December 27, 2021
¡Feliz Navidad Prospero AƱo y Felicidad!šš
Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad!! This week was kind of a slower one, but it was full of great memories!
On Monday, we did a lot of cleaning and then we went and picked up one of my packages. Millie was super sweet and took us shopping for our groceries. She has already been helping us out so much. She told us that she was going to be gone for two weeks, so we needed enough food to last that long. We went over to the Huipes and I taught everyone how to make snowflakes. It was super fun and they loved it. We watched the Christ Child and had a discussion about it.
We had DCM on Tuesday. We talked about faith. We need to have faith to teach people and faith to stop teaching some. It is a really hard thing to do. We want to teach everyone the gospel. Some people just aren’t ready. They aren’t ready to change, and to keep their commitments. We can take a horse to water, but we can’t make him drink. We can’t force the gospel onto people. We have to trust in God’s timing. I really liked something that was said, “Do your best and the Lord will do the rest.” This work is the Lord’s work and not ours. We need to have patience with ourselves and others. We have patience because we have hope that everything is going to work out. It helped me out a lot to study this. Afterwards, we went out to lunch at a place called Sugar and Spice. I have been wanting to go to this place for 6 months. I got chicken strips and a lot of fries. Then we had a lesson with David. We made a little paper for him of the things that tempt him or are making things hard, and then we made an action plan for him. What he is going to do when those things happen. Later, we taught English class and Niko came (the guy we met last week). It was awesome! We tried to have a lesson with Daniel, but Millie said she couldn’t make it. So we thought why not get ice cream and do it in a restaurant. Everything was closed!! We ended up waiting forever in a Wendy’s drive thru to get Daniel his first frosty ever. He had an idea to go to WaffleHouse because it is open 24 hours. The one we went to was of course closed. Some old people drove up and looked at us and we all did the I don’t know motion. That was like a living meme. Daniel tried his frosty while standing outside by our car. We were so proud of him when he told the other people that drove up that it was closed in english!
On Wednesday we went and met Hno. Ivan Chirolla. Some of our plans fell through so we didn’t know what to do. We prayed and felt like we should go and visit him. He was very nice, and gave us some names that we should visit! One was a lady who is a member who wants to go to church in Spanish. Then we went to dinner with Daniel. We went to a place called The Pizza Inn. We ate so much. We finished teaching Daniel the Plan of Salvation with a little activity/representation that I have. He loved it and is so grateful for this greater knowledge that he has now. After that we went and visited Maria and Carlos. They have that cat named Paco. Apparently we were supposed to eat dinner with them. We didn’t know that, so we ate second dinner. We ate fried chicken, tuna or chicken salad sandwich, potato chips, and pumpkin pie. Hna. Marvin was dying. We started talking about life and their health problems. Carlos has survived 3 heartattacks, dang.
We had apartment inspections on Thursday! I have never had this happen ever on my mission. We keep our apartments clean, but don’t deep clean every week. We spent so much time cleaning, but we passed! Our apartment looked too clean like we didn’t even live in it. Later, we went and visited some people. After that, we caroled as a district to people. It was so much fun. “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear.” -Elf To finish our night, we taught English class to Santiago. We learned lots of new words for Christmas things in Spanish.
Friday was so much fun. It was La Nochebuena which means Christmas Eve. We went and visited Zuhura one of the elder’s recent converts. We told her we’d bring brownies. Well we didn’t have time to make them. So I made the mix in the car and put it in a pan hoping she had an oven that worked. I had received Cosmic brownies from a friend so I grabbed those as a backup. Well Zuhura’s oven is anciet. She told us that it lights on fire, so we at the other brownies I brought. Afterwards, we went and saw the Kitchens. Sister Kitchen gave us each a South Carolina ornament. She was explaining some of hers when she slipped and keeled into the tree. She disappeared between the tree in the couch. She was alright and we got a good laugh out of that. Later, we planned for our upcoming week. For dinner, we had Barbacoa and rice with the Mejias. They are awesome and invited David and Daniel to come. It was super fun and the food was delicious. I ate a super spicy pepper. Hna. Marvin tried it on meat and couldn’t take the heat. Then David challenged me to eat another one. We both did it and he couldn’t take it either. Hna. Mejia said I have become a Mexican during my time out here. We ate Tres Leches because it was Laura’s birthday. It was really good. I want to learn how to make it. Afterwards, we went over to Maria and Yolandas house. We then snacked on appetizers. It was the fanciest spread I have seen in my entire life. I ate smoked gouda cheese and this weird salt cured meat which means it wasn’t cooked. We got full again and ate a lot of the things. We talked about Christ’s birth and how he needs to be the center of our lives.
