Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry that it has been so long since I have emailed, really sorry about that but I have some things to report this Christmas week! I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas themselves! :)
Wed Dec 23, 2015- Today we went to go do some service for a Vietnamese member named Sis Labartha, we moved a bunch of tiles in her backyard, its always good to do service like that every once in awhile. After that we went to go visit a member named Szas. He is a great guy and we just sat and talked to with him for awhile drinking coconut water, real good time. After that the other elders came to pick us up so we could go on a quick trade off, reason being is because they wanted me to go to a member dinner, this member dinner was special because the couple just returned from Sydney because they we're mission presidents there. I was excited to see what it would be like. I went with a Filipino missionary, we arrived and the dinner went well. Then it was time to share a message, we both were ready to share it and then hear what they had to say. After the lesson, Bro Howes stayed quiet for a few seconds then said, "that was the best lesson we have heard since we have been home from our missions". It was a great Christmas Eve.
Thursday Dec 24, 2015- Christmas Eve! Today we finished the service at Sis Labartha's, we finished it off but it stunk cuz I pulled my back out lifting the tiles, no fun. After that we went to go visit a Filipino family and the fed us a Christmas Eve lunch, it was fantastic! She made homemade salsa and I was just going so hard on them haha its been awhile since I have had homemade salsa so I was very happy. Had a wonderful lunch then we were off to the chapel for the mission to get together. We went out as a mission and sang carols which was really good, we then came back and watched 17 miracles, it was my first time watching that movie and I just loved it. Those pioneers gave everything to go to Zion, it really made me think of what I am giving to the Lord, I know I can give a lot more, we all can!
Friday Dec 25, 2015- MERRY CHRISTMAS! Started off the morning opening my wonderful packages from my family, thank you so much! We then went to the Scott's to have Christmas breakfast and to Skype our families, it was so good. This was my last Skype call which is pretty weird, next time I see my family will be in person, crazy! After that we went to go have Christmas lunch with the Watts, funny family, we loved spending lunch with them. After that we got with the mission again and did skits, and talents, had a wonderful Christmas dinner and then we headed back home, it was a wonderful Christmas!
Sunday Dec 27, 2015- Today I was on trade off with Elder Orr, I pretty much started my mission with Elder Orr so it was good to reconnect with him. He's a really great missionary and he taught me a lot. We we're so happy today to see Ian, our Chinese Recent Convert receive the priesthood and he also brought a friend to church! He's doing missionary work already! After church we went over to Dave's to have dinner which was great, all leftover Christmas food. We then continued our trade off and had a lot of miracles, that day I wasn't really feeling it in regards to talking with everyone but later that night I just decided to forget myself and do it and miraculously the first 3 people I talked to became potential investigators! I feel like Heavenly Father was telling me then that I need to open my mouth at all times because there are people like theses waiting and I always feel so much better when I talk to people. We then went to go visit a Persian family that I used to visit when I was serving in this area before. We showed up at their house and I asked them how long has it been since missionaries have stopped by. They said about 3 months, so they haven't been visited since I left the area, sad elders. But it was so good to see them again and we shared a powerful lesson on Christ, can't wait to continue the work with them again, they have a lot of potential. After that we were walking home and we stopped to talk to this Chinese girl, to our surprise she was baptized 5 years ago and hasn't been to church since! She said it has been awhile since she has seen missionaries and we we're so glad to be those missionaries at this time. She said she would come to church this week too!
Monday Dec 28, 2015- Today we had another mission get together, and President Parker spoke to us, he has decided to get rid of morning sport and lifting weights, so no one is allowed to do any of those things anymore. We have to be aligned with Priesthood Keys. Later that day Elder Revillo and I went to the city for city finding which was a really good time, I love finding!
I would like to share one scripture that has really stuck out to me this week, its Alma 24:30. "And thus we can plainly discern, that after a people have been once enlightened by the Spirit of God, and have had great knowledge of things pertaining to righteousness, and then have fallen away into sin and transgression, they become more hardened, and thus their state becomes worse than though they had never known these things" I was thinking about this scripture this week. I was just thinking to myself of the number of people in the church who were once actively engaged in the church but fell away, almost always there lives become worse then ever before because of the light that they left. This is inspiration to me to realize that I NEED this Gospel in my life, I can only imagine what would happen if I decided to leave the church, it would be horrible because I would always know the happiness and peace, enlightenment that I left, so stay active brothers and sisters, there is no other happiness comparable on the face of this earth!
