Hey From Mini Mexico

       Good news from the Central Zone of the CLAM! My zone was the highest baptizing zone for the month of December!! Woot! So the other day on splits, I was at a member’s house and they gave me one drop of this hot sauce that contains 4 million schoval units!! Tabasco sauce only has 66 thousand. This one drop burned me bad! I am used to hot stuff, but santa vaca it was incredibly hot!
       I have really been studying my area book lately and I made a list of all the former investigators who I felt good about and I recently made contact with them. Two of the eight I tried said we could come back again and teach. Both women had a previous baptismal date, too, so hopefully they’ll be prepared to listen again!
      Our last visit with the C&H family was crazy. Miraculously all the adults were there and we were discussing what they had read about the Restoration from the pamphlet we left. I began asking questions about the changes they had seen in the lives of the kids. As they responded to me I felt the Spirit so strongly. M, the mother of K who was baptized, said she saw an incredible difference! She even said that she wanted to follow the same decision that her daughter had made in her choice of religion! Boom shaka laka boom! I also told them how much I had seen and felt since they had been baptized. I started to cry!  It was so sudden, the fastest it has ever happened before in my life! This work truly is a labor of love. The love I feel makes up for all the other crazy and hard things that happen out here.
       It has been a pretty crazy two weeks and we have been teaching a TON! This is due to the fact that I have been in a trio and we have been working both our areas. Transfer calls are tonight so everyone will find out who stays and who leaves. Luckily I already know what is going to happen..:) I had an interview last night with President and I will be training a new missionary in my area! I am really excited! I hope that he has the same fire that I had so we can get down to the "nitty gritty" and work hard!
      Please don't forget to smile! I have come to realize that smiling even when you don’t feel like it, makes everyone happy. I try to say hi to everyone and smile even when it has been a hard day. I don't want people to have an image of missionaries being sad, somber people. I love you all and am excited for you all, especially the Richardson family! Come on Jonah! We can't wait for you to be here with us!

P.S. I played soccer the other day at the park and didn't do too shabby. I was super sore but we had fun! The local players thought they would crush us gringos, but we put up a great fight. I even scored twice ;) In tennis shoes too :) All my years playing are coming in handy!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

    Sorry for the delay in e-mails – the libraries were closed a TON these past two weeks!
    My first Christmas in Los Angeles was incredible! It was topped off by our baptism of M, K and P on Christmas Day! I had the privilege of baptizing P which was SO cool! Being my first baptism in Spanish, I was a bit nervous but the Spirit took over and everything turned out well! I also confirmed Pedro this past Sunday in sacrament meeting. This was really hard for me. My mind seemed to stop working and I had to pray for the words to come in Spanish. I am pretty sure I repeated myself and it was not the best blessing, but several members complimented me afterward. They said it was beautiful and they felt the Spirit. They must have heard a different blessing than the one I actually gave!

     A few Mondays ago I was on splits in the YSA English ward here, and I ran into two guys who knew some missionary acquaintances of mine. I met Spencer Fieeki, who served in the Atlanta mission with Elder Joshua Crandall. This was hilarious! He promised to send a picture and video of the night to Dad, but I don't know if that has happened yet or not. I also met Elder Moala who served in Honolulu with Elder Keita Katanuma!! It was another comforting experience to testify that the Lord loves us! At this Activity, Elder R and I won a rap contest with Spencer and some other YSA members. It was very fun and made me wish I was in their ward more often!
      The Christmas devotional was also a blast!! I got to see all the missionaries in the our mission and it was so joyful! I was reunited with E. Richards from the MTC and E. Rosales as well. It was pretty strange sitting in the chapel with Elders Cressman and Matheson. I never would've believed we would all be here together. We even got a picture with Santa. I believe Elder Cressman sent it to Coach Robison, but I don't know. I was also on splits with a biking elder which means I got to realize how out of shape I am! I have not ridden a bike since my junior year I think...Santa Vaca that was forever ago! Don't worry though, I was at about 197 after Christmas, so I lost a few pounds which was nice.
     Our teaching pool has shrunk due to being dropped, dropping or baptizing those in our pool. I really want to find more people because I very much dislike the lag in teaching. Thanks for all your letters, prayers, gifts and love this past holiday season. I felt so loved and I hope I have given some of this love back to you all! Until next week!!!

Baptisms This Christmas!

    Hey family!! I miss you all this Christmas and hope you are enjoying the spirit of the season. This Sunday we are having 3 baptisms!! The H and C kids are so excited and so are we!!! This will be the best Christmas present for everyone!
    I forgot if I mentioned how many times we make beans and eggs. It is now a Sunday night tradition. Elder C loves them! Now, when we shop, we always need to get our Huevos Rancheros supplies. I hope that Norwegian pancakes will be a hit as well.
    To update on other investigators....J came to church again without her girls!!! Yay! She was there before we were and waiting patiently for it to start. We taught her about donating tithing and fast offerings and she is gung-ho about it. She wants to pay now even though she isn't a member. I guess we can't stop her from donating!
    I was super bummed that we dropped an investigator and got dropped by another investigator, but the one we dropped more that the other. I prayed a bit for him and a few days later, he called. He apologized to us and told us when his schedule is free.
    I love you ALL!!! Thank you so much for the cards and gifts!! I have saved most of them for Christmas day...you know me, I love Christmas! Remember what it's all about and it will be that much more special!!! Merry CHRIST-mas!!

I Stayed Put This Transfer

      Hey family!!  I wanted to let you all know, I stayed put this last transfer.  The only difference for our companionship is that E. Coulson is the new district leader. :)
    First off, I had some elote last week....the corn on the cob stuff that Stephen is always eating on Nacho Libre!  It was very good, but it’s un enfarto esperando a pasar (a heart attack waiting to happen).   On Wednesday night I taught the English class, which was super fun; I think it helped my Spanish a bit.  I thought Spanish was hard, but English is even more confusing...;) 

       J came to Relief society and Church all on her own this last week!  Her daughters are in Mexico, and she used to only come with them!!  It made my heart leap when I saw her!  This week we attempted to contact a new referral but couldn’t get past the two devil dogs to knock the door, so I found a piece of pipe and banged of the door from over the fence :)  No one answered, but I asked the neighbor girl about the referral, and she and her parents gave us so much information that we knew we couldn't drop the lady.  We were starting to think we’d been given a false address but now we know it’s legit!  We'll try back soon.  We set up a Visitors Center trip with the C & H family.  We will go on Saturday.  They again came to church -- the parents drove them and everything!  They are still way excited and the kids in the ward seem to be friendshipping them.  I am so happy for them!

December Already?

     Crazy to think it is December, no?  Hearing Christmas music in sunny weather is not how it was meant to be!  On Friday we thought there had been an accident, but it was really Santa being given a police escort!  We had two recent converts in our area sealed in the temple on Saturday and we also attended the baptism of another investigator who we helped to move out a while ago.  Pretty crazy weekend! 

      I finally made beans and eggs last night!!  It was very good and it reminded me of home.  I almost felt like I was getting ready to go to the church for activity night.  Y and C, the daughters of J, left for Mexico today so we are unsure if we'll be able to teach J, but hopefully. We have three new young investigators that are super excited and want to be baptized on Christmas!!!  They love lessons and are very eager, plus they came to church!!  I will let you know more soon.  The group letter [at Thanksgiving] was much appreciated!