A Trainer in Columbia

Okay so this week has been a long week filled with goodbyes as well as a nice fresh start. 

Monday we didn't have any appointments with anyone and didn't have any miles on our car to go try for people, so we stayed at home with the English bike elders who can't go anywhere unless they have a ride because one of them has a torn meniscus. So we stayed with them and made a big dinner and had fun with them, while we still could all be together. One of the elders there continued to teach me on the guitar for a bit so that I can continue to be able to play it when I'm gone and all. 

Tuesday was DDM and goose creek manner as usual in the morning. At DDM we had a really good testimony meeting all together, since every companionship in the district was being changed up. It was pretty sad knowing that it was one of the last times that all of us would be together, so a lot of tears were shed, since we had all grown so close together and each person there had become some of my best friends. Then we had time to sign everybody's airplane journals, which was just as sad. Then after that we decided to go get lunch with all of us together for the last time, so we went to Cook Out. There more good times were had until it was time to go off to the old folks home, where it was the last time that 4 of us would be singing there. We did the usual singing that we did each time, but once time was almost up the 4 that were departing sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again, which was probably one of the best performances that we had there I might add. Then later we had to say goodbye to everyone, and one of the best people there, Shirley. Once we all said goodbye to her it was one of the hardest things I had ever done. Shirley was so sad that everyone was leaving, and everyone who was leaving started to cry because we wouldn't be able to see her again. It was a very hard time, but at least I had gotten the chance to get to know her. That afternoon we went home and I started to pack a bit, before it was time to go out to my farewell dinner with one of the members and the hermanas. We had a really good dinner there and a super fun time. Then after the dinner it was off to English class, where it was the last time that I would be teaching it there, so I made sure to give it my all. We had another super good turn out for English class which was super cool, and another good turn out for the spiritual thought, so it was nice to end it on a bang. Then we went back home and hung out more with the other elders. 

Wednesday was my last day in Charleston so we made sure to get appointments with everyone that I wanted to see. In the morning I finished packing and helped some of the other missionaries figure out everything with getting new mattresses for people who were getting a third companion and figuring other things such as that. Then in the afternoon I can't really remember what happened. But at night we went to a members house to help her get some appointments for her patriarchal blessing and for a temple recommend interview. Then I had her sign in my airplane journal and we said goodbye. Then we went over to Gustavo and Abigail's for the last time and we had a good time there. They wished me well in my new area and we watched some different bible videos to show them how we believe in the same Jesus and all. Then I had them write in my journal and then we left. Then we came home where we hung out with the elders for one last time at night before heading off to bed. 

Thursday we woke up and waited until 8 o'clock when my ride was picking me and another elder up. We said some final goodbyes to everybody and all was good there. Then our ride picked us up and we were on our way to transfers. After arriving at transfers I went into a training meeting. Then after that was over the transfer meeting was just about to begin. I found some old missionary friends and sat down with them as we waited to see where we would all be going. Then the time had come when my name was brought up and I was told I was going to Columbia and my companion was Elder Mar. Elder Mar was born and raised in Mexico, and has been living in Provo for 2 years. He speaks pretty good english. He can understand almost everything, but he still has a pretty thick accent so it can get pretty difficult to understand him. So we were together and without a clue what to do in Columbia. We then said some goodbyes to the people in transfers and started on our way over to Columbia. When we got to Columbia we found out that we were moving into a different apartment, but the Elders in the apartment that we thought we were moving into, had no clue that we were moving into that apartment. So we had a whole ordeal with calling back and forth with the mission office to try and figure out which apartment we were moving into. Finally the zone leaders called president to see what we should do and he said that we should have the apartment that we thought we were moving into and that the zone leaders should move out immediately. So that was a whole debacle and everything and it took up quite some time. But after that was over we went all our different information that the other missionaries had left with us, we also started contacting all the different investigators that they were teaching and started setting up appointments with all of them. Then we were told that we had a soccer night that night so we went to the church, but there was no one there. So we called the lady in charge of it and she said that she had cancelled it because she knew that we were all being changed and the like. So we went back on home and talked a bit before going off to bed.

