Dang what an awesome Christmas I had! For Christmas Eve, all of the missionaries in Venado Tuerto got together at our chapel and had a big asada (BBQ), which like everyone has here on Christmas Eve where you just like cook a bunch of meat and we have an Elder from Bolivia who knows how to do it super well so that was way fun. We played futbol for hours which is always awesome.
For Christmas, we woke up and my companion wasn’t feeling well so we slept in a bit which was nice. Then we our packages we had, which was super good! I got a lot of candy and some chapstick which is awesome. Then we went to the chapel with some other Elders and Hermanas and the Senior couple in our area, Elder and Hermana Goesch, took us out for ice cream. After that, I got to talk to my family and girlfriend! That was the best, and none of them cried! (Obviously a joke if you know my parents) That was super awesome and made me very happy, I love them all a lot. Then after that we all went out to this pizza buffet which was super fun. One of the Elders had 18 pieces of pizza because we had only had ice cream all day. It was an awesome Christmas and a great call home.
Wednesday was a long day, a lot of walking. My companion was feeling sick so I gave him a blessing in Spanish so that was scary but good. I love blessings, it’s the coolest feeling having the Spirit speak through you. We also had one of our new investigators, Clelia, who was feeling sick too so we gave her a blessing as well. But they’ve been making good progress, her and her husband, Alejandro. Other than that, today was pretty normal. It was weird having a day of work after two days off but I love serving the Lord.
Thursday was very long. I went on splits with Elder Almendras from Chile who is super funny and awesome but we just contacted for hours and hours with no success so that’s always a bummer.
Friday was just a pretty normal day. We found some good people we can hopefully start teaching, but nothing too amazing. We had lunch today with the Menchie Family, who we love lots. We gave them Sour Warheads that my companion got in his Christmas package and that was way funny. Their whole family is awesome and I’ve loved getting to know them. We are hoping that we can get a lot of people to come to church on Sunday, so we are going to work extra hard tomorrow to make that happen.
Saturday was good! We talked with a lot of less actives and they all said that they would come to church so hopefully that happens! At night, we were talking with some other Elders who we passed by, and there’s lots of big bugs here, like giant spiders and cockroaches and beetles and things. Anyways, one of these bugs was on Elder Israelsen’s shirt and I told him and he went to brush it off but it crawled inside his shirt through the part where it buttons up and he started like freaking out and it crawled down into his pants and he was taking off all of his clothes in the street hahaha it was so funny. We are hoping a lot of people can come to church tomorrow and that we can have some success!
Sunday was a good day! We started out with church and all of our commitments to come to church fell through so that was a bummer. My companion spoke about Deiter F. Uchtdorf’s “Believe, Love, Do” talk and that was really good. Then our lunch cancelled on us and we had like no food so we had onions and potatoes hahaha. But the rest of the day went well, we taught a lot of lessons and found a lot of good people to teach, which is always awesome.
I’m loving the mission. It’s really tiring during the day, but it’s such a cool opportunity to be working 24/7 for the Lord. My Spanish (or Castellano is what everyone calls it here) is coming along slow and steady but getting better. I can’t wait until I can actually speak it hahaha it’s the worst when we are contacting someone and I like ruin the contact because I’m stammering so bad, but Elder Anderson is really good and is helping me learn a lot. I love this Gospel and I love teaching it. I thought I’d be really scared to talk to people, but when I know what I’m teaching them is something to help them and to bring happiness to their life, it’s not scary at all. I love my Savior, and my Heavenly Father, and the Holy Ghost. I love all of you guys and I’m very grateful for your influence in my life. Thank you for your prayers.
Elder Tate Cannon 