Hi Mom!
So this has been a crazy awesome week. To start off. It’s Christmas! Secondly, on the 23rd we gathered as a mission and played games and ate at a Brazilian Steakhouse! The pineapple is still the best.
My team, the blue team, after several bruises and unfair plays by other teams won 3rd place. But nonetheless it was legendary. My team captain happened to be my Zone Leader, Elder Ordyna. I guess he trusts me or something because in between every game. There was a mini game to win extra points. He would always pick me to either lead or be apart of these mini games. Jaja it was legendary, but I got very tired. So I lowkey started delegating anyways jaja. Each podium winner got a table full of goodies. We got a huge box of popcorn, rice crispy treats, gum, kinder chocolates called ‘Buenos’, and that’s about it jaja. Christmas was lit this year.
We got a notice from our mission President that we aren’t allowed to proselytize outside of our homes the 24th and 25th because there will be a lot of partying. And if you are like my mother (and I guess my Aunt Holly too) you wouldn’t want me going out at all. #mexicomissionforthewin. Luckily we were allowed to leave just not to knock doors. So those days we kinda took off. We walked around San Francisco del Rincón and I bought my christmas gifts. Which consisted of a poncho and some other things. Then the 25th our Zone got together and walked around Leon. Me and another Elder thought everyone wanted to go to the church to play some soccer but nobody showed up. So we filled some balloons with water and hucked them at each other. He cheated of course and you can watch that catastrophe below (video).
Anyways, on a bit of a bittersweet note. My Grandmother Diane passed away. We had her funeral on Tuesday of this week. I was privileged to watch it from my phone thanks to my dear twin brother Owen. There where a lot of emotions that were running through me at a thousand miles an hour. But one in particular was the love that I was feeling. It was so overwhelming that I was just straight bawling the entire time. So many blessings were witnessed for me this week I was barely able to save a tenth of them in my journal. I don’t really want to write them all out but here are a few that I did manage to scribble down:
– I got to hear my Dad sing “Oh it is wonderful” after over a year and a half of not hearing him sing since being on a mission. (This one brought me to tears and a then some. Love you Dad)
– This is joy is why I’m on a mission. I’m on a mission for families.
– My uncle Ian said this “…I knew just enough spanish from living abroad…” (A.k.a my mission… Querétaro, Mexico. He was in Querétaro studying for school.)
– I learned that my Grandmother dated a lot when she was younger
– I also learned that she Loved Taco bell. Haha.
Those are just a few tender mercies I witnessed during the the funeral. All in all it was a beautiful experience.
I love you all and I hope you all had a merry Christmas. I want to leave you all with my testimony about the simple truthfulness of the Plan of Salvation. It is real. I know I will see my Grandmother again. She will not be tied down by all the physical sicknesses of this earth. She will be perfected. I know that this truth applies to all of God’s children. That means every single one of you reading this right now. I know the last two years haven’t been easy. We have all seen hardship in some way or another. I’m here to testify that there is hope. There is joy. And there is love everywhere. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen!
Till next time,
Elder Service
