It's hard to believe that it's December, and I kind of refuse to accept it. The weather here is pretty much the same as summer in Seattle, yet somehow the sun is even hotter. The nights are pretty chilly, by which I mean it gets down to about 55 degrees, and everyone is always telling us we should be wearing sweaters and that we're going to get sick, but so far I haven't, so HA.
My companion's birthday was yesterday, so earlier this week, we had a lot of gatherings and shennanigans to celebrate. Here, the 7th of December is the day of the devil, and to celebrate, everyone buys piñatas of the devil and burns them, instead of putting candy in them. We're not allowed to burn stuff, so we bought candy and had a good ol' time with the other hermanas in our district. I also asked them to buy a cake to surprise her, but we didn't have candles, so we stuck a bunch of matches in the top of the cake and they kind of exploded everywhere. But the cake survived, and it was pretty tasty.
This week we had another baptism! Her name is Flory, and she's 15. She's the only member in her family, but her mom and aunts and uncles came, and it was really special. We sang Christmas hymns and ate cake (again). The sad thing is that she lives in the boundaries of a different ward, so she's not our convert anymore, but we snuck into the other ward's sacrament meeting to see her confirmation. She told us that she felt something really special while she was being confirmed, and I got all teary. Here is a photo if you want to see:
We as missionaries have been assigned to start working with a new church initiative that you've probably heard about/seen on the internet. It's called 'He is the Gift,' or, for me, 'Él es la Dádiva.' I think they have it on YouTube and everything, or you can go tochristmas.lds.org to watch it. We have little cards to give to people that have a picture of Mary and the baby Jesus, and so far we've given away about twenty. People are much more responsive when you're giving them stuff, for some reason. But, for obvious reasons, I've been thinking a lot about Christ lately (duh, but bear with me). I was reading in Mosiah 3 this morning, where an angel appears to King Benjamin and speaks to him, saying (and sorry if the formatting is a little weird):
"...Awake, and hear the words
The angel then proceeds to tell King Benjamin about Christ, who will be born of Mary, and the work he will perform on the earth.
I'm sure some/all of you have heard this before, but the meaning of the word 'gospel' is 'good news.' I love to think that by being a missionary, I'm bringing to people "good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." The message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is one of hope, peace, and, most of all, joy. Through him, we have strength, purpose, and eternal life. I'm so grateful to have the chance to share the happiness that I've felt through this gospel, and I hope that all of you will be able to feel a bit of this happiness this week and this Christmas.
Once again, I'm out of time. Have a good week, keep your chins up and watch some TV for me.
Love,
Hermana Campbell
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