Friday we had a meeting with one of the hermanas that is an english stl that had served here in the branch before, to see what she could tell us about some of the different members and such. Then we had studies since we have a lot of those to do now since I'm training and that took up the whole afternoon. Then we went to knock some different former investigators, but none of them let us in. So we went down to an appointment that the other elders had apparently set up for us but she slammed the door in our faces once she saw who we were so we went to knock on some different formers around her instead. There we found Fidencio and David, two guys that live together and they were really excited that we had come by because they really want to go to church and change their lives. So we set up a return appointment with them for the next day and then left for english class. The english class here and the english class in Charleston are super different. Here we only have an attendance of 2-3 each week so its not nearly as exciting or anything. But it is cool because one of the people there is our most progressing investigator and everything, so that's at least cool. Then after english class the day was over and we went to bed. 

Saturday we had a meeting with the senior couple that is in the branch in the morning where we got more informaiton on how the branch was being run and some of our investigators and all. Then after that meeting was over we went and did more studying before the baptism in Charleston that I was skyping into. The baptism was so awesome. It was super spiritual and was so awesome to see Raiana and Elmir get baptized and to see them so happy and everything was super awesome as well. It was pretty cool because there were 12 other missionaries skyping into it as well because those were all of the ones that played a part into them getting baptized. Watching the baptism definitely helped me out with some stress that I had working down here and everything. It really just made me a lot more happy and a lot more excited to work, although it did make me miss Charleston some more but I'm sure that I'll be able to go down there again a different time. Then after the baptism we went down to see Fidencio and David, but unfortunately they were completely wasted drunk, but my naive trainee not knowing any better tried talking to them and wanted to teach a lesson to them but I eventually got us away from them and then explained to my trainee that we don't waste our time with drunk people because there's no way that they will remember whatever we say to them. So we went to a taco stand and got dinner there and had a good time until it was time to go to one of our investigators that the hermanas had left us. But unfortunately they wouldn't answer the door, I'm thinking its because they didnt know who we are, so I called the hermana that had taught them last transfer to see if she couldnt contact them to let them know who we are or something. 

Sunday was a super good day. We started the day off with a missionary correlation meeting, but our ward missionary leader didn't show up, so it didn't actually happen. Then later we had church. We first met the presidency who are all really cool. We got appointments with each of them as well so that was nice. Then church started with the classes first, so we had gospel principles which was super nice and was taught pretty well.  I couldnt really follow along though. 

The lady that teaches it has a super hard accent and talks super fast. Then we had priesthood class which was super awesome, I met a lot of the super awesome members that everyone had told me about there. Then we later had sacrament meeting where we met the rest of the members there. And after sacrament meeting we had set up appointments with all of the members and now have dinner appointments each day this week. We also were invited over to dinner by this super cool family, the Herrara's. We had some super good tacos there and had some awesome interaction with the entire family. I mostly was winning over the hearts of the two daughters while my companion was talking a lot to the parents, with me adding my comments in here and there. Anyways after all was said and done at that house the parents were in love with us and the daughters had asked me when we could come back again. So it was a super successful dinner. 

Today we are meeting all the missionaries in the area by playing basketball and doing some other different things.

In the area there aren't many missionaries super close by so we don't really have any missionary support like we did in the other area, so Mondays and Tuesdays are the only days that we see any other missionaries, so this area will definitley be way more focused on the work, more than having fun I guess. Thanks for all the encouraging words and all. Love y'all a lot.

Elder Bertoch

Charleston Photos

Back to Columbia

A lot happening in Jackson’s e-mail this week.  It helps to know that whitewashing means when a companionship is transferred out of an area and a new companionship comes in.  It can be nerve-wracking because neither of them know the ward or the area.  On top of that, Jackson will be training someone completely new.  He is quite nervous about it, but he should feel good about the president having so much confidence in him.  

