You know, when I got my call to Wisconsin, people would bug me about two things: Cheese, and the cold. They are both a HUGE deal up here... Cheese is really only a big deal for a few reasons, namely the fact that Wisconsin is the Dairy capital of the USA, and also because of the Green Bay Packers. But the cold is something that we just have to live with up here. Actually, I've started to be really happy when it snows, because that means that the air is WARM enough to have snow. Usually, the air is super cold, and the wind chill takes it down another 10 degrees, so we've been sitting pretty in the negatives a couple of times this last week... So exciting! Actually, it hasn't been too bad, except for now it has snow, ice, AND wind... Those together aren't the greatest thing in the world... But I suppose I'll just get used to it. :)
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Freeeeezing! |
It is really hard for me to believe that it is already Preparation day again! :) It feels like my last one was just yesterday... Or sooner... But hey, I won't turn down a chance to hear from family/friends. :)
So, this week has been pretty eventful! :) On Monday, last P-day, we played Football all day! It was actually super super fun, and I had some pretty great plays! I really enjoy the chance to run around and play and do thing like that - I definitely miss being able to just stop what I was doing and go for a run whenever I wanted... I wish I could do that now... But alas, I have other things to worry about... And then Monday night, Elder Shipp and I had an appointment with Gustavo and his family, a family from Uruguay with a thick accent that makes them hard to understand, but we do our best.. They had met with the missionaries earlier one time, but don't really remember anything. So, we got to know them a bit, and let them know why we were there and that we were there to talk about Jesus Chrust and to teach them about Him and His gospel. They told us that they would be willing to talk about Christ always, but that they probably weren't going to change. We made a return appointment for tonight and are going to keep on trying to meet with them, and I have hopes that in time, they'll change their mind.
On Tuesday, we had District Meeting! I really loved what our District Leader said, when he said that we need to find something to consecrate to the Lord, something that we can give to Christ for Christmas. That's mostly what I got out of the day though... When we got back to our apartment that evening, at around 4:30, to eat some food, Sister Thomas from the ward was waiting there with bags of food for us! So, we took it and ate a bit of it before going out to the town to go contact some referrals that were about a 20-minute walk from our house. :) Only a few of them were home, and even then none of the adults were at the house, but we did get a prayer in with a few people and that was good! :D
My District
Wednesday, we basically did the same thing that we did Tuesday night, and went and contacted 7 of the 9 referrals we had gotten this last week - which is a lot for this area, especially for Spanish elders. We got a return appointment with one of the families that we contacted, but it was for 2 weeks away... :P Later, we went to our lesson with Carina, but she wasn't there... Too bad. Then, we went and had dinner with the Salinas family, and then got to go teach English class! That is basically all of the service that I've been able to do, is teach English every Wednesday and Saturday, though with all of the snow all of the sudden falling everywhere, I assume we'll be able to help out with snow removal and doing other services like that in the winter time. I'm all prepped and ready to go for that! :D
My favorite Mexican cookies
Thursday, we had weeks planning, which unfortunately took up a very large portion of our day. But that night, we took some buses to get to the Moorland area, where we had a lesson scheduled with a family. It was super cold, but we walked through it all anyway, but when we got there and the mother of the family came to the door, she said "Estamos ocupados!" We are busy! So, disappointing as that was, especially since we had gotten so out of the way to get to her, I hope we can teach them next time. :)
Friday, we did something that I'd never heard of before! We just did everything in reverse today. Because of the bus schedule and everything, we had to catch it at 7:45 in the morning to go down to Verona, a place where we have a bunch of addresses to go and contact, but also a place that is super super out of the way. So, we got out there and I got a peek at the largest computer company campus in the USA, called EPIC. But we spent the day in Verona, knocking on a whole bunch of doors, offering to teach a message and also to do service, but we got turned down a whole bunch of times. Later in the day, we met up to eat with the Mad4 Elders who have a car, and they so graciously dropped us off at the West area, where we met up with a less-active family the Hernandez's. We talked to them for a few minutes, but the father was on his way out the door. So, he gave us a ride to the bus transfer point. On the way there, we asked him if anybody had gotten into contact with him about the church, and he told us that he had been getting visits from the home teachers, which I was really happy to hear! :) Our work with the less-actives has mostly been to get them involved with the ward-members, so the fact that they are doing it on their own is really really great!
Saturday, we had Correlation to start with, which was just like normal! :D Then, we had our weekly visit with Caceldo, which lasted an hour or more. We had planned to teach him the Plan of Salvation, but when we got there, he had lots of questions about the scripture that we had had him read, about faith in Alma. He asked us about how we are supposed to nurture the seed, which led us right into a lesson about how we cause our faith to grow, which in turn led us to talk about church attendance. He accepted the invitation to church again, but was a bit shaky again. I just hope that he can come one of these days and that we can find him a friend at church. Later on Saturday, we had lunch with a member, and then had to go back to the church for English Class. We then stayed after English Class to help the ward set up and get ready for the Christmas party that night, which was actually really fun! :) I spent hours pulling pork... My hands were so raw! But it was worth it because it tasted amazing. :)
I love packages from home!!!
Our decorations
Sunday was a normal day, and Caceldo once again didn't make it to church. We had a great companionship study as soon as we got home, which I really really liked, and then we went over to the Barton's house for dinner. We stayed, talked about things, and then got to watch the devotional at their house. I really loved the devotional though, especially Elder Nelson's talk. :) I hope you guys all got to watch it! And if you haven't yet, I recommend that you do! :D
Snow!!!
Well, that is my week up to this point! :) I love you all so very much. I hope that we can all think of ways taht we can share the Spirit of Christ in this Season of Christmas. And also, try to find one thing to consecrate to the Lord - one thing that you can give to Christ for Christmas. A scripture that I really love is 3 Nefi 1:13, which says "Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets." This is what Christmas should mean to us. Christmas is all about the Gospel. The Prophets have spoken the truth, and Christ came into the world for US. Why can we not do something back for Him? We will never be able to fully repay Him, but we can do our best.
Feliz Navidad!
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