Feliz Navidad!

               Hola Padres!!!     20 December 2010

Feliz Navidad!!!!!!     The time for Christmas has come to be. It is way different then being back at home. Back at home, I hardly even knew when Christmas was, or what it meant. My time was always filled with basketball practices, or games, hanging out with friends/girls. Being on my mission has really opened my eyes to what the true meaning of Christmas is. It is tough to be away from all the family and friends, but it is going to be okay. I have no worries about that. I know that I will be blessed and the people I hold most dear will be blessed.

Well the weather here has been extremely outrageous! It has been raining for the past 5-6 days. It has been raining constantly for the last 12 hours or so. It has been coming down pretty hard too! I have gotten a lot of "Oh you are from Washington, you should be used to all this rain." or "Oh you are from Washington, now we know where all this rain came from, you brought it with you!" Oh if people only knew that it doesn’t rain in B-Town all that often.

I am glad to hear all is well with Pops and the news about being "out of the woods" for now. (Chad is referring to Darin’s cancer concerns) I hope that it will continue that way. And don’t worry about the praying part that is something that happens everyday, multiple times a day. That is also cool to hear about the Missionaries up there. How did that happen? (the local full-time missionaries asked to spend Christmas Eve with the Davis Family!)  Did you basically cry and say "I have a boy on a mission, I need you to come over!" I just am making jokes about it. I do still think it is pretty funny that they are spending time with you guys, because we have never had missionaries over on any holidays before. (the Elders even came over and shoveled our walks after the recent snow because they knew Darin was recovering from surgery and couldn't shovel the walks.  They have been great and gave him a blessing prior to his surgery.)  But they times are definitely changing, huh? Now that you both are getting old and what not.   J

Being in a "regular" companionship is definitely different. It is a good learning experience. I am having to teach more and be more vocal so it is definitely helping the learning process. This last week seemed like it took forever, and at the same time it didn’t. I have been dealing a lot with the thoughts of not being home for Christmas and it is a hard fact to deal with.  I love being out on a mission and wouldn’t trade it for anything. This is exactly where I am supposed to be, and I just need to keep losing myself in this work!

The worst part of the days are always in the middle of the day from like 11- 5. They are always slow and boring. Mostly because all the people we are trying to contact or teach all work during that time. So we mostly spend a lot of time walking during that time. But the nights are usually jam packed full of lessons and teaching. It is extremely rare to have a night where we don’t have a lesson scheduled. Well once again I experienced how different English missionary work is then Spanish work. I went on exchanges with one of the ZLs, Elder Pressgrove. He is a legit missionary. He is from Kansas. Well English families are definitely different too.

         We also had a huge training in St. Geezy (St. George) with the Mission President from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm. It was pretty good, just very long! We have been applying what we learned into our teaching. That night I was feeling pretty sick and down, and then we watched “The Testaments” with Ricardo, and it changed my night. As much as our message is for others, it is for us too. Watching that movie really helped me see a bunch of things that I can do better and some truths that I really need to know and focus on. One major thing, was the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It definitely opened my eyes to once again see how real and how big of a sacrifice it really was!

We had the Branch Christmas Party and we were able to have a bunch of Investigators come. It is amazing what some free Mexican food will do! Well I also truly learned what it was to be a bold missionary! This is something that I haven’t developed yet and that I truly do need to develop. This one thing will change my mission from being an average missionary, to being a great missionary.

This Spanish thing is coming along a little bit. I am beginning to understand almost all of what is said. And can pick up and understand Spanish even around English now and before I couldn’t do that. The major problem I am still having is speaking it! That is probably the hardest part, understanding is one thing, but speaking is another. It will come with time, I still have 20 months to perfect my Spanish!

I hope all is well back in Burbank and enjoy the snow and this Christmas Season! But don’t forget the true reason for this wonderful season of gift giving and gift receiving. That reason is our Savior, Jesus Christ!!!

Live it, Love it, Preach it!!!!!!       Elder D

Oh! “The 12 days of Christmas” is pretty awesome.  I like trying to guess what the gift inside is going to be by the scripture!!!  Give the kids a hug and kiss for me!! Did you make me CDs??? Just curious! (He asked for copies of our church CDs – we are working on it!  It takes longer than we thought!)

love you!