Thursday, January 1, 2015

Week 75: God Bless us, Everyone‏

Suffice it to say that my Christmas was doused with a good helping of Baggy-ness. Amidst the fireworks and tamales and the Christmas package that was filled to the brim with sweets, the only thing that I really cared about was the bi-annual Skype Call that I got to do on Thursday.
It was, frankly, very hard to think about anything else.
Namely because almost every one of our investigators left to go and visit their families. Leaving us alone on Christmas Eve.... So, taking advantage of the extensive amount of free time that we had....Elder Chunga and I took a gigantic stack of our "He is the Gift" Pass-Along Cards and just started handing them out to everyone and their dogs.
The whole day we talked to a grand total of 120 people and by the end of our 3 dinner appointments, we were tired, stuffed and sick of eating tamales.
Christmas Eve: Mission accomplished.
That night they lit off fireworks off of every street corner, so Elder Chunga and I stood on our balcony and stared into the heavens at midnight. There were 20 minutes straight of prosthetic light. They soared through the sky.
So at around 12:30 we finally turned off the lights and slept until morning.
On Christmas, I started things off reading the Liahona and cleaning our house (because it was a big mess), and I opened up my Christmas package from my family (they sent me a back massager...I am so blessed). And we did a quick companionship study. After sitting in anxiety for an hour and a half we went down to the Stake center to be able to talk to our families!
It was a great experience, I absolutely love my family. There were so many emotions attached to the phone call: Joy, Happiness, The Spirit, Sadness, Unity, Love, Desperation.....so many things that just left me completely worn out by the time the hour was up. Then my mother asked me to be able to bare my testimony to them in Spanish to end the call. It was an incredibly revelatory experience....it got me to reflection on how much my testimony has grown here in the mission...how much better I've come to know my Savior and his gospel through the past year.
I know this church is true and the blessings that I've received from serving a mission are simply abounding.
There is nowhere I would rather be.
By the time that I hung up, I felt just...wiped out.
We went back home, had a lunch appointment (we ate a Holiday Ham!) and then went out visiting with the bishop, and then ate two dinners. 
Merry Christmas.
The next few days were kind of hard.... emotionally, trying to get back into the swing of things...but we were able to manage!
I know that this church is true! I know it! And I am so excited to be able to take advantage of the last 7 months that I have to be able to share it with everyone that I meet!
That's the greatest miracle of all.
The whole week, I've had a phrase from the classic novel, "A Christmas Carol" running through my head:
And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!
May god bless all of us. And keep us under his wing and in his fold for this New Year that we are starting...and always.
Con Amor,
Elder Monson













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