Merry Navidad and Miracles

Christmas was the hottest day that we had in the past two weeks. A little weird, since we've had to  bundle up with all the frigid wind that we've been having lately. Also, everyone here uses wood burning stoves to heat their houses, so we always smell like smoke from walking in the streets at the end of the day.

But Christmas was good! We walked around and wished a Feliz Navidad to some of our investigators, and spent most of the day calling our families. We also got invited to Nochebuena, which is a big Christmas Eve feast that's really traditional down here, and also to eat with some recent converts for lunch of Chrstmas day. Opened up all my Christmas packages that my sisters, grandma, and parents sent me, which made me feel like I wasn't really missing Christmas at all. Also got to video call and watch my family open up all their presents and I just kinda hung out with them while they did that, which was really fun. We also exchanged gifts as a District, during which I got a Buzz Lightyear figurine and some Thomas and Friends toys, since Elder Jaimes has been teaching me the Thomas the Train theme song in Spanish. I gave everyone a mini Rubiks cube that my mom sent me in a pack of 22, and she also gave me a normal sized one, which I've already memorized how to solve.

Not gonna lie, the days after Christmas were pretty rough. Most people weren't home or didn't want to meet with us since they were with their families, and we didn't have a whole lot to do besides think about how our families were all still relaxing and having fun together, and we were out here. It's okay though, and we've learned and grown a lot from it. Realized how much I took my family for granted, and how I was kinda selfish sometimes back at home and didn't spend as much time with family as I wish I would have. Thank goodness for second chances though, because I'm gonna work hard when I get back to have as much fun with my family as possible haha.

We have transfers this week, and Elder Souza is going back to Juarez, but I'm staying here and am going to receive a new companion and show the area to him. His name is Elder Iturbe, and I have absolutely no clue what he's like.

Grandma sent me pajamas, like she always does. She sent me three of each, so I gave the other pair to Elder Jensen since he was also my companion, and we took pictures. He asked me "Don't tell me you sent people those pictures," so I'm not telling him.

Went downtown today and took some fun pictures. Elder Souza wore his Chinese hat and got a plastic dollar store katana for Christmas from one of the Elders in our district, so we took a bunch of pictures with that too. There's a Chinese themed park in the downtown area, since there were some Chinese settlers here way back when. Also hit 4 months last week, and took some pictures at the boundary of our area.

I really realized after this week that God really does reward our efforts, as I've seen time and time again on days where it's been hard to get out and start working on time, but when we do, we find some really cool people. This week, for example, we found one 12 year old who told us she wants to find out if our church is true and that she wants to get baptized, and a family of 10 yesterday who told us that they really want to find out what our church is like, since all the others haven't stood out to them very much, and they're really interested in ours. During that lesson in particular (and I didn't even realize it until after the lesson) that my Spanish was super fluent and I really felt like I was testifying to them with the power of God saying them that Heavenly Father WILL answer their prayers if they read the scriptures and pray about them. Those were some really cool miracles that I don't know if I'll ever forget. I love teaching and helping people realize the love that Heavenly Father has for them, because every time I do it, I learn a little more, realize a little more about it myself, and it just becomes so much more real to me.

Also, if you guys know of anyone who is wondering what missions are like or anything of the sort, feel free to forward them my emails or ask me questions about it. I write these emails for everyone, so I'd love to have them on this list, even if I don't know them that well haha.

Thanks for all the Christmas wishes, and for your guys' efforts to help those around you feel loved!

Feliz Año Nuevo!

-Elder Peters