Abilene week 24

Happy Thanksgiving from Abilene, Texas!

Thanksgiving was a great day. We did so much. And although we couldn't do any missionary work, I was still exhausted by the end of the day. This was just a tiring week in general. I am glad that you got these pictures from the Bundy's for Thanksgiving. I was telling everyone about our family tradition of watching Home Alone on Thanksgiving night and I am happy to hear that the tradition is still going!

 Bro Bundy has a huge military truck that you can see me awing at. He took us out in a ride in it after dinner. Nadia came out with us too. She doesn't have a driver's license yet, but Bro. Bundy told her should should drive it the couple miles back to his house. She did. I was a little scared a couple times. But I felt fairly confident that in that thing even if we hit a full grown tree we would have just mowed it down. haha.

Games with all the Sisters and Elders Thanksgiving night.

Here are all the missionaries later in the day gathered at the church for some games. We

could only stay for a couple hours until we had to go home, but it was still lots of fun. I tried to take a quick half an hour nap in between lunch at the Bundy's and missionary games, but my stomach was so full I couldn't lie down and sleep comfortably. I made sure I ate my fair share. And then the Bundys gave us 5 plates of leftover food too. So, we should we good with food for a little while. I had pecan pie for the first time too….and  it was.... delicious!!!

And Thanksgiving we also got permission to play in the 2nd ward's turkey bowl in the morning. First time I touched a football in 6 months. It was fun. I got an interception! Whoo! 

I will start with yesterday. Javier and Flo were confirmed by our fearless ward mission leader, David. It was a great sacrament meeting. Earlier in church Flo had shared her testimony and it was really great. Javier was a little shy of sharing his testimony, so he didn't. But he has shared it with us before. Flo told us how she didn't want to get baptized in any church until she knew it was the right one. Now it makes more sense why she wanted to push back her date before. She wanted to be sure. But now she is. She is sure this is the true church of Jesus Christ. And I am sure too!

  

Now, just a little more about the week: There were lots of crazy things that were put into place to try and prevent Javier and Flo from being confirmed, but Satan did not triumph! HAHA! Javier's aunt died, and so they took a trip out to New Mexico for a few days for the funeral. President Augustin actually called the Zone Leaders Monday night after church was cancelled and told them we had permission to do the confirmation at their house, and we should do it as soon as possible. We had plans to do it the very next day, but that's when they had to leave for New Mexico for the funeral, so we had to wait until Sunday. We told the zone leaders that we couldn't do the confirmation because "Their Aunt Died." And they thought we said "They're Antied", as in like anti-mormoned. So they were freaking out for a few seconds until we fully explained the situation.

At church on Sunday Nancy and Griselda were there. We weren't able to meet them all week until after church yesterday because they were sick this week, but they are both excited. Griselda is super excited. And their new baptismal date is now for the 14th of December. This week we were able to pick up a new investigator we found on the street. His name is Paul. We set a baptismal date with him too, but we know we will have to adjust it because he will be out of town for a little while. Still, he said "wow! I can't believe I have never heard about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon before!" We're just thinking to ourselves, well of course. We're the only ones who talk about it. He's awesome though, and he was really excited about the restoration.

Expect miracles. Guess who texted us Sunday morning? Azriel. He asked us how we're doing. We said great of course and asked him if he was able to get into contact with the missionaries in Mexico. He said no. We asked his address so we could send the missionaries to him. He said we didn't have one yet. We're like what do you mean? He said, well, I am in Austin right now, but I am coming to Abilene today. Um....... Praise the Lord! Seriously, he should be in Abilene right now, so we shall see what this week brings. Let me finish off my e-mail by telling you a saying Elder King had, "Be realistic. Expect miracles." It's true. Expect them. God is a God of miracles. 

Here is me sealing up the envelope with Javier and Flo's baptismal forms sending them into the mission office.

Elder Banks and I got ready to watch a movie last Sunday night when we had to come in early. We can only watch church made movies, so we watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas. Good choice for a Christmas movie. Oh, btw, I am staying. So is Elder Banks. But both Elder Hancock and Elder Pasquale are leaving! So we will be hanging out with them today. We are actually all in the library right now e-mailing together.

Last Monday I went out and bought 100 colored Christmas lights to put on the little tree you sent me, so we had to take another picture by it. We usually turn it on for like 20 minutes every night before we go to bed. It just warms the apartment. I loved the pictue of ya'll in front of the Christmas tree too! You just look so happy! It was great :) And thanks for the package too! Yesterday I ate my first chocolate on the calander, and I read the first story out of the book. That will be a fun little activity to read out of that book every night before I head off to bed. Thanks mom!

I love you family! And I hope all is well. You can all thank Courtney because today or next week I should be going out to start looking for some good Christmas gifts for ya’ll.