We asked him a little more about the transfer and this is what he wrote:

"So I transfer on Thursday. All the new missionaries get here on Wednesday. There's actually two Spanish Elders coming in one is fluent in Spanish. But President asked the other elder who is training who he wanted and he requested the Spanish elder. Then in my email today I requested the non native because I feel like it will help me out the most.  So I'm going to the Columbia Spanish branch, and I will cover the entire Columbia stake. I actually talked to the missionaries there now and they said that the members are awesome and that they have some pretty solid investigators that they are teaching now so I guess i don't have too much to worry about over there as I thought.

Thanks for all the words of encouragement I've gotten quite a few these past couple of days and now I feel ready to face the challenge head on. I'm super excited now to train and make some new memories in this new area.

Luvz 💙💚💛💜 

Elder Bertoch

Monday started off pretty normal, we had a fun district pday where we went bowling and later played basketball. Then after that we had two appointments, one of which fell through. But the other was with Gustavo and Abigail. It was a super cool lesson. We talked about the organization of the church and later about tithing. They seemed super excited about tithing and how no one in the church is paid, that way it is just full service to God. They also seemed super interested in the idea of temples but we didn't have enough time to go over that though. 

Tuesday we had district meeting in the morning where we started by watching President Nelson get appointed as prophet and listened to that for a bit. Then we continued with the rest of the district meeting and after that we went home and had lunch. After lunch we were on our way to the old folks home but got a call from our recent convert that he needed help with some translation, so we went over there to help him with that. We first were fed lunch by him and his wife, which was super good. Then we did the service and started knocking some trailers up.  At one of the parks that we went to we had a pretty inspirational knock. We felt like we had to go to one trailer in particular of a lot of different trailers and we found a woman that had apparently talked with the missionaries before and was just recently wondering why they hadn't passed by for a while. So we set up an appointment with her and felt pretty good after that. Then we visited a member and talked with her a bit about the temple and such. After that we had English class which was super lit yet again. We had about 18 people there and had about 10 in the spiritual thought after it. So it was pretty cool. Plus that day the hermanas put there investigators on date for Saturday the 27th of this month, so I guess you could say it was a pretty cool day.

Wednesday we first took one of the elders down here to the doctor early in the morning to see what was messed up with his knee. It turns out that he has a torn minniscus and is ending up needing to have surgery on it, but luckily the recovery time is only 2-3 days so he can still stay out here. Then after that we went down to Charleston to the family history center to learn how to do family history. That was pretty fun.  The people teaching it were pretty cool plus they fed us so that was a bonus as well. After that we went down to visit a less active that lives in Charleston then we went back up to north Charleston. By the time we did it was pretty late and we had a couple of appointments though. So we went to our Portuguese investigators house, that we feel super awkward in because the daughter of our investigators wants to marry one of us for a green card, but it has taken us a long time to figure this out because neither of us can understand her. But luckily no one answered the door so everything was alright there. Then after that we had another lesson with Gustavo and Abigail. This time we were finally able to take a member with us and we took our recent convert. It was a super good time with everybody, the members shared their favorite scriptures with them and testified of the book of mormon a lot which was super good thing for Gustavo and Abigail. Besides that, though, it was just kinda a friendship building lesson which was super good because it will help them come to church.

Thursday morning we had a meeting with the hermana to plan some different activities for the group these upcoming months, we now have a tamale night/family home evening set up plus a taco judging contest in the works. So it was pretty effective and gave us some things to look forward to. Then after that not much else happened. We didn't have any lessons for that day so we went knocking for a little bit but didn't really have any success. Then we had English class again which was again super lit. A lot of people came both to the class and the spiritual lesson after, plus we now have regulars in the spiritual message as well which is super cool too.

