December 29, 2014

Well. Hello again. This week was very very relaxing. It's hard to imagine, but during the holidays, people go on holiday! I know, weird, but please bear with me. Your incredulity will wear off; please allow me to explain. Apparently during the Christmas season, people want to see their families (I know, weird right?) and the majority actually leave town to visit them and spend time with them! How very strange! Well anyway, to give you an idea of how many members went on vacation, of the nearly 150 that go to church every week, we had a whopping 68 show up, including the six missionaries who went. Citywide, only roughly 1/3-1/2 of the people are home. And if someone was in their house, they were getting ready for a party later that night. It made doing missionary work really difficult. I had no idea how hard it is to preach during Christmastime. Nobody wanted to invite a gringo and his companion into their house to preach to them; they wanted to spend time with their families. And I can respect that, but they do not know they are missing! With this gospel they will be able to spend eternity with their families! Argh.

I learned something new this week. Apparently, when there is a light on outside of your house that means the people who live there are not home. I found that strange because in the states I am pretty sure it is the opposite. It is almost like it is a different country or something. :)

Also, I learned something about the smurfs. Do you know how to say smurf here? I am guessing not. Well I do. It is..... pitufu! And the name gets longer depending which pitufu you are talking about. Smurfette, for example is pitufita. Baby smurf is pitufufito. Their names are really fun to say, although I cannot remember them.

Talking to my family was awesome. My favorite part was when I asked Jessica about Alex :) It was really nice talking to them.

This week we spent trying to visit less active members because Christmas is a good time to invite them back to church and to learn about Jesus and all that his gospel has to offer. We spent a lot of time with the young women´s president trying to find houses of less actives. One of the houses didn´t even exist--just a ruin where a house used to be. We had a little succeeds this week. We found the Ramirez Cruz family, of whom there are eight. The mom is awesome, the kids are great, the father is a cool guy. We haven´t met the oldest son yet, but everyone is is really cool. They enjoy when we come and visit them, and the little girls just want me to sing to them the whole time. Unfortunately, no investigators came to church this week due to vacations, and in the case of one older couple, the extreme cold.

We visited a less active member with some very specific challenges, and we managed to, once again, animate him for the possibility of serving a mission. We warned him that it would not be easy. He has some very great obstacles to overcome, but I know he can do it.

On Christmas eve, I went to a feast-type dinner with some ward members. We ate a lot of posolli (a heavenly soup of chicken, lettuce, corn, pepper, pig, radish, and lemon). You eat it with tostadas. YUM.

All things considered I am doing better. This isn´t easy, but it is worth it. Love it here.

Happy after Christmas!

Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
(Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,)
Elder Scott

[More dead things--ack!!!]