Feliz Ano Nuevo

Feliz Navidad Y Ano Nuevo!!
Holy Cow!!! These last few weeks have been insanely crazy! So It’s been about 14 days since I last emailed and I’ll start from the very beginning. Transfers is always a crazy day, I had to pack everything up and then load it into the car, and then we left. I said goodbye to Elders Cardwell and Garcia ( I’m gonna miss those guys a lot). So we get to transfers and I still have no idea who my new companion is, I’m looking around and then finally they show up. So we hug and all of that good stuff, and then I ask him, “So Elder how long have you been out?” and then he says, “I’m just out of training, you?” and then I realized that we were both just barely out of training. So now I’m thinking that we better learn how to understand Spanish real quick because neither of us really could understand Spanish very well. And then I asked him, “So I’m going to your area right?” and then he says, “I was actually gonna ask you the same thing.” So at this point we both realized that we were whitewashing our area.

I was pretty nervous for a lot of reasons and was even wondering if we were gonna be able to do it.  We had no idea where our apartment was, we had no idea how big our area was, we had no idea who the members were, who are zone was, who our investigators were, we didn’t understand Spanish very well, and we could only speak in simple phrases. We didn’t know where we would skype our families, nothing. We knew the only way we were going to be able to do this is through God. The first thing we did was pray; I’ve never prayed more earnestly in my life for help, just to know what to do. So we started from square one, we got out our map and studied it, then we took out our area book and started reading teaching records and studying bio’s of Bap dates, Progressing Inv., Potential Inv., Antiguos, Futuro, Part member families, Everything we could read over. Then thankfully we found a sticky note from the previous Elders telling us dinners for the week and where we were gonna skype from.

The next day during weekly planning we decided to devote certain days to investigators and certain days to members and part member families. During those days we visited as many people as we could whether Inv. or Member families and would introduce ourselves and try to learn as much about them as possible. Then from there we would make as many calls as we could to try and set up dinners and appointments. The first few days were rough we put in so much work just trying to know the area and the people. I know that the Lord helped us through it, there’s no way we would’ve been able to do half the stuff we did without his help. For example we learned that there was going to be a Christmas party for the ward 2 days after we got there. So we had the opportunity to go around to all of the members during the ward party and even one of our investigators came. Another thing is we received enough miles on the car to allow us to go around and visit all the investigators and members we had planned to go by and visit.

Another Milagro! Our second day in the area we put one of our investigators on Baptismal date, her name is Mayra and there’s no way she would have accepted it without the Lord’s help in our work. Another Milagro is that our investigators and the Members are really nice about how bad our Spanish is they will help us if we don’t understand something by using more simple ways of describing it. Sometimes it can be frustrating though when neither me or Elder Nelson understands what someone says. We try our best but we are still learning a lot about spanish especially now that neither of us are fluent. The blessing that comes out of this though is that we are both learning Spanish so much better now.

Christmas day was amazing, we woke up and opened our presents and drank some Hot cocoa. We went out to go buy groceries but everything was closed! We had a fun Zone Activity and then it was almost time to call home. I was super nervous beforehand, I was worried that I would get homesick and wouldn’t be able to focus on all the stuff that we still had to do in our area. Calling home was good though, I’m glad I got to talk to you guys and see you all. Turns out I got a little bit homesick but yet again I received the help from the Lord to be able to focus on the work more than on myself. One of the things I’ve learned is that work is the best, when you have a full schedule and a full day there’s nothing better. But when you have time in between tracting and visiting people that's when things seem to get harder. The more work you have the more you can focus. Luckily we had someone to go visit right after skyping so that helped me take my mind off of things.

So far in our new area we have had a hard time finding areas to knock. As of right now we only know of one or two blocks in our area that is latino other than that its mostly Armenian and Russian. I love the new area and the Investigators we have are the best. The members of the ward are super supportive and are always willing to help me and Elder Nelson out with our spanish. We are still praying and studying super hard so that we can really make our area bloom. New years Eve was awesome, we had to be in our apartments by 7 and we got to eat dinner with a Menos Activo so hopefully she will start coming to church. Me and Elder Nelson both set a goal to be able to contact all the member and part member families in our area by the 12th of January. I set a new goal to become more like a Preach my Gospel missionary and to follow what it says in PMG, and also to practice Spanish as much as I can so I can better understand my Inv. but also the members.

My new companions name is Elder Nelson he's a super awesome missionary and an awesome companion. He's an amazing guitar player and loves debate too. We get a long well and are both trying to figure things out in our new area. I'm super grateful that he's my companion and we have the opportunity to work together. Recently in my study I've been studying in Alma 40-44 where it talks about the resurrection and also about Captain moroni. I love the promise in Alma 40:23 where we will be able to receive perfect bodies in the next life. It's amazing to share that with people who struggle with self Image, or a disability because with faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ we can receive this perfect body and we can live with our families forever.

I hope everyone has a good week Merry Christmas and Happy new Year, Happy Birthday Buddy I love you. And tell Makaela that I'm gonna send something for her birthday in the mail. I'm very happy here in California there isn't a better work to be doing than this right now. Sorry there's no recording this week I will do one for sure next week love you all.