Friday was the day that we thought that my companion was going to get the call that he was leaving. It was the day that President called and let everyone who was going to be a leader or a trainer to let them know that they are going to be those things. My companion started his mission here and has been here for a total of 7.5 months, so we knew that he was the one being transferred. Especially since I had only been here for one transfer. So we waited all day for the call. In the morning on Friday we had exchanged with some English elders so we could introduce one of them to someone that we had found a little while before that seemed super interested, but she spoke English. So I was with the other elder in his area for the morning. We took a bus to a shopping center so we could do some finding there. It was super effective, we made a friend with a guy named Jacob and got an appointment with him which was super cool. Then when we received word that the other elders were coming home we went to get on the bus. But we got on the bus going the wrong direction, and we figured that it only went 3 or 4 more stops and then would turn around, so we stayed on it. But we not so quickly realized that mistakes were made when we realized that the bus goes all the way down to Charleston. By the time that we realized that, however, it was too late and we decided it would be faster to just stay on the bus then press our luck with getting on another bus. So long story short we were on a bus for about 2.5 hours. But we did talk to people so I guess it was slightly worth it. 

After we got back home we wondered why we hadn't received a call yet from President, but yet carried on our day. We had one lesson planned but before that we went and knocked some trailers where we got a return appointment from one of them. So that was a good thing. Then we went off to our lesson only to find that there was no one home. So we visited a member instead and had a good time with her. Then we started to head back home to change for soccer night. As we were parking our car in our complex we got a call from President. He called super late, at like 7 at night after we were no longer expecting a call. But we answered and he told us the most shocking news I will ever hear on my mission. He told me that I was leaving charleston. He told me that I was whitewash training in Columbia. He also told us that my companion would not be leaving this area.  I do not want to leave this area. I love the people here way too much to be done with this area in one transfer. The work down here is way too good, the members are way too awesome, and we have so much fun down here with all the missionaries and everything. It's everything you can ask for as a missionary. Anyways, I changed and made it down to soccer night. There we shared what was happening to me with all the other missionaries in my district. Everyone was super shocked since everybody was so set on elder Powell being transferred. 

Saturday morning was pretty hard. I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that I was leaving. So the English elders took me out to get ice cream to cheer me up a bit. It worked and I was okay to do work the rest of the day. We did some studies in the afternoon and planned and stuff. And after that we went to a members house and set plans in stone to get her to the temple. After that lesson we were driving to our next appointment when the Hermanas called us and told me that where I was going, there wasn't going to be any hermanas there anymore. Which means that I will have no support in the Spanish branch and that the entire zone would be my area.  

Our lesson that night was with Gustavo and Abigail.  I didn’t feel like going, but my companion convinced me to, and boy was I glad that I did. We started teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and had made it through the faith in Jesus Christ and repentance before we noticed that Gustavo was being strangely quiet. We asked him what he was thinking and he told us that the spirit was strongly testifying to him that this church is the true church. He realized that he needs to act more in faith and attend church and read the scriptures more and everything.  Then he was looking at the picture of Jesus being baptized and realized that he needed to ask God if he should be baptized. After all this happened he thanked us for a solid 20 minutes, he thanked us for knocking on his door and teaching him all the different lessons and being patient with him and befriending him. We then made sure that he would pray about getting baptized and he said he definitely would. Then the last thing he said to me was that I can leave this area knowing that I lifted a broken soul that had fallen. My mood instantly went from sad to having exceeding joy, like it says in the scriptures. This day was definitely the most spiritual experience I have had yet. It all started with being extremely humbled with being called to whitewash train and leaving and such, to have an experience like that with the man that we taught about Jesus Christ and his plan specifically for each one of us. This experience in particular has strengthened my testimony more than anything else has ever. I left happy from that house that night, extremely happy. 

Then when we got in the car we joined in on a conference call that all the Spanish elders were having to speculate about who elder Powell was getting as a companion since there was some pieces missing from the puzzle. While on the call, however, one of the Columbia Spanish missionaries that is there now and going home this transfer casually mentioned to me that the Columbia branch is collapsing and will definitely dissolve if I don't win the hearts of the members and start baptizing nations. Which is all put on me since there will be no Spanish sisters with me to help me out and since I will have a trainee as well. So that instantly added on to my stress and most of the joy that I had received that night dispersed. So that was fun. 

