Merry Christmas from Peru! - My Last One!!!

Que tal? Que hay? Que pasa? Como Estamos? (:

Well....to answer the question of changes........WE DONT HAVE A CHANGE (: We are sooo happy about that. Yesterday we were freaking out! You have no idea. It is kind of crazy to think that Elder Manley and I will have been together for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. We get along great and we work hard. I only have 2 changes left now. So I'm excited to see just how much I can push myself as I end my mission. I really want to strive. 

Right now I'm kind of anxious to have a baptism...It's been kind of long. But we have hopes for this change especially. Angeles and Noeli plan on moving out this month so that they can get baptized. One of the days when we taught them, I could see that they were just not all that into the lesson that we were teaching and I could see that something was wrong. I stopped and asked what was going on, or if they had something to say and they told us that they are just losing their patience because they really want to get baptized already and they have been thinking that Heavenly Father hasn't been helping them that much. But on the other hand they haven't been going to church much and they rarely read the scriptures that we give to them so they can't really expect the help of God if they don't do their part. So we were able to read Mosiah 2:41 where it talks about if we keep the commandments, we are blessed in all things, temporal and spiritual. So I think that helped quite a bit.

Giberto is going to talk to his ex-wife that lives in Spain this week. So please be praying for that. We really need to get this process started. They are soooo strong. Lorena is now going to the activities of the young women and yesterday in church she was hugging all the young women. So they are making a lot of friends in church and they have gone to church for like 3 months straight! We are happy for them and it's amazing to see how the Spirit has worked them into who they are today. They understand everything, they read everything, and they always pray and go to church. It's pretty much as if they were members.

We have been able to find more Less Active families to teach. We are teaching a lady named Cynthia and her family. She has been a pencionista for the other Elders in our area. But they moved and changed their pencion. Also Cynthia thanked us this past week for not forgetting about her and for helping her. Yesterday they attended church and they are an amazing family.

We hope to rescue Rosa this next week. We just need to finish the lessons and she will be already to go. She is 21 and she wants to serve a mission soon. Her family isn't members and they leave in Piura. But she asked us to help her prepare a lesson that she could teach to her family about Christmas for when she goes back. It's been nice to help these less active members come back to church.

This past week we also had our Mission Christmas Activity. At 10am we went over to the mission home to practice a song that Elder Manley was going to sing for the Activity. The apartment is dang nice and I was living it up! Elder Manley and Sister Williams dragged me into singing with Elder Manley as well so I did. I'm not a fan of singing in front of others. But we did alright. We plan on singing the song to you guys on Christmas. Its dang good!! So here are some pictures of our mission president's apartment and us practicing.

Then at the activity we presented sketches, ate banana splits, watched a little video of Christ's birth, sang songs, etc. It was fun to see Elder Quiroz, Elder Winward, and other Elders from my group. All of us were saying how weird it is to only have 2 changes. It feels like it'll go by fast. 

Anyway this is dang long. Sorry. I'm excited to talk to you all next week. It seems like it has been a long time since we have talked. 

I love you. He loves you.

Elder Smith
PS. I got your Christmas Package Mom!!! Thank you to all family members who took their time to write me a letter! I love all the pictures from the Kids. Hahaha especially Charlie who drew me a picture of Toast, a diving board, and other silly things. Seems like everyone is growing up. Can't wait to see you all!!!

  What could these be?? Paper Presents!!!??? Ah (: I'm excited! My favorite!!