his children find the path home. I believe in a God of miracles and this is just one that I felt comfortable sharing with you all.

Well, I hope you all have a great Christmas! This time is a great time to serve others and remember the Savior. Christ devoted his entire life to helping others, so why cant we give a few hours to help others. Service is the best gift we can give to Christ this year. 

I love you all! 

Merry Christmas!

WEEK 9: CHRISTMAS SEASON

December 11, 2017

This week was pretty fun. There are more Christmas decorations in the center of the town now and we went and took some pictures there. I also have tried some of the traditional Christmas punches they have here, which taste amazing! Speaking of food, we ate at Burger King this week which was really fun. Later that night one of our investigators offered us some food at her restaurant. I tried a new salsa and it was super spicy! I felt sick for the next half hour, but after that I was fine.

Our investigators still are not coming to church, but we met a new investigator at church yesterday which was exciting. Tommorow is the day of the virgin and people are already starting to party. Speaking of the virgin, we have a permanent shrine thing stuck to our wall in our apartment. I sent a picture of it. I think it is kind of funny, because I study at a table right underneath it.

I do not have a lot of time to write today, but I hope you are all doing well and have a Merry Christmas! 

Remember that we can always feel love and hope through Christ! (Read Ether 12 verse 4) 

Have a great week! 

I love you!

WEEK 8: 1ST ZONE CONFERENCE & 1ST DAY OF SPLITS

December 4, 2017

On Thursday we went to Celaya for a zone conference. I really enjoyed it, I learned a lot and met the other districts in our zone. We also got to eat lunch at Subway while we were there! That was really awesome. Friday was a lot of fun too, because it was just a little bit of a change which is nice when every day is similar. On Friday was went on splits with the other missionaries. It went really well, we taught a lesson to a contact we had made earlier in the week. She had a friend over, so we taught the Restoration to both of them and they both committed to baptism for the end of this month! Hopefully the fulfill that commitment, since we have been having a hard time with people attending church. We have also been working a lot with Mari Piña and her family and on Saturday her son committed to baptism! We have some investigators who really want to do what is right, but fulfilling commitments is not easy for them. This week none of our investigators came to church, so we are going to keep working with them to understand the importance of church attendance.

The high of the week was probably on Friday when we invited two more people, Irene and Estela to be baptized. We are their first contact with the church and it surprised me that on the first lesson they agreed to be baptized. There are people here that the Lord has prepared and who have a lot of faith.

The language has been coming along a little better now, I can understand the majority of what people say now. However I still am trying to be more outgoing and open to talking to random people. I have found that I feel a lot more comfortable contacting in Spanish now. My companion and I contacted an American this week and it felt really weird to not be speaking in Spanish. She didn't accept a lesson, but liked how we were encouraging acts of service through the Light the World cards we were giving out.

I hope you all have a great week and I want you all to know that I have a strong testimony that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and that through Him we can witness miracles in our lives. I am trying each day to be a better missionary and follow His example. Devoting ourselves to serving Him and other people is what brings true happiness in life and I find that I am happiest during the day when we are teaching people, because I know that I am in the service of my Savior.

I love you!