Sunday we woke up and went to church since we have 9 o clock church now. There we had to translate again for ward conference. I translated most of it and everyone told me that I did a good job so I guess that's a good sign for my Spanish. After sacrament meeting we had a normal rest of the schedule where we had Sunday school and the Hermanas did a good job of teaching. After that we had a meeting with the bishop and our recent convert about getting him the Aaronic priesthood which went well. After church we then went to have lunch with the hermanas and their investigators which are getting baptized this Saturday. It was a super fun time, especially since they're Brazilian and make some super bomb food. We also taught them about the priesthood while we were there and they both got super excited about it. Then we went over to our group leader's house with some of the group members to surprise them and have a talk with them since they are moving this week as well. We had a good time over there, although it did make me pretty sad again that I would be leaving all these members and everybody again. After that we came home and that was that.

Today we will be having another district pday since a lot of the district is getting moved around again.

Elder Bertoch 

Singing a solo

This week was a lot more eventful than most other weeks at least here.

Tuesday we had exchanges for that day. My companion went with the district leader so I was left with elder fairbanks. While on exchanges we went to the old folks home to sing some more, where I also sang a solo of a child's prayer. Which was super good as pointed out by everybody. Then after that we had to race to an appointment to meet with a recent convert angel. There I read Enos with them and we had some of the best sandwiches I had ever had there. So it was pretty worth it. Then we came home to do some studies and then we went off to the church to drop something off to the relief society president and to go sit in on book of mormon class to see how it will be run. It was taught very well and a member was present which was also very nice. Then we had English classes after that which went super well, we keep getting good turnouts and have a lot of people stay afterwards for the spiritual thought. Then we went home and that was that day.

Wednesday I was still with elder fairbanks we had a district meeting thing to discuss a creative finding effort that we are doing this Saturday. Then we went to a different old folks home to sing there. That was super fun and everything. Then we exchanged back. Then we went to see someone who we aren't allowed to teach according to her but she's so cool that we go over there every once and a while anyways. Then we went over to one of our Portuguese investigator and had a hard time there.

Thursday was a series of cancellations and English class which also went really well.

Friday was also a series of cancellations plus soccer night.

Saturday we had to go to downtown Charleston to give a baby a blessing in the hospital, then we visited some less actives down there while we were there. We also visited Gustavo and Abigail and taught them about tithing which they took very well. Now it's just an issue of getting them to church. They're pretty scared to travel outside there home since they could have some trouble with the police so it's hard for them to see the necessity of going to church.

Sunday we had a regional stake conference but didn't have to translate since they already had stuff for that. We also visited some people that we hadn't seen in a while then.

Today we went bowling and played basketball

Elder Bertoch 

Cyclone in South Carolina

Okay when I last left off we had interviews with president on Tuesday morning. The interviews went really well, I actually came prepared with a lot to say this time so we had a long discussion and by the end of it all the president even said that he respected me more than he had previously. After the interviews we worked a bit planning some different things out, ate some lunch and then my companion got some food poisoning and was super sick the rest of the day. We did have a lesson with a portuguese guy.  And we had English classes at night though and we started the new program with that as well, which went really well, and am hoping to get more success with that in the future.

Wednesday was the day of the big cyclone and President monsons passing. We woke up to the news of President monsons passing which was super sad, than a bit later we were told that we would be in lockdown all day for the snowstorm. So we had a good time with the missionaries that live in our complex and made snow angels, sledded with pizza boxes, and had a good time. It ended up snowing about 6 inches and closing every road known to man. So it was quite the storm and is really strange being in a place with snow again.

Thursday we were still on lockdown in the morning, we started to make decorations for a party that would be happening on Saturday. But then we got a call from the zone leaders saying that we should leave for Columbia that night instead of the next morning for the conference with elder Anderson. So we packed some things and drove up to Columbia, stayed with one of the Spanish elders who is leaving this transfer which is really cool and that was that day.

