Merry Christmas

We had a really good week!

On Monday we had a great FHE with a family in the ward. The dad
is less active and it has been good working with the whole family. We
taught them the importance of focusing on and finding Christ during
Christmas. It was really fun.

J. Is doing really well and getting ready for her baptism. She was in
church on Sunday and had a good time. She has even
started handing out pass along cards to her friends and has been
inviting her friends to church.

A. just left for Mexico on vacation so we will have to continue to
teach her when she gets back.

A. and E. Are doing really well, they have come to church many times
and they love going to primary. They really like church and their
grandma who is a member has been bringing them.

Christmas was really fun here! On Christmas Eve we had dinner with a
family in the ward. Then on Christmas day we did a gift exchange with
the roommates. Then we went to the visitors center and watched Inside
Out. After that we had a Christmas dinner and I was able to Skype home
and talk to my family! That night we sang at the visitors center.

football at the apartment

Carrie Cooke from BYU Hawaii

Our shifts at the visitor center were crazy this week. One night 7,000
people came by. It has been really busy but has been going really
well.

Working at the Visitor's Center

Christmas Lights

Shepard in Zone Nativity Scene

Thanks for all the support! Happy New Year!

Hola Everyone!

I hope that everybody is having a good week and that things are going well!

This was a good week for us, we were able to see some cool miracles in
the mission.

Working at the Visitor's Center

J. Is doing well. Unfortunately we have not been able to see her as
much but this week we met with her and she came to church! She is
doing well and she also came to the ward Christmas party! She is ready
for her baptism date on January 10.

Costco sells hats

J needed to go to Costco, so we tagged along and taught a lesson in the food court!

A. Is doing well. We had contact with her this week, she is switching
jobs right now and has been really busy but we have been talking with
her and hope to meet with her soon.

E. And A. are two boys that we have been meeting with. They are doing
really well. We taught E's mom this week and his dad came to the ward
Christmas party. Their grandmother is an active member and she has
been taking them to church, they really enjoy the meetings and were
excited when we gave them the children's Book of Mormon comic
books.

Our ward Christmas party was great! We had 6 investigators come and it
went really well! They all had a great time and enjoyed it a lot. It
was really cool to be able to celebrate Christmas and learn about the
Savior as a ward and having our investigators there with us.

This week we stopped by a less active family that we are working with.
They are doing really well, it is a mom and dad with a ten year old
daughter. The day that we got there they had just got a brand new
puppy. It was so cute. We got to play with the puppy for a little
and then they fed us lunch--we had four member meals that day-- and
then we had a really cool lesson with them about Christmas and how to
focus more on the Savior this Christmas. It was good.

Puppy!

We are getting all ready for Christmas here! We are doing a gift
exchange with our roommates and our apartment closet was full of old
decorations for Christmas so we have been putting all of those up!

Things have been going great here thanks for all the support!!!

This week has been really good and very busy!

We worked three shifts at the visitor center this week. The visitor
center is starting to get really crowded and there is a lot of work to do.
We were able to teach a few lessons and meet some people that were
interested in the church. We actually met and taught one person in our
area at the visitors center and we then went and taught her in her
home this week. It was a pretty good lesson, but we are still finding
out if she is interested.

We taught our investigator V. this week and he is doing well. We met
him contacting on the street a few weeks ago and he has been meeting
with us at a members home and has come to church. We had a really good
lesson with him about the book of mormon and we think that it went
pretty well. We are excited to see him continue to progress in the
gospel.

We met with our investigator C. and her family this week. They are
doing really well and we are excited for them, we had a cute christmas
lesson with them and then we helped them rake leaves in their
backyard.

We had the opportunity to meet with a lot of less active members this
week which was really good. We have been able to see some good
progress with a lot of them snd we are excited for them.

Things have been going pretty great here in Maryland! We got call-outs
last night and we will be staying in Land-Over Hills.
We are excited to keep working in this area and to see
the progress our investigators are making.

This week has been great for a lot of our member and less active
lessons we have been showing the video," A Savior is born", recently
released by the church. It is a great video, and the members have
really enjoyed watching it!
https://www.mormon.org/christmas

Thanks for everything!
Hasta Luego

We were pretty busy this week but it was all good.

Our investigators are doing well - we taught J. all of the lessons and
now are going over everything to get her prepared for January
10th. We are so excited for her and her family.

Our other investigator C. is doing well. We just finished teaching her
all of the lessons. The only problem is that she is not married, so
she cant be baptized quite yet. Her children have been baptized and
she comes to church every week. Her youngest was actually just
baptized this last Sunday and it was really cute.

We are also teaching R. She is the sister of a less active and has
been listening in on our dinner appointments. She is starting to seem
more interested in learning and we have another appointment with her
for this coming week.

We also had the opportunity to meet with some less active members this
week. We were able to meet with W. who hasn't been met with in a
while. His family stopped going to church and we stopped by to meet
with his mom but he answered the door and let us in. He also wanted
to hear our message. He expressed a desire to go back to church and we
have another appointment with him this week.

Lots of good food lately, I had to eat a whole fish, two different times this week!

tortillas!

This week my companion and I started our Temple Visitor Center shifts. We are
working there three nights a week. The first night we worked was Diplomat
Night and the other nights were normal.

my roomies!

my zone rented out an ice rink for P-Day

my comp's first time ice skating!

Thanks for the support!
ADIOS

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a good week and a happy thanksgiving! Things have
been going well here.

This week we met with A. again and she is doing really well. We taught
her about the Book of Mormon & prayer and she agreed to be baptized
on January 17. We are so excited to keep working with her and watching
her progress. She started reading the Book of Mormon and she liked it
and she enjoys our lessons. The only problem is she works Sundays
during church, but she is also looking for a new job so hopefully she
will find one where she can attend church!

Kids in the Ward

J. Is doing really well. We have taught her all the lessons and we are
just waiting for her marriage. She is progressing really well but her
husband doesn't want her to rush into anything. Her baptism date is
for the 10th of January and we are excited to get things ready for
that! Her two sons like learning about the gospel as well and we have
enjoyed teaching them as well.

J's Brother gave us soccer jerseys

We found two new investigators this week. They are the nephews of a
less active member, and they came to church this Sunday and they want
to learn more so we have started to teach them.

This Sunday we had 6 investigators come to church, we are really
excited about the progress that they are making.

We also had a cool opportunity this week to take two new members
to the mission "recent convert temple baptism trip". It was an awesome
experience and the new members had a great time. I could tell they
felt the spirit really strong and it was a special experience.

Recent converts at the Temple

Thanksgiving was great. We were not allowed to proselyte, instead
 we were encouraged to build relationships with members
and do stuff like that. That morning we
went to a feeding the homeless service project that the church set up.
Then we went over to J.'s house and helped her and her family cook.
Her mom and two brothers are members and it was really fun. We played
some games and ate dinner with them. After that we had
another Thanksgiving dinner with a less active family and it was really
awesome!

Feeding the Homeless on Thanksgiving

DC Pride hats

Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!
ADIOS!