Christmas is in the air!!!!‏

9 December 2013

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

It sounds like it has been CHILLLLLYYY in Colorado, Amber and Aaron are little lucky ducks with two days off of school and a delayed start! Wow I can't even imagine what a snow day would be like anymore. It has been getting VERY chilly here, I am so grateful for the coat that I have.

I have really enjoyed starting off this Christmas season with reading The Living Christ every day. I hope that you all decide to join me :) I learn something new every day, and I have started marking it with different colors to show: different names of Christ, truths restored through the restoration, truths about the plan of salvation, and all of the things Christ has done for us. I am a missionary, and we extend invitations every day, so I feel like I should invite you to read this wonderful document about our Savior with me every day until Christmas!! I think it will be great to be a missionary during the Christmas season, I love that we are putting SO much more emphasis on Christ, exactly where it should be. Ha, we even taught our English class to sing "Silent Night" in English, and they loved it. That was really fun.

We will be having a huge Christmas concert at the temple in Madrid with 150 missionaries and we will invite all of our investigators. There are even Christmas lights all set up outside! It is almost like Temple Square!

All in all, a great week! We will be having intercampbios [exchanges] every week now, which I actually like a lot, just getting out of the groove a little and learning from other missionaries, and I went to another part of Madrid this week. There are many things to learn from every missionary I have been with, I love it. But it really always reminds me of how much I love my companion and this area. I feel so blessed to be in Alcobendas. This week, one day in particular was full of lessons with people who we feel like have A LOT of potential. It was incredible because after one of our lessons (I believe it was on Wednesday) we walked out and we couldn't even remember what we had said. Hermana Aagard said that I had sounded like her trainer before she went home when we were teaching that lesson. I didn't even remember what came out of my mouth, but we both left feeling that it was the Spirit working through us, having the Lord saying what He needed us to say. That feeling is incredible, I am certain I was sent here to not focus so much on what was said but rather whether we were teaching in accordance to what the Lord would have us say. We are teaching one of my favorite men, named Jorge, from Barcelona, who reminds me a lot of Dad, very intelligent and sincere. He jokes with us and is just a real person who wants to know the truth.

There were a couple of miracles we had this week, just when we were starting to get a bit down, looking at all of the people we had who weren't progressing, and how we haven't seen ANY of our street contacts turn into solid investigators, but we actually had two people that we contacted on the street come to church this week. The Lord sure seems to step in right when we start to lose faith. I love seeing little miracles like this.

This week, we decided to write down a few reasons of why we love being missionaries, and I would like to just share a few with you next week because I forgot to bring the paper that I wrote them down on!

Oh, we also got a new senior couple that will be in the office here! They are Sister and Elder Chapple, and she knows [Aunt] Sandy and [Uncle] Noel. She is from Spanish Fork. She just loves Sandy and Noel, and we are so excited to have them. It was their first Sunday there and she was scared to death and doesn't know any Spanish whatsoever. She is terrified... it reminded me of my first day in the field feeling terrible because I didn't understand much and I was overwhelmed by culture shock. I tried my best to translate our Relief Society class for her (mom, our class was on Joseph Smith, too!) and we had a great time eating at President's house after church so I think they are feeling more and more comfortable.

There was also a baptismal service yesterday!! Mayte, the 17 year old girl that is not baptized because her mom wouldn't let her. But she is always sharing the gospel with her friends and at every young women's and seminary that there is. It was a miracle. The whole ward has been helping her and supporting her and hoping for her baptism very soon, and finally a set of Elders in our ward had the impression to ask her mom once again if she could be baptized, and long story short, she was baptized yesterday!

Well, that's all for this week! I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

Love, Hermana Emily Marie Mather