Friday we had the conference with elder Anderson which was really good, we had some trainings and then had a nice Q&A session with him. Obedience was hit on the hardest of anything so I guess I should work on that. Not that I'm not obedient but I got some stuff to work on just as everybody does. It just hit me that you could think it was the apostle that came but it wasn't, it was a seventy. After the conference we went out to lunch with elder Gerardo for the last time before he leaves. Then we drove back down to Charleston just in time for soccer night. But no one came because of the snow and the cold and Hispanics don't like either of those things.

Saturday we did a lot of party prep to make sure that the party went perfect since it was one of the biggest Hispanic holidays ever. We brainstormed some games that we could play and ended up picking catchphrase and musical chairs. Some things fairly easy to explain in Spanish. The party finally rolled around and it went really well, we had the traditional cake and the games and everything. It was mostly less actives there as well so that was super cool. Everybody loved being there as far as we could tell and we even got a bunch of appointments from it so it was quite the amazing time.

Sunday church was canceled. Which felt super weird. No one here knows how to drive in the snow so they just cancel even when there's no snow on the road. So that was weird to not have church as a missionary, we kinda didn't know what to do with our day. We ended up doing a lot of studies during what would have been our church time and then later went out on a contacting spree. We saw many people that we haven't been able to see for a while. Taught a lesson to 3 people and that was cool since we haven't been able to do that for some time, we're back in a normal routine now. 

Today we played basketball and such. 

Photos Taken in Columbia Before Jackson's Transfer

Happy New Year!!

This week has been not too eventful again since it was still holiday season and just about everybody has been out of town and unable to meet with us.

Wednesday morning in the early morning I woke up and quickly realized that I wouldn't be able to sleep, so I started my personal study at 3 in the morning  and finished at 8 in the morning and ended up reading from 2 Nephi 6 to alma 1 in that time, so that was probably my most effective personal study on the mission. Then we had the first district meeting since I have been here which went really well. Then we went to he library with the hermanas to brainstorm how we will get the new English class program running up and smoothly. Which we did and we're really excited for tomorrow when we institute it. Then we went over to an old folks home where we sang songs to old people and made a lot of friends there and had a good time. This day was also my companions 6 month mark so we went to Texas roadhouse to celebrate for dinner. Then we went and tried to contact a bunch of people biking but it was all a bust since no one was home.

Thursday we woke up early in the morning in order to drive up to Columbia for the Spanish conference. We had a really unproductive 5 hours for the first half of the meeting where we discussed a lot of different things and didn't come up with any conclusions. But we eventually took lunch came back, took a different approach and came up with a lot of different solutions and a large goal to go for this year. Then we headed back on home had English classes and that was that for that day.

Friday we had a planning day where we planned with some other missionaries on what we could to improve our booth at the flea market and we made some new fliers for English class and soccer night. My companion also called his family that day since his family wasn't all together for Christmas but was for Friday. We also weekly planned and talked a lot about what we should do about a lot of our investigators. It was also one of the hermanas birthdays so went went over there and helped decorate their place and got some cake.

Saturday we cleaned up our area book in the morning removing people that had no information about them whatsoever. Then we took lunch had some studies and then went out on a district service project to help move one of the sisters investigators out of their house. And that took quite awhile. Then we had a lesson with Gustavo and Abigail and talked about little child baptisms and how they are not a thing. And apparently that answered one of Gustavos questions that he has had all his life. So that was a really good lesson.

Sunday we went to church and we were going to have to translate again but luckily one of the English members that has perfect translation powers that works in the navy was there today, so he translated for us. Then we had the rest of church which wasn't that eventful. We then biked around after church trying to get in contact with some different people and were able to talk with a couple which was pretty nice. Then we had lockdown after 7 so we came home and spent some time with the English elders and played games and talked until the new year.

Today we have been pretty busy taking long naps and shopping and getting some cleaning done today.

Merry Christmas!!

We were able to Skype Jackson on Christmas.   We put him up on the TV screen and the whole family was able to see and talk to him.  He looked really good and seems happy.  We are really grateful that Jackson has been given this opportunity to teach and serve in South Carolina.

