Its Christmas time in Escuintla family! And its never been hotter and theres no snow here. Glad everyone had a good week and that Dad finally turned 50 and had a good and grand fiesta. Sure love you dadio!! Glad everyone heard about the earthquake too! It was the strongest I'd felt here in Guatemala thus far. We were in the later stages of getting ready to leave the house after pday and we felt it alright! We used it as an icebreaker in all of our contacts that day. ''Did you feel the earthquake?'' ''Yes'' ''Are you prepared to meet God?'' that was good stuff.
We had our good old Zone Training today. It was so sweet. Elder Wilkes and I really felt like we were guided by the Spirit and we prepared for and tuaght the zone of Escuintla how to be led by the spirit. That is such an essential part of the Work of Salvation. It cant be done without it. We taught the doctrine of being led by the spirit and also some experiences. Some of the experiences I heard from other missionaries brought me to tears and got me so pumped to keep having those experiences every single day of my mission and then in normal life. ''What would thou have me to do?'' is a question I have asked and had answered sooo many times in my mission and it has always always always brought good fruits. We have a zone goal this month to have 34 baptisms and we felt that the only way to do it is to be truly led by the spirit to the people that the Lord has prepared (it says 10x in PMG that the lord has prepared His people in our respective areas - go and look for them Matt!). I am inspired!
We are going to have a baptism in 2 hours from now! That never gets old. She is the one called Araceli that I think I mentioned last week. We had an awesome experience in Stake Conference with her. She is the grandma of a group of about 15+ members in our area and we saw her walk in this Sunday with a whole flock of less active family members that have not been to church in a long time! That gave me joy. It is so funny to think of the things I loved and liked before the mission to now. And the joy I feel here is so much deeper than what I've felt before. I think that is because the Spirit sweetens every experience for me now, especially since he rewards us for righteous decisions in the Work of Salvation.
The Christmas First Presidency devotional was great. Elder Wilkes and I rejoiced in the fact that we both speak english and went and watched it in english. I loved Elder Bednars talk. The Book of Mormon viewpoint of the birth and death of Christ is something I have never noticed too much before. But they definitely felt the effects of that an ocean away from where all that stuff was happening! Mom, if you could send me that talk that'd be great.
We also had stake conference this past weekend. There was a seventy there named Elder OCampo. He shared the experience of when Elder Scott set him apart to be a seventy. He said that he was there in his office looking out the window when Elder OCampo walked in with his wife. Elder Scott turned around, embraced and greeted them and then turned to Elder Ocampo and said ''Hermano, there are many false traditions in your country. What are we going to do to change that?'' Well thats pretty blunt! Elder Ocampo went on to explain that we all have false traditions that do not harmonize with the true and restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. And we need to take them out! I would invite you, family, to analyze and see which traditions we have that may be false and see if we need to change them. I was thinking about that and I honestly couldn't think of too many. But I will do the same, and we'll see what happens.
Sure love you guys. I know you love me too! I will be getting the packages on thursday at our Christmas conference. I can't wait to see what candies await me!! Have a wonderful week and keep on keepin on.
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