Christmas Eve 2015

December 22, 2015

Merry Christmas Dear Family and Friends! ☃❄

Hey everybody! Merry Christmas, I hope you are all having a great Christmas week so far! I know I am.

Sorry for some of you who haven't gotten an email from me yet, I just barely got the list of emails, but I hope you have been able to keep up with my mission a little bit from the blog.

So this week in Penasquitos has been crazy! It's been awesome but crazy. Last week was transfers, so I said goodbye to my last companion Elder Augusto as he went home and Wednesday we went to transfer meeting to get my new companion!

My new companion is Elder Maughan from Provo, Utah. Some of you might remember that about a month ago Elder Maughan and I went on an exchange out in Ramona for some training, so it was sick to get a companion I already knew a little bit! He's a stud, he's been out for about 5 months. This is is second area, I'm the second oldest missionary in the zone based on time in the mission, which is SO WEIRD! I'm about to hit my 18 month mark.. Elder Maughan and I are having a ton of fun together!

The assistants asked us to not teach zone meeting until after transfers so Elder Maughan got to teach his first one two days after he got here. He did great though, we taught about the atonement. It was one of the most spiritual zone meetings I've had on my mission so it went great. I love reflecting on Christ's birth and mission this time of year, especially as people are together as families and are more open to talk about those things. We have seen some cool miracles in the mission with Christmas.Mormon.Org as well, so check it out and share it! The little videos on there are great :)

Sunday we had our Christmas Programs in church which were awesome. We had some really great musical numbers and talks given in both wards.

Yesterday was the Mission Christmas devotional. It's so fun to get altogether as a mission, see some musical numbers and get a chance to eat together. It's always fun to see my old companions and friends I've served around in the mission. That is always a highlight.

I wish you all a merry Christmas! I love and miss all of you!

December 15, 2015

Tchau to the Portuguese :(

What's up family! It's been an adventure this past week! Lots of interesting days, I don't think we had one normal day!

It all started with dinner last pday, we had dinner with an awesome family, the Riches. They fed us some massive steaks! I'll include a picture.

Wednesday we had exchanges with the Tagolog Elders in our zone. Love those guys. I had Elder Martinez in our area, we had an we some day. Taught a bunch of lessons, it was a fun day.

This weekend we had a mission tour, from Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the presidency of the seventy, it was awesome!! It all started on Thursday with a mission leadership council. It was awesome, we talked about lifting others without trying to take their burdens away, and how Christ does that. I love that concept, that he never takes away our load, but he lifts us and strengthens us so that we can lift it ourselves. That night we had more stake (people have been really stepping up their dinners for elder Augusto's last week).

Friday we had some more mission conference in the morning, tons of good stuff, they talked about planning a lot, and how much it applies after the mission as well, not just on the mission. That night we had a fun lesson and dinner with the Jamchis at the Pomeroys House. I'll include a picture with the Pomeroys and the Jamchis.

Saturday we wrapped up the mission tour, it was crazy to have 3 days in a row interrupted by the meetings, it was because Elder Clayton had to be in Tijuana with President Uchtdorf for some Part of the Tijuana temple dedication.

Sunday was awesome. Elder Augustos last Sunday in the mission. He spoke a little in both wards, everyone was really nice to him as he prepared to leave. We had a final dinner for him at the Raymond's house which was great. Then we had the stake Christmas program at the church.

Elder Augusto flew out today.

I'm hanging out with Elder Thueson, who's companion also went home. We are hangin out playing ping pong and basketball. Elder Fiso and his companions came to our zone to hangout. We miss him still our zone is getting blown up this transfer. Each companionship has someone leaving so this next transfer will be a fun adventure.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

It's the end of what's been an exciting and eventful week out here in beautiful Penasquitos! I love it out here, the weather is perfect! It was 75 and sunny yesterday!! ☀️ I now think I'm freezing when the temperature drops below 50 in the morning... I'm officially a converted San Diegan.

This week has been a super busy and interesting one! This past week Elder Augusto was pretty sick but he's been a trooper and he's powered through. He's finishing the last week and a half of his mission strong. We've had lots of administrative things to take care of, stake member missionary coordination packets, checking out apartments and all the meetings that go along with it, so it's been busy in that sense. But we have also been busy with missionary work as well.

