Abilene week 27

Elder Banks and Elder Moffitt at the zone Christmas party

Here are some pictures of us putting on our little skit/song the first couple hours

We had a good time at the Christmas party this week. We had some Christmas games for a couple hours, a great lunch, then another couple hours of instruction, then we came home. It was a good time.  

That's great news about all the missionary work you've got going. I love to hear it! We didn't have any investigators at church this week, so it's good to hear that the Vienna ward had some nonmembers!

Well, as you can imagine, we had a busy week this last week. Unfortunately, Pedro and Juanita and Juan and Rosenda were all in Mexico this last week. Attendance this week in sacrament was around 30.

We were informed by our mission president to confirm Azriel ASAP, so on Wednesday we were able to perform that ordination for him. It was great. When we went to get him, he was super excited. Everyone in the branch loves him. It's so exciting to think that he is now a member of Jesus Christ's one true church!

We were able to have a few really good lessons with Nancy and Gricelda this last week, and we set a baptismal date for Christmas day with them! Which they were really excited about. Then on Saturday we met with them a couple hours before their interview, where we found out about some Word of Wisdom issues (which when we presented the WoW a week before they didn't raise any concerns. It's like the tip of the iceberg there are always unforseen things to work through), so we had to cancel their baptismal date, but we are still working very close with them, and we hope that in a couple weeks or so they should be ready!

At the Christmas party we got a Texas Lubbock Mission hat from President and Sister Augustin as our present from them. It's pretty cool.

This week was hard to get many members out to lessons with us because everyone was leaving on vacation. But we were able to have lots of good lessons with just us and investigators. We picked up 5 new investigators this week!

Lupe (short for Guadalupe) and Genaro, 50s: So, Lupe is Mitt Romney's cousin. Thought you oughta know... We had 3 lessons with them this week! They loved to talk to us about their Catholic background, and the saints, so they seemed pretty hard core. But then when we got to the restoration and shared the first vision the spirit was so strong. Lupe was tearing up. And she told us she knew it was true. Genaro said he would follow her, whatever her decision would be. We weren't able to set a date because she works most Sundays. But, they are definitely on the line for baptism.

Maricruz (50s) we met a while ago, when she was putting up Christmas lights. This week we were finally able to have a lesson with her. She ate up the restoration. She said she always knew there was something missing in her church. She wasn't able to make it to church, but this week we hope to set a baptismal date with her.

Diana and Nancy: Diana is a former investigator (40) and Nancy (18) is her niece. Nancy had never heard of anything besides her Catholic beliefs before. And Diana remembered everything the missionaries taught her before and was basically the third missionary in our discussion. The problem is that they go out of town every weekend for horse racing, so getting them to church will be a difficult one...

New Zone

Well, Here's the new map of the mission we got at the Christmas party. The new zone is super small. Our district has that many areas in it! I bet it will all be readjusted again soon. There are rumors of a new stake in Lubbock, and perhaps even the mission getting split in the coming year. But, all speculation, and nothing should be taken as doctrine.

I can't wait to see you all on Christmas! It sure will be exciting. Hopefully I still recognize who you all still are :) I love you mom! I love you dad! I love you Meagan! I love you Courtney!