It's not really beginning to look a lot like Christmas

So, as you can tell from the subject line, Wisconsin looks very irregular at this time of year.  It's usually covered in snow and everything, but right now we have ZERO snow!  It's ridiculous!  I remember this time last year in Madison it was crazy cold and crazy snowy, but I guess Mother Nature wanted to make things interesting this year so that's just what she did!

Either way, we've been working hard and trying our best to help other people to come unto Christ.  Last Monday, we were able to teach Lisa Nieves in her home after all of our P-day activities.  We talked about the Anti-Mormon things they had been given, and then after she realized that they were all a bunch of lies, she wripped up the paper!  And then her 8-year-old son ate it...  Yeah...  But that was a miracle if you ask me!

Tuesday was an awesome day because we had District Meeting, and it was on such an amazing theme!  It was all about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, so the spin that I took on the training was basically just talking about the "Who," "What," "When," "Where," "Why," and "How" of the Atonement.  It is the atonement of Jesus Christ, but also that of the Father who gave his Son, and also applies to us because we are the ones who are to reap the blessings that come from that sacrifice.  For the "What" section, we made a huge timeline that had all of the sufferings and things taht he did the last couple days fo his life.  The "When" was talking about when it happened, and when it was planned out.  The "Where" we talked about that it took place in the Garden of Gethsamane, Golgotha, and the Garden Tomb, but that it must also take place in each and every one of our hearts.  The "Why" talked about the need for a Savior, and the "How" really made us ponder the question on how we can best apply it in our lives, or show our gratitude for it by living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was a good meeting!  Afterwords, we went and taught the Carlos family and the Rios family, and it was crazy because the zone leaders were coming to give us a ride to dinner, and didn't know where we were, but as soon as we walked outside the house of our investigators, they were waiting for us right there!  What are the odds that of all of the houses in Green Bay, they decide to park right outside of the one we were in to call us and see where we were?  Miracles!  And then to end up the night, we went and taught the Rios family (members) and went home!

I forgot to mention that after dinner, we started exchanges where Elder Landaverry came with me in our area, and Elder Norris went with Elder Bernet in theirs.  The next day we talked to the Solorios to set up a new appointment, and then went and contacted many other people too, ending up with 8 lessons that day.  Right now, we're just really trying to boost up our teaching pool.  That would be nice - to have new people.  We had lunch at the Arcos family, where we re-exchanged.  To close off the night, we went and taught Lisa up at her house, talking about the upcoming baptism and stuff.  Then we had a lesson with Ana Hernandez outside of her house!

Thursday morning we were authorized to go to the Nieves kids choir concert at their elementary school, where we met the guy that had given Lisa the anti-material.  Needless to say, he didn't really want to talk to us.  But the concert was good, and then when we got home, we weekly planned before going over to Maria's home and teaching her.  As part of the end of the day, we went to the church with Orelia and her family so that she could get her baptismal interivew, and she passed!!!  And then we played Basketball to close off the day.

So, on Friday we did our weekly service at St. Vinny's and it was awesome to be able to be reassigned this week to an area where we actually get to work with people!!!  It was awesome, and we really liked it and we got to meet new people, which is always a blessing.  Directly following service, we contacted around that area by where the service place is, and we found this Spanish home, but all the man of the house wanted to talk about was that he already had the Bible, and that if he had the original book of scripture, why on earth would he want a new one?  Well, he never did take a Book of Mormon, but luckily we didn't contend with him because the Spirit wouldn't have been there.  Eventually, we just left.  After that, we had an awesome lesson with Liliana Lopez and then we caught a bus over to the church to attend a baptismal sisters that the Sisters were having! This family is the Hollon family, and I taught them when I got here to Green Bay.  But, because they are Native American and not Hispanic, we referred them to the Sisters, who so obviously did a great job teaching them because now they're members!  It was especially cool because the Nieves family came to the baptism because they are friends, and they liked being able to see what it looked like.  I especially loved when the convert stood up in the middle of one of the talks and shared a POWERFUL testimony about how she was scared to be baptized, and how she had the same dream 3 times telling her that things would be okay.  And then her bishop stood up and confirmed that she had been visited by the Spirit, because God always works in 3's - what a cool experience!

Saturday we got to go and meet with the Nieves family and got to watch Finding Faith in Christ with them - they really liked it.  It was really cool for the kids to have a visual aid in knowing what those things that Christ did really looked like - it was very helpful and they loved it!  :D  After that, we got to go and talk to Luis Munoz at his place, teaching him all of the necessary vocab to know about the Plan of Salvation, words like "Pre-Earth Life," "Atonement," "The Fall of Adam," "Spirit World," "Celestial Kingdom," and similar words.  It's great to get down to the simple terms and things, explain them, and watch the light in his eyes become re-illuminated.  It's not like this is his first time talking about the Plan, but now he understands it to the point that he can teach it!  After that, we went to the church where we watched 2 more baptismal services!  Green Bay is baptism central of the mission right now!  :)  And now we're hoping to contribute because of our 4 baptisms happening Saturday!  :)  Let's just hope that Lisa gets over her fear of getting baptized before then!  ;)  Pray for us!

Sunday we went to the Nieves' home and found Lisa and Pedro sick, so Hubert and Orelia walked 5 minutes to church with us, and they liked the meetings!  And they even stayed for primary!  After church, we got dropped off at home and ate, and then went right to work.  We taught a few lessons, but when the man of the house wasn't home and we couldn't stay, we went and stopped by the Grijalva family - some members.  They fed us first, and then we were able to share something with them before heading out to go and contact some more potentials.  We did that, and then talked to the Ramirez family for a bit, and then we got picked up by the Grijalva's because the teenage son was going to come with us to be our male-present at our dinner appointment.  So, we had dinner and then got dropped off by our place, where we went to go do some more work.  We taught this girl named Yaritza, and we had only met her once before.  We had a great lesson about Christmas and the Book of Mormon - and she accepted a copy and the invitation to read!  Later, we were contacting around Luis's home and then we stopped in to say HI and that was that!  :)

There we go - that was our week!

I love you all TONS!  I hope you have a fantastic holiday season and that you remember CHRIST always, especially around CHRISTmas.  He is so important to everything - the key to understanding life.  I know that!!!  :D

--Elder Nate Hubert