Plus Friday Elder Augusto had the first half of departure activities, so they had a temple session and I got to wait around out there with a couple other elders. Then after that we had Mission leadership conference and then we saw the Jamchis and had dinner with our bishop and that was pretty much a typical day this week, running around everywhere.

We have been working a lot with the Jamchi family. They are an incredible family and I learn so much from them. They are so fun to teach and be around!  We finished up with the lessons this past week and finalized all the plans for the baptism. Alex, who was baptized in August baptized his wife Shana and two daughters Jordyn and Savana.

They were so excited for the big day. It was an awesome baptismal service. So many people came we had to move it out of the set up relief society room where the baptismal font is to the chapel so everyone could fit. The ward has been incredibly supportive and have really been instrumental in bringing this family to Christ. It's awesome to see a ward family come together! Elder Fiso got to come back for the baptism, and we did the intermediate message while the Jamchis were changing. The trio made a comeback! Haha it was super fun. We still miss him.

A Couple cool things with the baptism. Cara, an investigator of ours came to the baptism with a member friend of hers and really enjoyed it. I think she really felt the spirit there and she also came to the ward Christmas party afterword. She's so cool and had a really great time meeting the members. Also the Jamchis went out to eat after the baptism and a struggling member of another ward overheard them talking about the "stake center" and thought to ask what ward they were in. The Jamchis were all excited to talk about their baptism and the light of Christ was really shining through them as they were able to talk about how the gospel has blessed their lives and brought their family closer together. The other ward's bishop was sharing this in our stake coordination meeting and shared about how much that experience helped the member see the importance of the gospel in her life and the happiness it brings. It was a cool side miracle. The Lord puts people where they need to be so we can all feel of his love in one way or another.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Happy December

Hey family and friends! Its been a fantastic week this week, I hope everyone had an awesome thanksgiving! I'm so grateful for all of your love and support!!

We had a great week, started off by an awesome pre-thanksgiving dinner with the Agle family on Wednesday with turkey, potatoes, stuffing and all the good stuff, that warmed us up for thursday! We also had some awesome lessons with Jen Youkel and the Jamchi family, they are doing so good! It's awesome to see them progress, especially as they read the Book of Mormon.

We had an awesome thanksgiving, did some studies, weekly planning and then had a sweet first lesson with some new investigators. We went to our first dinner with the Wongs, I'll include some pictures, it was awesome, lot's of family there so it felt like home :) We had another dinner with the Marin family, Martha is our investigator. Man she is such a good cook!! We had some dang good dinners.

Friday we did a little bit of christmas crafting with a member of ours sister Kenney, she's awesome. We took a time-lapse video, I'll include that in here :) We helped some members move, which is always fun, unfortunately they are moving out of our ward. For dinner we had some more thanksgiving, so we are turkeyed out!! But it was good, I have no regrets. It was awesome because the Pomeroys had set up all their Christmas decorations and lights, I'm so pumped for Christmas!!

Saturday was a good busy day, 2 coordination meetings plus a district meeting and teaching appointments in between. We had another lesson with the Jamchis, I can't say too much how much I love that family. Jordan, Savannah and Shana are so excited for their baptism! And Alex is excited to perform the ordinances.

Sunday was an awesome day at church! We got to talk about the new Christmas initiative #asaviorisborn in both wards, and in Penasquitos 1st ward we had president Schmitt there to present and teach with us which is a little nerve racking but was really  fun too. It was awesome, I think he really helped get the ward even more excited for the work and for Christmas season. I hope you all have had a chance to check out Christmas.mormon.org and share the cool videos and stuff! We had dinner with the Leavetts (from Alberta), she made Elder Augusto's request since he goes home in 2 weeks. It was homemade lasagna, homemade bread, with wheat they ground themselves and homemade apple pie. It was probably one of the best dinners I've had since I left momma's cooking 17 months ago. After that we had the baptismal interviews for the Jamchis. It's all good to go! We are so stoked!!!

Those are some of the main highlights from the week!! Things in PQ are awesome, the work is going good, We have some good stuff going, Elder Augusto and I are having a blast. Things are awesome.