Hello!!!

November 28, 2011

Helllooooooo family!!!   Well, I’m sure glad you all had a good Thanksgiving day there back in the states.  People here all know that Thanksgiving exists but they don´t really understand it´s purpose.  One guy here explained to me that we have Thanksgiving to celebrate us kicking the Indians out of their land.  Like he really thought that was why he did it haha.  We explained it to him though so hopefully he understands it better now.  Thanksgiving was really special this year for us as we were able to baptize Ricardo on Thanksgiving.  I was thinking about how that is pretty much the perfect Thanksgiving for a missionary.  At home we all take turns giving thanks for all the stuff that we have and this year I’m thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and for the healing power of the atonement.  I was reading the Liahona (it's like the ensign) this morning and the December one is all about Christmas and talks about how the greatest gift from God is His Son and I was thinking that the greatest thing we can give him is helping others come to know of the gift that God has given us. 

President played a joke on us though on Thursday.  He told us he was going to have a Thanksgiving dinner for us with turkey and potatoes that night.  So after the baptism we showed up at his house but found out that he wasn't serious about the dinner haha.  I guess he thought we knew that he was joking but we didn't know haha.    I think he felt bad though so they ordered pizza for us and the next day they made us breakfast.  So that made up for it. 

So have my letters that I sent gotten there? I’m assuming that they'll be getting there sometime this week.  Oh and also I got the Christmas present.  I'm assuming that I’m supposed to wait until Christmas to open the presents.  Right?

Also this week we picked up a pretty cool part member family that we are teaching.  Part of the family got baptized a year ago but went inactive.  The ward assigned us to visit them though and while we were there we met the son of the member that is like 22 (Luis) and his wife (Claudia).  They didn't get baptized with the rest of the family because they aren't married and they were having a lot of problems last year.  They went to church with us though as well as their daughter that is a year and a half old and their 3 week old son and seemed to enjoy it.  If all goes well they should be getting married and baptized in like 3 weeks.  Elvia has pretty much stopped progressing though.  I guess she had some misunderstandings with some members and doesn't want to go to church right now.  That is pretty tough being a missionary because she was so chosen when we found her.  Hopefully she can work through her challenges and can have the desire to progress again.  Ana is also progressing pretty good.  She is reading the Book of Mormon but went back to her town on Sunday so she couldn't go to church.  She told the member she stays with that she wants to get baptized so we are going to put a baptismal date on Tuesday.

It's weird to think that this is my last week here in this area probably.  This is the area that I have had the most time in so far so it´s going to be weird leaving.  I'm excited for the new challenge though.  Well I’ve better get going but love you all a ton!!

 Ricardo Baptism