Happy almost new year! But I don't think I'll be staying
up until midnight for this one.
It was really good to talk to you all on Christmas. I'm
glad Eddy's having fun with his new drone toy. This week wasn't super eventful
as far as missionary work goes because most of the people we teach were out of
town or had family visiting so they didn't want us to come over.
On Wednesday, it was about 8:40, and we still had time to
contact one more person before we went home. This whole Christmas season, I had
been wanting to Christmas carol as a way to tract and this was my last chance because
we weren't allowed to proselyte on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. We drove
past a house and I was like "let's go carol to them!" My companions
thought I was crazy, but we did it anyway. We sang Silent Night...and let's
just say it was super awkward. An 11 year old girl opened the door and just
kind of stared at us wondering why we were singing on her doorstep. After our
tone-deaf singing ended and it was a silent night again, we were able to share
a message about putting the Christ back in CHRISTmas with the 11 year old, her
13 year old brother, their grandma, and their uncle who walked in at the end.
They accepted a return appointment, so we came back on
Saturday. This time, both the parents, the kids, the uncle, and the grandma
were there, AND they all sat down and listened to us. At the end of an awesome
lesson, we invited them to be baptized...and it turns out that the uncle was
baptized in Mexico when he was 9 or 10 and the parents were both baptized in
Phoenix at about that same age. After their baptisms, none of them really ever
went to church again, so they really don't remember anything about the gospel.
They actually showed up to church on Sunday and we have a return appointment
set for Tuesday. So that's the fruit of my Christmas caroling.
On Christmas Eve, we did missionary work until 5:00, then
had permission to eat at a member's home until 7:00. We were invited to the
house of the first counselor in the branch presidency and had really good ham,
potatoes, corn, beans, pozole, salsa, flan, etc.
Their whole extended family was there, so there were
about 30 of us eating in the house. President Toone gave the missionaries
permission to just kind of chill for the rest of the night after 7:00, so when
we got back to our house, Hermana Cloward, Rodriguez, and I went on a walk
around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights, then went to bed early.
Christmas morning, we did an hour of personal study then
went to weekly planning. During personal study, I read Luke 2 and thought of
all the years we acted out the Nativity on Christmas Eve. We do weekly planning
every Friday morning and we basically sit down and plan for 3 hours and even
though it's useful, it's pretty boring and not fun. I thought the mission would
move weekly planning to Saturday in order to make it a merrier Christmas...but
that didn't happen. But after weekly planning, I got to Skype home, so that
made the day a lot better. It was really fun to talk to you all. After that, we
came home and watched some of the Thomas S. Monson biography before I fell
asleep.
After my much needed nap, we had dinner with the Robles
family who got baptized this year. We ate the best carne asada tacos I've ever
had and cake. After dinner, we got together as a district and watched Lion King
and played some games.
Transfers are this Thursday, so we'll see what happens
there; if we'll stay in a trio or if one of us is leaving.
Have a good week and try to stay awake past 11:56.
Love,
Hermana Gubler
No comments:
Post a Comment