Merry Christmas!

Things are going really well. We haven´t had new people at church, but we have the Mom of some of the recent converts who attended. We need to focus in on a couple of people and help them to be baptized. Things have been going really well. We had a difficult day yesterday. Karla´s youngest son was in an accident and we ran to the hospital to be there to help her. We were able to give him a blessing, before they took him in an ambulance to another hospital. He supposedly got hit by a car. He had head injuries, but he was awake and conscious. I was very stressed when we heard and we went running to help. Things went well though.

I have the first 3 packages. I have the Thanksgiving one, The District gifts, and the shirts and scriptures. They are going to try to bring the next package later. They didn´t have it on yesterday at the activity of the mission. I am hoping that the Christmas Stockings get here soon. We are going to be visiting with several people. I honestly don´t have the plans all figured out for those days yet. We will have a lot going on. The house is around 10 minutes from the cyber walking. We can be in the house until 1 in the afternoon which is 9 in the morning for you. We will be doing several things. 

I don´t know yet about a zone activity yet. 

Hello.  It is so good to hear from you and to know that the packages have finally made it there.  At least you will have something to give, even if you don’t have something to receive and you can enjoy a fun meal. 

I am sorry to hear about Karla’s son, but happy you were able to be there to help him with a blessing and to comfort her.  This may be the Lord’s way of turning their hearts to Him.  If they see that the blessing was able to make things better, it may help their faith to grow.  It may also help other ward members to be more involved in their lives.  All things happen for a reason. 

I am glad you will have some plans for Christmas and Christmas Eve.  It helps me to know that others are looking out for you and taking care of you. 

Are you nice and hot today?  We are getting a nice, fluffy snow falling beautifully from the sky.  A lot of the snow we had melted yesterday when it rained most of the day.  This has given us another four inches of fresh beautiful white for Christmas.  Clain came home wet and muddy yesterday.  He fell in the mud and got soaked all the way through.  Hopefully he will enjoy today a lot more than he did yesterday. 

I´m sorry about Clain.... I just come home dripping wet from sweating all day... Thank you so much for the shirts. I needed them badly. My backpack stains my shirts from sweating.... It is hard for me because I hate long sleeve shirts.... 

With Karla´s son we found out quick. She was out visiting with the Sisters in our ward and the sister´s called us when they heard and we went running to check on her kids at her house and then we went to the small hospital emergency attention that there is in our sector to help. It was a long day, but things are going fine. Yesterday we had our Christmas party for the mission it went really great. I got Elder Ludeman´s white elephant gift.

I am glad the shirts helped.  I knew you were not a fan of the long sleeve shirts when we bought them, but thought you might wear them just to keep warm.  I bet you didn’t wear the thermals, sweaters and scarves much either. 

What gift did you get from Elder Ludeman?  What gift did you give and who got it?  What activities did they have for your mission party?

I am sending you a Word Document and a PDF of the same document in case you can’t open the Word document for your Neumont Application.  I need you to fill in a couple of blanks and read and give me any suggestions for changes.  Look for the red stuff.

My gift went to Elder Benavides.  I gave him a laser pointer with different heads that change the lights distortions. 

I got a camo Santa hat, a frisbee, a nativity, a mug, and a green tie.

I saw you got logged into Skype.  Was your companion able to get logged in as well?  I am happy you got the scriptures for him.  Are you saving them for Christmas Day to give to him?  I should have sent some wrapping paper for them.  Sorry, I didn’t think of it till later and I should have put his name on the case.  Sorry.  Maybe you could find a place in Chile that would do it for you.  I was in a hurry that day trying to get the package in the mail so I could get to Grandma’s for her doctor appointment.  Are the new glasses okay?  Do they fit right?  Hopefully your eyes will adjust to them quickly. 

Sweet.  I will have to share the photo with Elder Ludeman’s mother on Facebook. 

Clain wanted me to send you a camo Santa hat.  I am glad I didn’t.  Did you buy a laser pointer for yourself?  It would be a good teaching tool when you are doing District Trainings.  Have you gone to any mission trainings for District Leaders and Zone Leaders?  Have you gone to the temple or do you have any upcoming temple dates?  I need to get there again, soon.  Maybe next week.  I would like to go to Logan or to Salt Lake again. 

