It wasn't a white Christmas here in San Jose but I did find several white hairs on my head. GASPS of horror! Turns out the mission ages people...I thought maybe I'd reverse age, but no. The mission does crazy things to our bodies...I get it now, but we get tons of blessings so we are clueless to the toll taken out on our faces and figures. I will take it. I should also probably cut back on the cheese fries...but they are just so dang good! And it's my break from rice and beans. New Year's resolution - no cheese fries in 2013...wait, I just had some an hour ago - dang it! No new cheese fries in 2013!
So, let's see. For Christmas I ate a ton of tamales and I helped make some. It was super fun, but I never want to do that again. I prefer just eating them. One of the Elders tricked me into eating a jalapeno one...I almost passed out, but hilarity ensued for everyone else. Ahhh Christmas cheer to all brought to you by Hermana Hall's weaksauce mouth. The missionaries put on a sweet pachanga (kick-a party) for our ward for Christmas. Good thing I've put on a dance or two in my day...everyone loved it and they ate and danced into the wee hours of the morn...well until we had to leave at 9:30 pm. Ha. I am pretty sure I have a Latin heart because we sure party the same.
My companion is still Canadian. The jokes never seem to get old, at least for me. The other day while we were in line at the grocery store she asked something about how to use the card machine, me, being me, piped up and apologized to the cashier for her being foreign and this being her first trip to America. That got some good belly laughs. And that is what I do to her every day. I am pretty sure she loves it. Yup, pretty sure. We have a blast together though and we are working hard to get our 15 investigators to actually show up to their baptism dates. Yeah, I just dropped a number there - that's what we do in the San Jose Spanish program...we bring in numbers...I mean we bring people to Christ. Oooh how the Zone Leaders would kill me right now.
In other interesting missionary news...we feasted at a Biblical miracle dinner the other day. The poor lady forgot she had signed up to feed all four of us, but with her golden faith she prayed that she'd have enough food. We started eating and my plate would not cease to have mounds of food upon it. I was sitting there for 20 minutes trying to eat it all and was baffled at how it appeared I ate nothing. Later one of the Elders mentioned that he peaked on the stove when he got there and he was like yeah, this isn't going to feed us...we all ooohed and awwed together afterward when we realized that her faith alone created rice, beans and carne to feed the masses. Woah. Go faith!
Also, news flash - some people have changed the Bible. We were teaching an investigator the other day and were talking about the Commandments. She didn't remember them all, but who does anyway? Well, I do because I have to now...but we pulled out our Bibles and she pulled out hers. As she started reading them out loud my companion and I glanced at each other as she seemed to skip commandment #2 then when #5 and #7 were basically the same. I had heard of this occurring, but this was the first time I experienced it myself in real life. We pointed out to her the actual commandments and with our missionary confidence explained they had been changed by someone. Anyway she is supposed to pray about that and get back to us. She said she would pray to the Virgin Mary...dang it.
Well that's about it for the holiday edition of this post...oh we had a sweet sleepover with the English sisters for Christmas and New Year's Eve. We might have broken a few rules but I'm admitting it and that is the first step of repentance. We failed to go to bed at 10:30 because I wanted to open presents at midnight like all the Latins do. I call it language study. Then it was NYE and we had to get up at midnight to throw our hands up in the air...it's like a rule, the world rule not a mission rule. Anyway...sister missionaries talk a lot when we get together and it felt like home. What a nice holiday treat. But we are back on the mission train and putting the feet to the pavement. There are lots of people that need the gospel this year and we are going to find them.
Goals...if you have made some for this year, they better include at least one about the gospel. Whether it is be personal, spiritual or missionary I hope you strive to grow, strengthen and share your testimony of the gospel this year. I've seen it now a million times, as we turn our focus towards Christ we are blessed in all other aspects of our life. Embrace the promise in the Book of Mormon and keep those commandments (the real ones not the Virgin Mary ones) and prosper in the land this year. God bless. Amen.
xoxo,
Hermana Hall
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