December 13, 2010

Hey family,Glad to hear you finally got snow... Even if it didn`t last. A fewdays ago I caught myself singing "Let It Snow". Im just going to giveup on getting snow for Christmas. It just isn`t going to happen. Imglad to hear that the concerts went well for the most part, even ifthe guitar players were a problem. (It always seems to be the guitarplayers). Happy birthday to Alex. :) I can`t believe that he is14, but I had better just get used to it. Sounds like the music inthe home is getting better and better. Glad to hear about Dad`sopportunity to share the gospel with his co-worker. This is soimportant. We have found here in Porvenir that the work is a wholelot more successful when the members are involved. The work is soimportant and the members are an incredibly important part in this. To Megan: Congrats on Utah State!!! I remember the I´m In! paper.Thats so awesome. My advice for you is study hard and play hard.Meaning, study as hard as you can, and when you have an oppurtunityto have some fun, make it really fun. Other note: Megan`s hair is really long... Just sayin´ Other note: Has Trevor grown a ton? or is he just standing onsomething to look almost as tall as Dad in the picture? Needless tosay, Im a little scared of him now. :) Im glad to see that everything is going well, and that you are allhaving some fun. Thanks for sending the padded envelope, I got ittoday. (Ill wait to open it until Christmas, don`t worry), I alsogot the package from Grandma Gee today. About Perù... You won`t be hearing about Milagros for a while. She decided shedoesn`t want to get baptized. I still don`t know what happened, andshe was really closed up so I don`t think I`ll ever know. But lifegoes on. We have changes tomorrow, and I have some interesting news... My Zone isn`t changing! There are 16 missionaries in our Zone andonly 2 are leaving the Zone. Elder Pompilla who is finishing hismission and going home to Cusco, and Hermana Gardner who is alsofinishing her mission and going home to St. George. The other 14missionaries are all going to be in the same Zone until the end ofJanuary. Its pretty crazy. This means that Elder Kasat and I will betogether for one more change and when we finish Ill have been here for4.5 months and Elder Kasat will have been here for 6. I am kind ofready for something to change here, but we have a lot of plans forthis next transfer, so we`ll see. About invaciones...These are actually done by the Stake here together with themissionaries. Lots of the Priesthood Leaders, Returned Missionaries,Priests planning for missions, Ward Missionaries, and the full-timemissionaries. We did it for one of the wards, and visited over 20inactive families and gave the missionaries 56 references to contact.It was really cool. We will actually be doing it in every ward in thestake. We do them every other week. They are pretty cool. A little more about Elder Mitchell and I last week. We had anincredible spiritual experience. We visited a few people, and eventhough it was two American missionaries with no more than 4 months intheir missions, we were able to teach with power, which was awesome.It was a huge lift for me after a few hard weeks with not much. Thehighlight of this was when we visited Lourdes. Elder Mitchell and Itaught Lesson 3 from the missionary lessons and challenged her for abaptismal date for December 18th and she accepted. The spirit wasincredible and I learned a ton from Elder Mitchell. Lourdes didn`t come to church last Sunday because she couldn`t. Shehas had some problems with her legs and it is difficult for her towalk sometimes. We are still planning her baptism for this Saturdaybecause she has the desire to attend and participate in the church.We need to have her interview, but after that we can make finalpreparations and have her baptism. She also gave us references forher sister and her mom, so we hope to be able to go somewhere withthose. Other great news: Llery passed her baptismal interview!!! We aregoing to be having her baptism this Saturday, which is awesome. Shehas such a great testimony and I can`t wait for the baptism. Thelessons with her were so good because she listened and wanted tolearn. We also have a new investigator. Silvana. Silvana has a friend in adifferent stake whose name is Hermana Ramos. Hermana Ramos has beenworking with Silvana for 4 years to teach her a little bit about thegospel of Jesus Christ. Silvana has great faith, and our first lessonwith her was awesome. We hope to be able to progress with Silvanapretty rapidly. This week was kind of slow other than Llery and Silvana. We didn'thave a whole lot of lessons, and I felt pretty bad for most of theweek. But it should be gettng better as we start a new transfer. SoI will definitely be in Porvenir until January 25, 2011, and I willvery possibly be here until the middle of March. My scripture of the week is in Doctrine and Covenants. There are two.Doctrine and Covenants 88:80-81 which talks about the calling for allmissionaries in the world. 81 talks about the responsibility that allpeople have to warn their neighbors. It is about the importance ofmember missionary work.Doctrine and Covenants 88:118 talks about how we can gain more faithand more wisdom by seek the best books. Both of these scriptures helped me during the week and I hope they canhelp you too. Always remember who you are and why we are here in the earth.Remember your potential. In reality all of us have the potential tobecome like God. Not just live with Him again, but to have His powerand His glory. Remember that Jesus Christ loves each and every one ofyou and He wants you to be happy in your life. Be happy and Keep the Faith. I love you all. Good luck with preparations for Christmas, and don'tforget the true meaning of Christmas.Tyler