12/28/15

we had our christmas conference last week as a whole mission. Its the first time that it has ever happened. we drove 3 hours to mcallen. It was super awesome. there was lots of musical numbers and slide shows and even a gift exchange. There were so many gifts near the end we got to watch all of the hermanas try and shoot a 3 pointer for more gifts.. it was kind of funny cause only 3 made it haha and then it was the elders turn but from half court haha and it took forever cause there were so many. When i went there. i met a couple kids that i went to school with. Mike Packer and Josh Chamberlain. 2 super nice good people. it was cool to talk to them and catch up a little bit even though i never talked to them in school. There were also skits haha they were hilarious..i wish i could go into detail but i dont have much time.. the next day we met a Cuban named Ricardo. He was a super awesome guy who loved religion and art history haha. christmas eve we had dinner with the Dements. they are a super awesome family and we also ate with the Sinton elders. they are not in our zone but are in our ward.. hah and that night there was just a massive fog that came over the city and just everywhere. it was weird but kind cool. hahah when you walked outside it felt like you just walked into the bathroom after someone took a hot hot shower haha. christmas day came around and it didnt even feel like christmas. we visited some families and to be honest im really happy to see our friendship with the members here are getting better. we've had quite a few days of just no success but us doing all that we can and trying to set up as many plans that we can. saturday came around and still the exact same thing.. just a gloomy day of nothing good happening but seriously us doing all that we can. i guess my dumb blonde jokes werent very good cause my companion still felt bad and didnt have a lot of animo for the rest of the day. so from then on i decided to be the first to talk to everyone and just have tons of animo. we finished the day visiting a less active family..we ended up talking for a while and they talked about coming to church tomorrow which would be the first time since ive been here. and sure enough.. the next day on sunday. they were there!! not just them. but 3 of our other investigators.. it was honestly a miracle especially cause tracey (investigator) is always sick and never comes but she came!!! and same with Brian! we later visited sister holliday and her fiance brian.. and seriously us going over yesterday was perfect cause right now in brians life he is going through something and really needs the gospel.. as long as we are working and doing what we need to do. the lord will provide.. this email right now kinda sounds weird as i read it again. but seriously.. if you are doing all that you can do.. and you dont see any fruits yet.. dont be sad.. just keep going.. the lord will provide and help you. dont lose faith either. its honestly helped strengthen my testimony. idk why but i always compare everything to swimming. I remember many times it truly sucked being in the cold water and i just wanted to leave and give up. But really in that moment thats when you need to work harder. find something to help bring your spirits up. when we were trying to contact some people and everything was just kinda blue.. i told my comp since i bought a guitar that im going to write him a song about him. haha so i started singing to him and he just burst out laughing cause it was so funny and goofy. yeah it was weird but heyy... it got us through the night and helped us work a little harder. this last week was a little tough but it all came back around. i hope everyone had a good christmas.
I miss you all. be safe out there.

watching the hermanas shoot hahah

the fog on christmas eve.. so spooky! haha