Well first of all sorry for getting this out a week late, my pday (Tuesday) was filled up by service for about 4 hours and I didn't have any time to email, or do anything else really. But it's okay I can send it late still. A lot was supposed to happen this past week but didn't really because of Christmas dropping appointments and some other stuff. 

Monday after pday we had a lesson with Gustavo and Abigail where we taught the plan of salvation where things went really well and they understood and accepted everything that we taught them which is super awesome because now they're super likely to get baptized. We also tried to see some other people but none of them were ever home so that was that day really.

Tuesday we woke up and received a text from the hermanas that they had lice and that we should probably check since we had just used their beanies the day before, so we checked and it was apparent that we did indeed have lice, so we were on lockdown for that day, and I realized that being stuck in your apartment for a full day is pretty terrible. So that day we just cleaned and cleaned, took some naps, and did all we could to kill every last louse that was in our hair. So that was a really fun experience and I am super excited to never try it again.

Wednesday we woke up and checked to make sure that we were lice free which we were, celebrated and then went to the church to practice a musical number for zone conference that my companion was apart of. That ended up taking a bit of time, and so we came home did some studies and ate dinner. Unfortunately all 3 of our appointments were canceled that night for preparation for Christmas. So we took the time to plan for how we were going to teach the new English class curriculum. So we did that, and also came up with some new finding tactics. And that was that day.

Thursday was the big zone conference, it was first spent by taking some time to discuss how we can make ourselves more christ like by applying the attributes that Jesus taught on the sermon on the mount. Then we went and ate lunch and watched the Christmas skits that each district makes, then we watched Moana, as the only movie that we can watch in a full year. So that was pretty exciting. Then after zone conference, most of the whole zone went down to downtown Charleston to carol in a big park with a giant Christmas tree. Which was super fun and super effective as well. Then that was that.

Friday we spent the day helping out the bike elders in their area because that's something new that we're supposed to try. If someone in our district is struggling then some other companionship can go down and help them out for a day with finding, or planning, or whatever. We also had a lesson with Gustavo and Abigail that night but canceled because they had family over for Christmas. But we still had soccer night which was a blast as always.

Saturday we headed over to the flea market early in order to set up our booth really quick, we got a handful of people interested in English class and some people interested in family history so that was a big success. Plus we made some new friends while waiting for our tacos that we ordered at the taco truck so that was cool as well. Then after that we came home and studied for a bit, then went out and tried to see a bunch of people, who all weren't home ore didn't wasn't to see us right then. So later in the night we went out caroling with a couple members to visit some less actives and sing some Christmas songs to them. Which was super fun and all had a good time there.

Sunday was Christmas eve or Christmas in Hispanic culture. So we went to church first for the Christmas program and had to translate which was pretty super difficult. Then after church we went over to a less active house for Christmas lunch which was super good. I also had the job of translating there since the English zone leaders were there as well and the family wanted me to translate their testimony to them and vice versa, so that was fun as well. Then for Christmas dinner we went over to a Brazilian family for some awesome Brazilian barbecue and some other amazing food. It was like going to a Brazilian steakhouse but for free, and with the added perks of trying to understand drunk people when they speak Portuguese. So that was really fun, but it was a super fun and tasty time so it was all worth it. Then at night we spent it with the other elders playing games and having a good time there.

Monday was Christmas. We woke up and opened up presents to kick off the day which was super fun. Then we played more games, up until it was time to call home. Calling home was awesome definitely was needed and really made me feel less homesick this Christmas. Then we went over to a English members house for Christmas where we had some awesome food and played a bunch of games as well. We played a game called killer bunnies which is probably the most intricate card game I've ever played. Then we played some jackbox games which I would like to say I won 3 out of the 4 games that we played so I am the champion. I also found my hidden talent while I was there which is making balloon animals. On my first try I made a perfect looking giraffe. Then I attempted to make a sword which turned out absolutely perfect as well. So to say the least I should have a profesión of balloon making.

Tuesday was our pday, but didnt turn out that way as we agreed to serve someone when we were promised it would only take 10 minutes, but ended up taking about 4 hours. So we didn't have a pday this week.