The new glasses work great. I gave the scriptures to him today. He was a little down yesterday, so I wanted to pick him up a little. He also wanted me to thank you for the Scriptures. I put together the packages to share with the District right now.

We are verifying cameras and headphones and microphones, but they aren´t the best here....

I almost tossed in a headset for you, but then didn’t.  I should have.  Sorry.  Is it a big Cyber Café or a small one?  Will it be busy on Christmas Day?

We are looking to go to the Temple on the 9th of January. Elder Ludeman’s health is doing better.  He was bad for a while, but he is doing well now. He is still really skinny, but he is doing fine. He is happy and he is a really great friend of mine. I haven´t had any trainings yet for District Leaders. 

On the documents that you sent me, it was five levels instead of 10. Plantations works. The software for the programming camp was Gamemaker. In Digital Media Arts we used Photoshop, and other animation software. Mainly it was Photoshop. I will go through it again to verify the red parts.

I hope you don’t come home with any tapeworms or parasites.  How is your health doing?  Do you feel well most of the time?  Have your allergies gotten better with the summer weather?  I am happy you and Elder Ludeman are great friends.  I hope you are able to meet up after the mission and continue to be friends. 

Okay.  That helps with the application.  I will edit the application and try to get it submitted to Jason today. 

The Cyber Café here is small. I am considering looking for another one, because the cameras are awful.... It will be open on Christmas, but I doubt it will be busy. I am doing well.  I have lost weight, but I don´t know if it is a tapeworm situation or what, but, oh well.

The forms of serving is anything and everything.... I don´t have a lot of details there....

I was hoping you could tell me you did something cool.  Have you hauled hay, helped harvest any crops, washed windows or anything else, painted anything, built anything, cut grass with a machete, any help would be appreciated.  What did you do to serve in the city? 

I will schedule a doctor visit for you soon after you get home and we will make sure you are healthy or get healthy.  I will also schedule dentist and eye doctor appointments.  Those will be something to look forward to.  J   The mission should give you some pills to take for parasites before you come home.  At least, I hope they will.  Curtis never got them because they had run out.  Luckily, he was okay.

I painted a room in a house once, I cleaned up a yard, moved dirt for a family to help them level out their land. Those have been the main ones so far. A couple of house projects where we helped briefly with construction.

I don´t know about our mission. I think they give them if you are sick and it is noticeable. I lost a lot of weight, but mainly from the bike. Right now, I think I have been maintaining.

I know you are riding a lot of miles on your bike.  That is great.  It will keep you healthy and strong. 

Great.  I can use those.  Elder Ludeman is from Roseville, California, but maybe he will come to Utah for school.  California is not that far away, really, so I hope you will get to see him and many other friends you have made on your mission.

Did you get all of your packages when you were at the Mission Party yesterday?  How did you get them all back to your apartment?  Are the gifts for your District okay?  Who replaced Hermana Tolk?  Were there any other changes in your District?

I am out of time and I need to be going. We are going to try to look into another Cyber Café to see if they have better cameras, because everything here is coming out blurry on video.... I may show up on Skype, but we will be doing tests between our accounts, like I have always done to verify.

I hope you are able to find a better place to Skype from.  Have an awesome week!  Remember the true reason we celebrate Christmas and share that with everyone you meet.  I love you so very much and I am so excited to Skype with you on Christmas.

It is possible, but Elder Ludeman loves California. My companion and I got the 3 packages and caught a bus. We carried them and had them in our laps. I carried 2 of them and he carried the one that was heavier. Hermana Zanelli is Hermana Vincent´s new companion. Hermana Erthal and Hermana Pizarro stayed together. Elder Anderson changed Districts and his companion is Elder Salcedo from Columbia who is a District Leader as well. Elder Allen and Elder Clegg are in my District now. They are El Manzano 1. Elder Allen is training Elder Clegg and Elder Clegg is new. Things are going great. 

Thanks talk to you next week!

Great.  You needed some new challenges.  That will be fun to train new missionaries and do divisions with the Elders.  Have an awesome day.  We love you!  Did they do a new Christmas card poster with all of the missionaries’ photos?