Christmas

Hola Familia,

Well it has been a very interesting week. So as you know I had an emergency change last Tuesday.  So that was really unexpected but really cool.  So now I am with Elder Beales in Miguel Grau in Arequipa. In our Zone we have 16 missionaries; half sisters and half elders.  It will be awesome.

So this is a pretty hard area.  We have been working crazy hard to get more people to teach and to help people come to church and remember why they were baptized.  So on Christmas we went and ate breakfast as a Zone and then we went and Skyped (Love you family).  Then we had nothing ha ha.  And who wants to listen to missionaries on Christmas?  So we went to our room and literally I called EVERY single number in our phone, because we are both new in the area.  After calling people for that long we prayed and the second counselor of the Stake went with us and we found a ton of people to teach.  I know that the Lord guides us if we TRY.  We have to show our faith through our action.  Elder Wirthlin talk (Spanish Version)

Then we had the coolest experience on Saturday.  We went and visited the Barrio family.  They have been inactive for many years and we got in and started teaching them.  Wow, it was so powerful and amazing to see how the spirit can touch the hearts of the people and the boy came to church again after so many years.  It was such a cool experience.

Then we had an awesome lesson last night.  We gave the lesson to a return missionary that in inactive now.  We were teaching him and I was telling him about going home and all the things I learned, how important this gospel is and how amazing our lives can be if we live it.  So while I was telling a story I just started crying and he did as well.  I haven’t cried in a while.  But you could see that they realized the importance of family and how crucial the parents are to have the successful family that we all want.

Well this past week has been great.  I love the mission and know that God blesses us with all the things that we need, if we are faithful.

Family I love you so much and am so grateful for each one of you.  Take care and know that God loves us and blesses us so much.  Elder Uchtdorf talk (Spanish version)

I love you,

Elder Cooley