Jesus en Pesebre (Away in a Manger)

Feliz Navidad from Mexico!

Dear Family,                                                                                                        

My little tree

The dinner was really good. There were funeral potatoes and ham and turkey and punch and Costco rolls. To top it all off there was a chocolate pudding pie. It was really good and I realize that we are really spoiled seeing as how last year for Christmas dinner we had mole rojo...not an appetizing Christmas dinner. One of President Hicken’s daughters came to visit for the holidays and it was so strange to hear little kids speaking in English.  Actually when we were taking the metro back home that night I was just thinking to myself  "I can´t believe I´m actually a missionary and that I am actually in Mexico. Life is good." It is still not quite real to me that I am a real missionary or that I am really in a different country so far away. It is all just like a fairy tale.

First of all make sure you don´t tell anyone about my new companion until Tuesday because no one is supposed to know. As for why he is going home before me...that´s just kind of normal for me now. I have only been with a missionary younger that me one time...when I trained. He goes home one change before me, but I will not be with him until he goes home I don´t think. I think I will probably be with him about 3 months or 2 changes and then I will go out into the field again. That is not that alarming because I knew when I got transferred in to Campestre that I would be here for a really long time so I am just loving every moment I get here. 

Missionary Christmas Decor

As for the business major...well I just don´t really know what I want to do anymore so I figure business is a good place to be until I decide...I just have been thinking about what I really want in life and I don´t know if I want to be a slave of a hospital or a pager or things like that. Here in Mexico you can really see the hardship it is on a family when a father is always working...that´s not what I want. 

Mom sorry for opening my package early,....but in the mission and really in all of Mexico Christmas is a day just like any other...so I figured opening it early was the same as opening it on Christmas. That´s how I justified it anyways. But it did make me happy. We did make the ginger bread house...I will send pictures next week. 

Actually one thing I forgot to tell you in the phone call was about what we did on Christmas. Here everyone celebrates the 24th and not really the 25. (That is because everyone goes to parties on the 24th and gets drunk and stays up until 6 or 7 in the morning so the 25 is really more of a sleeping day) On the 24th we went to a family’s home for dinner. But before dinner we went with them to the house of a poorer (less active) family in the ward. The family had bought rotissere (Who knows how to spell that anyways) chickens and salad and rolls and cookies and had brought along a bunch of toys for the kids. The poorer family had 3 kids and 2 sobrinos (nephews). They live in 2 room house with a roof of lamina and a wooden door that is broken in half.  They were peeling apples for Christmas dinner when we got there. We gave them the dinner and the toys and sang "Jesus en Pesebre" (the Christmas hymn that talks about a manger...I don´t remember what it is called in English). It was soo cool. By the end the father of the poor family was crying and they looked at the dinner in disbelief. The Spirit was so strong (the true spirit of Christmas) and the next day they came to church for the first time in a long time. I was so inspired by this family with whom we ate, I want to do that every year. Then we had to run home to get home on time so they wrapped up our dinner and we ate it at home. 

The Familia Martinez-Avila at the Temple 12.21.11

I sent a picture of the Martinez-Avila family. I don´t think I have ever been as happy as I was in the sealing room that day. It was an incredible joy looking around and seeing all my old friends form Teotihuacan and just thinking "this is how eternity will be". We will be there with all our old friends and we will just be so happy. I know that the family Martinez Avila will make it there and that I will build my celestial house right next to theirs. That is true happiness.

We had a combined Sacrament with the other ward in the building Casas Aleman and it was nice. Very stressful because none of our investigatores showed up...but our recent convert Antonio spoke and most of our other recent converts were there. The songs are all the same as the English hymnal...there are a few less and a few that are different...but basically all the same. The one thing that Mexicans do is they always have a piñata for Christmas. There were a lot of groups of neighbors that got together to break the piñata.

Well I love you all so much, I hope you are happy. Elder Bringhurst has to go pack so we have to go.