Week Nine

Hola Mamá!

Oh man, it was one crazy week! But unfortunately, I kinda got messed with my time to email today! I only have maybe 30 minutes at the most! So let me try to get everything in here haha!

So it was pretty normal up until Thursday. All the missionaries got together that night and decided to do a caroling sort of thing! In my sector, there is a little plaza sort of thing that is super decked out with a bunch of Christmas stuff, like a nativity, a Santa's house, a massive tree, and even a little petting zoo sort of thing! Well anyways, a couple Elders went to the city to get permission to sing there, and they were all for it! They ended up setting everything up for us! We thought we'd just stand in the middle and sing, but nope. The city had other plans haha! They set up a stage for us with microphones, intense speakers, and spotlights! It turned into more of a concert than we thought it would be! So we had one Elder read the nativity story, and after every couple versus, we sang all the hymns that applied to those versus! It was super awesome! We sounded like garbage, but that's ok, because it was still spiritual and I had fun. Some other elders were also walking around the place contacting people and they talked to a ton of people! It was a pretty great night!

So the next big thing was Christmas Eve, or La Noche Buena. Apparently, they celebrate Navidad a little different here. Everyone stays awake until midnight, and they have a big countdown like we do on New Years. Then they open gifts right then at 12! So it was interesting. But we went to a house of some members in our branch, and ate with them and spent the night with them. It was a good dinner with some sandwhiches. Then they gave us our very own gifts! We each got a soccer jersey! My first! They are from the Chile team, mine is #8, Vidal, and Crabtree has #22, Puch. It was super fun opening them. And it was a super fun family. The Dad's name is Rodrigo, and I think he's my favorite in our branch. He's a super friendly, super awesome guy. And his family is so great too! His wife and three kids, two boys and a girl. 

Then there's Christmas. It was such an amazing Navidad, one of my favorite, if not my very favorite! To start off, it was a white Christmas! We had a baptism first thing in the morning! It was the family, the Carvajals. Dylan, who is 12, and Estivan, who is 8. What makes it better, it was my first baptism in the mission! And even better, I got to baptize! Estivan asked if I could be the one to baptize him! It was awesome! So we had the baptism right before church, and right after, church started. But this sunday was Christmas, so it was different. They had all the branches come at once and for an hour. So right after the baptism, church started, and we got to confirm them in front of everyone! Crabtree gave the blessings cuz I can't really do it, but I was up there with my hands on their heads, so I did something! It was super awesome, and I loved seeing the happiness that was constantly on Dylan's face! I could tell he was definitely feeling the spirit! Estivan was having fun too, but not the same as Dylan. Anyways, we had lunch this day with a super poor family in our ward. They live in more of a shack than a house. Nevertheless, they are a super awesome family! I can't remember their name, but they are super humble, and super close to God! We had an awesome discussion with them, and they cooked one of the best meals I've had here! It was just Chicken and noodles, but the chicken was cooked sooooooooooooo well, it makes my mouth water just thinking about it! But we then went home to study, and then went to the family we were gonna skype at. Once we got there we just went immediately with the computers, and we called! Oho man, it was sooooo fantastic to see you guys! Definitely the best present I could get! And my best present I could give, letting you guys see my angelic face after being deprived for 3 months! ;) But it was good to really catch up! We definitely went over time, but I still don't think I said half of what I wanted to say! Ugh haha, but that's ok, I still loved it! It made me way more trunky though right after it was done! It kinda made me depressed for a bit, but I got over it... mostly. But then we had a good dinner with the fam, and they gave us gifts too! A bottle of cologne and a nice parker pen! All in all, it was a great Christmas!

But that's my week! It sounds like your Christmas went super great! I never got around to asking, but what did everyone get?! What was everyone's favorite part? I was sad when I woke up and wasn't able to do what I've done for 18 years! But oh well. Thanks for your email, and your call, and everything! I love you all, and miss you!

Elder Guapo

Sent to satisfy my mom