Huge Burritos and Nativities. December 5, 2016

This week has been awesome! So many cool things have happened!
Transfer calls are happening at the end of next week. Sister Jones and I
think we are staying together, which will be great because Christmas
is just around the corner! 

Some fun things that happened:
First off after district meeting on Friday we went to Casa Amiga, a
Mexican restaurant. They have a challenge there. If you can eat a 6
lb. burrito, then it will be free. And so, 7 elders and Sister Hernadez
(she just had a 4 lb) decided that they would try to eat it all. And
so the eating contest began!! The fastest someone ate a burrito before
ate it in 10 mins. And so the elders just went at it.  Oh, it was
so crazy! After about 10-15 mins they started to slow, after 30 mins
they got red in the face and finally some got purple! It was crazy!
Elder Criddle ate the most with only 1.5 lbs. of burrito left. We all
laughed saying it was probably because he's a farm boy from Wyoming.
And we went up to pay, only to find out that someone had paid for us!!
 We were shocked! But we were also super grateful for that person's
kindness and generosity.

 I was happy with my three tacos. 

On Friday we had a stake wide event called the Nativity Festival. It
is advertised by the city,  so lots of people came! It was crazy how
busy we were! They also had a Life of Christ room where they turned
the font into an empty tomb. And the spirit was so strong in that
room, many people were crying when they left. It was a great even to
be part of!

We also went tracting in a nice part of town and found some train
tracks! We took some pictures! Also, there are these huge clumps of
green up in the trees, I always thought they were moss clumps. Turns out
that they are mistletoe! It's a parasite that like to attach
themselves to oak trees. So how's that for holiday cheer?


We built a fort with the mattresses left over from when the sisters
stayed at our apartment. Hehe. It was fun!

Okay, now on to the spiritual!
We met a high school age kid named Harrison this week. We shared the
Light the World video, and he loved it! He told us how he got baptized
a few years ago in a Catholic faith, and he loves anything to do with
Christ. We shared a little bit about the Restoration and set up a
lesson! He's pretty cool.

We went out in the boonies and contacted a few people out there. We
saw a man outside and we went up to talk with him. His name is Joe. He
has met with missionaries before in the past, and after sharing Light
the World with him, he said that he was open to us coming back to
teach him. I invited him to be baptized and he said Yes! We are SO
excited to teach him this week.

Our area has slowed way down since when I first got here, and we are
working so hard everyday to find new people. But the work is slow, but
that's no excuse! -So we keep on keeping on!

The Christmas devotional was an awesome experience. I loved hearing
about the reason for Christmas. It helped remind me that Christ was
born to Atone. He is the reason for the season!! We are so blessed to
have a Savior who made it possible for us to overcome all things in
this life and give us a hope in the world to come. I offer a challenge
to all of you: pray to feel the spirit of Christmas and share the
message of peace with someone the Holy Ghost prompts you to talk to.