Familia!!
I hope everyone is having an awesome holiday season!! It's definitely a little different being out here during Christmas time... It's just way different, I don''t know if I can put it into words, but, I hope you guys are enjoying the holiday spirit :)
Mom, thank you so much for the package!!! Oh man that was awesome to receive! :) Thank you!!!
Dad, I met a member that drinks mate!! I didn't have any because we visited in the afternoon, but how cool is that!?!
And I have my first Mexican recipe YOU MUST TRY - IT'S THE BEST!! They call it platano con leche!! It's sweet, creamy banana heaven! Just take a banana, chop it up (like you're gonna put it in yogurt in a bowl), pour condensed milk on it (as much as you like) add a splash of milk, mix, refrigerate for 10 min, eat, cry, eat more!
It's a little strange, the holiday season is a great time to teach because so many people are focused on family this time of the year, but there aren't many people to talk to on the streets now. It's kinda crazy how few people there are walking around now compared to just a week or two ago.
This week I went on splits with another gringo missionary to go contacting for a little bit while our comps tried to find a house of an investigator, it's a little hard to explain but basically now I don't have any fear of contacting, or getting rejected, because on my own (and the help of Christ) I contacted 12 people in an hour, which is pretty good for my area! Although I only got 3 addresses to visit, but even that's good for my area!
This week we heard a story from an investigator that really touched me. I understood most of it, but she talked fast so I hope I get everything. Basically, her nephew was a young adult in the church, but started to fall away a little. He got married civilly and was just living life normally, but his Mom would always check in on him and make sure he's living in a somewhat righteous manner. So, basically, his wife is about 6 months pregnant and he decided he wanted to get a tattoo, and his Mom found out and really really really really encouraged him not to. So he didn't.
The amazing part of this story comes 4 months later, when his baby was born. For whatever reason the baby needed an immediate blood transfusion, I wasn't sure about the details, but I know his wife couldn't donate blood because of the birth process or blood type (I'm not quite sure), but he was there, same blood type, and able to give blood, and save his child. If he had gotten the tattoo, he wouldn't have been able to do it. This new father went home, cried, called his Mother, and is now active in the church again. The point of this story for me is there are blessings that we can not foresee that come from obeying the commandments and making good choices. God, the supreme being of the universe, knows what it takes for us to be happy. We need to trust him. Our bodies are temples, and He tells us we must respect them as such.
Oh, funny story (Mom, you don't need to include this, just thought the fam would get a kick out of it), but we had a Zone Meeting with Presidente Montoya. To start, he asked how many of us woke up on time... a few of us raised our hands. Then, he asked how many of us work out in the mornings? There were still a few of us that kept our hands up. Then he asked if we did pushups in the morning, and even fewer of us were left. He asked how many push ups each of us did... a couple of guys said thirty cada mañana (every morning), and when he got to me, I was honest and said 100, and so he said 'Okay how many do you do before resting, and I told him I do 50 twice, and he asked if I thought I could do 55? or 60? I said it was possible, so, he said "a ver" (lets see)!!
Sooooo yea, I dropped to give him 55 (at least that was my goal) and thanks to all the missionaries cheering - I did 60!! But let me tell you that was the most stressful 60 push ups I've ever done - and never in my life have I prayed for help to work out, but lemme tell you, God even answered that prayer! Haha!! :D But, yea that was fun! I've got so much to tell you guys this Sunday, just remind me if you wanna hear stories or a cosa como asi (things like this).
Any whooo, this week was good! Lots of learning, as always. This week, more then learning, I got a whole lot of confirmations. To start, during our Zone Meeting, Presidente stop by and gave us a little lesson. And of all the great things he said, there were two things that really stuck out to me.
1. Callings are hardly convenient, or include everything we want to do, and
2. Goals in the mission are what we promise ourselves we'll achieve, if that makes sense.
For the first, he was addressing those missionaries that sleep in, someone said it was hard, and he said that we are often called to do hard things, and we aren't called to do things we necessarily like or feel comfortable about. I agree, and if we obey with a positive attitude and have faith and stretch ourselves with the help of Christ, we can do absolutely anything that is required of us, and it won't be quite so hard.
And then with goals, it just really struck me because these past weeks I've been wondering how to be the best missionary I can be, and after much prayer and studying, it became apparent that it's goal setting. So this past week I set personal weekly goals for myself for the first time, and the next day we're at this Zone Meeting and President talked about how important goals are, confirming my answer, and then our Zone Leader pretty much said that goals are how we progress, so, I felt really good about that and I'm gonna continue setting goals indefinitely. :)
Another big thing for me this week was a reunion we had as trainees. The AP (Assistant to the President) taught us a lot of things - but of all the things we learned what really stood out was what he added at the end. "Sea un líder donde este" or be a leader where you are or wherever you are! And that's a big deal to me. He said we shouldn't seek titles, or praise, or honor, or anything like that. Especially because we already have the best title and honor in the world right now... "Elder" or "Sister". We are officially called of the living Prophet to be the hand of the Lord and gather his sheep... I can't really think of anything better than that, right?
Well, that's my short summary of this week. :) I hope there was something in there that was good for you guys! :) I love you so much and I hope you all feel God's love for you, especially these days as we stop to remember our Savior, His Son, Jesus Christ.
I love you guys a bunch and I hope all is well :) See you Sunday!!
Nick
Elder Lopez and I climbed this aquaduct for a picture :)
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