Christmas

What kind of things can I say about this week, this was one of the better weeks that could have happened on the mission, we had a huge mission conference where all the zones here on the bottem part of our mission where we had a huge spirtual moment with our mission president where he shared a little bit of here personal study on the atonment of Jesus Christ, and he blew away my mind let me just tell you that, each year he does something like that and each year he blows away my mind.

We had some skits from our zones, it´s sad that my video isn´t sending from our skit, let me just tell you if you could see it you wouldn´t believe that we did that, we ended up doing a funny dance thing with me and another american, something that i would have nver done if i was at home, but hey the misson really changes people doesn´t it. 

This week we had a chance to talk to our familys also, which was amazing to be able to talk to them again, it´s crazy to think that next year i won´t have to skype them on Christmas but will be able to talk to them for the first time in two years, it´s crazy how fast the time flys by, it was fun to talk to them, but not fun to talk in English, that was a little hard to do this year, which is really where, when you sister and brother and law start to laugh at your english because you sound like a Brazilian tying to speak english you know it´s a rough life. 

But overall it was one of the best days that could have happened here, I love this time of year to get to be a little close to my Savior and really remember what he did for us, and how we can return in the presence of our Father because of him.

Natal

What is the true meaning of Christmas in our lifes? What kind of things are we looking forward to this next week, what kind of things are we doing to get into the Christmas spirt?

I really love this time of year and have really learned more about these questions that i have put here, being far from home during this times is the hardest thing that we can do, but everything works out for the better, what´s the true meaning of Chirstmas, whenever I think about Chirstmas I always think of the day before Chirstmas on Chirstmas eve, in my family we have a family tradition on that day, everybody gets together to have a big dinner and then we have a little skit that we do to remember the true meaning of Chirstmas in the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For the longest time I remember my Grandpa Hernandez reading in Luke, having the kids play out what happened that humble night. and remembereing the special day, till this day it continues with my Grandpa Horsley reading those same scriptures. Everything about that night was special and values a lot more then all the gifts that come and go thoughout the years. 

What´s special about being a missionary is that we get to help people have this same kind of joy with their familys, we spread the true meaning of Chirstmas and how we can embrace this gift that our Heavenly Father has given us, we can learn about his, but even better then just learing about him, we can become like him and our Father that´s in the heavens, because of his loving sacrifice for us. 

To become like him we need to serve like him, love like him, and have the disire to change and use his loving Sacrifice in our lifes. 

That´s the purpose for this time of the year, to really learn about of loving Savior and really look to share it with everybody, it may feel like nobody wants to hear aobut it, but somebody out there needs what we have, they need the love of our Savior, we just have to ask and look for these people. 

How are things going back in the good old cold, out there in Brasil it´s so hot that even the dogs that are normally in the road are hiding under the trees just to get some shade and cool off a little bit. Here in Bagé is the hottest area that you can work in in our mission so i got the good luck to be able to roast a little bit.

Fun little fact that i learned during the week, did you guys know that it´s possible to be hotter at 7-8 at night then at mid day when the sun is at the highest point? here as the day goes on it gets hotter and hotter.

As far as this week everything went pretty well for us, i spent the week going on splits with the other missionarys here to help them out in their areas and we found a ton of poeple to teach and to hopefully baptize if everything works out in this month of miricules.

 Our mission is really trying to have two things happen this month, we are trying to make this month a time for people to come closer unto Chirst with our misssionary work, and have a month that is full of Mircules, our mission president is really focusing on that and reestablished our goals that we have for this month with bringing people to church. 

The whole purpose is to help us out grown in our faith in the lord, and really have to have the help of the lord to be able to do all things.