Saturday was Christmas!!! Most of the people didn’t want to have lessons. Hna. Marvin and I opened our presents and called our families. Then we baked like crazy. We baked cookies, brownies, and cinnamon rolls (from a pack). We packed everything in the car and then went to dinner. The Tilleys had us and the Elders over. We ate chicken, potatoes and gravy, rice, and spinnach artichoke dip. It was good! I miss mashed potatoes and gravy. Then we went and delivered all the things that we made earlier. We sang to some people too. As we were on our way to visit someone I felt my stomach drop. It didn’t feel right. I didn’t know if we were unsafe or if we shouldn’t visit the family. We pulled over and prayed and felt that we needed to go to Greer. We were told that some missionaries were feeling super sad and depressed. So we went to go comfort them. We got there and they were fine. So then we thought to visit some people in Greer. I remembered a name, the lady Hno. Chirolla told us about. We both felt like we should visit her. So we went to find her. We get to the apartment complex, but realize it didn’t say which building or room. We called her and she didn’t answer. We called again and I was praying so hard that she would answer… she did. She told us where she lived and came out to meet us. We went in to her apartment and got to know her. She really wants to go to church in Spanish and feel accepted. She told us that the night before she had been thinking about church. She said in her prayer that she didn’t know what to do, and then we showed up the next day. It is really cool how our Heavenly Father is aware of us and answers our prayers. All these things happened which led to us finding her. Her son is adorable and he made us a little dinosaur soap. Another cool thing is that they are a part-member family. We invited her to church and she is super excited to come. She didn’t end up making it, but her ride now has more than a nights notice.
Yesterday was an awesome day! It was our Christmas Sacrament meeting. Hna. Marving translated (her first time!!!), so it was kind of nice because I got to relax. Daniel, David, and Santiago came! It was Santiago’s first time! The music was beautiful and peaceful. We read Luke 2 and then sang the songs that go with the scriptures. Church will now be at 9am, so that is going to be rough when we have our early meetings. During lunch, Hna. Marvin and I both took naps. I felt like I could sleep forever. Then we went and visited some people, but they weren’t there. Hna. Marvin “stole” a golf ball. She said, “It was out of the net.” She got me one too. Afterwards, we went and had a lesson with Daniel in a park. It was in the Greer Park, which is one of my favorites out here. He wasn’t there yet, so we set out to hand out english class cards. I saw this one guy before we parked and felt like we should talk to him. I went up and gave him a card. His name is Jose and he wants to learn english and have us teach him the gospel! It was awesome. Then we taught Daniel about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is learning and retaining so much. He is going to pray about baptism. After that, we went and dropped off cookies and a note to someone. They didn’t open the door because we passed by their house 4 times. We couldn’t find it in the dark, so they thought we were kind of sketchy. To end the night, we had Zone family home evening and shared our favorite scriptures.
Here is one of the talks that I love by President Monson. It is called “Believe, Obey, and Endure.” Here is the link.
Believe that remaining strong and faithful to the truths of the gospel is of utmost importance. I testify that it is! www.churchofjesuschrist.org |
I have been reading in the Book of Mormon in Helaman. Something that has really stood out to me is how quickly people turn their back on God. They are righteous and keep the commandments, but then something happens and they stop. It makes me really sad because it is exactly how the world is today. I testify that doing the small and simple things will keep us strong. They may seem insignificant, but in the end they will save us from so much sorrow and anguish.
Les amo mil! Tengan buena semana!!
