Hey everybody! Merry Christmas! I loved being able to talk to you guys, even if it was for a short time. I hope I don't sound too weird. I've kind of lost my ability to talk fluently in English now.
I hope everybody had a great Christmas and the viajito pascuero brought you all something good. This Christmas was one that I really will never forget for the rest of my life. Even though I have passed a Christmas on the mission, this has been my first Christmas away from home.
The whole Christmas time was kind of a rush. We decided to take a Christmas picture of us four and hand out little Christmas cards to everyone in the ward. It turned out to be a lot more work that we originally anticipated, so there was a lot of lost sleep the few nights before Christmas. Christmas Eve was spent handing out the cards to everybody and trying to help out the people who wouldn't be getting a whole lot. But that night we were able to eat dinner with a family that has two sons on the mission as well, so we kind of replaced them for that night. We had a spiritual thought, sang a few songs, and then we had a huge plate of meat and potatoes that were amazing! I loved being there and being able to really enjoy Christmas as they do in Chile. We got back late to the pension, but instead of just planning and going to bed, we turned off the lights and just sat in our couches and stared at our poor dilapidated Christmas tree. We didn't have many lights, but we just sat there and talked about what we were grateful for. After that, I pulled out a few papers a printed off that Monday and took the role of dad by reading an excerpt from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. I talked about how here on the mission, mankind is our business. The dealings that we do in our careers and our personal life are but a drop in the comprehensive ocean that is our business. I'm pretty sure I butchered the line, but it had a lot of meaning to me as a missionary. I realized that everything I do I have set to turn out exactly like my dad. I realized that all my goals were set to be exactly like him. Its like a child following his father's footsteps in the snow because he knows that they are sure and wont lead him astray. I'm just trying to follow your steps, dad.
We had a great Christmas and I loved being able to be here in Chile this time to be able to celebrate it. Now we are planning the baptisms of Omar and Veronica. Veronica asked me to baptize her and for Elder Chapman to do the confirmation. I don't know what it is, but I can just tell that that family is going to be extremely strong in the church twenty years from now. I can see Omar being a general authority of some kind. He really is an example to me of a good father. We love them very much!
Javiera Maulen got baptized this week! She is a 12 year old spark plug that has such a great desire to learn. Her parents were recently inactive, but due to our insistence and charming personalities (joke), they have come back to activity in the church. It was a nice service. Elder Bowen got to do the baptism! It was sweet, he had to do the prayer about two or three times before he could pronounce it right, but it reminded me a lot of my first baptism. It was a really cool experience.
I hope that everyone is doing well and that I can answer any questions that you guys might have. If I dont answer all of them, Im sorry. So far, I haven't received any packages except from Ashlee. Good job, AJ ;D
Love you guys!
Elder Westover
No comments:
Post a Comment