12/21 9: Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad! This week has been great, we went to Guayaquil to go to the temple there and then after there was a "verificacion" for the new missionaries and oh yeah, we had our first baptism!! Our first baptism was on December 19th at 8 pm and it was such a special experience. The person who was baptized was Abraham Laniz, he{s 16 years old and he loves trying to speak to me in English,haha. He was baptized by his cousin, Brian Rezebela, and the next day was confirmed a member of the church by his other cousin, David. Abraham has so much faith and he{s such a great example to those around him. During the baptismal service we made sure to sing plenty of Christmas hymns since Christmas is this week!

. This week we{ve been sharing the christmas message of the church with everyone we possibly can! A lot of people here dont like christmas because of how commercial it is and because there are a lot ofpeople here who cant afford to buy presents so it{s so nice to talk with them and remind them that this holiday isnt about all of these material things but about remembering our Savior and all the things he{s done for us. The people here who have christmas trees go ALL OUT and the tree is covered in tulle and other giant deocrations, you can barely see the tree, haha. Speaking of Christmas..Tuesday after our zone conference I got the two packages from Mom and Dad then Reesa and Dayna!!! I was like a little kid carrying my two packages out of the building (and then into a taxi..a bit of a struggle,haha) 

Also, shoutout to Bart and Lori Tirrell on their anniversary on the 19th! 

Everythings been really great here,weve been doing the usual like eating meals that could feed a family, singing Christmas songs and preaching the gospel! Feliz Navidad!!