Week 24: Tis the Season to be a Missionary

Querida Familia y Amigos,

          Yes, I will be here the Seahurst for at least another 6 weeks with Hna. Wrubell which I am actually excited about because I didn't want to be somewhere new for Christmas where I didn't know anyone. At least I can "fiesta" with my adopted family here. That means by the end of this transfer I will have lived in SeaTac for 6 months! That's almost as long as I lived in Provo! Anyway, I guess my work here isn't finished. There are people I am suppose to talk to, teach and baptize. I really do love the Branch!

          A few weeks ago we found la Familia Aguilar. Our leaders have been placing a greater emphasis on finding families, not just people. We feel like this family has been especially prepared to receive the gospel. The first time we just taught the mom and she had a lot of questions about the nature of God. She was amazed at the fact that we believe that He is made of flesh and bone. She invited us to come back a few days later, so we did and we brought a couple from our branch with us. The whole family gathered, including all 4 kids, without hesitation. They had so many questions and all of them were so into it. We ended up being there for almost 3 hours!  We left them with Books of Mormon to read and it was just a powerful lesson. 

          A few days later we came back to teach just the kids. They didn't understand a lot of the lesson because they don't have that kind of vocabulary in Spanish. They also have no religious background because their parents haven't taught them. We taught them a second time in English and we had to go into detail about the Bible and the life of Christ because they really didn't know about it. It was one of the most spiritual lessons for me so far. Most people we teach already know about Christ so we place more emphasis on the Restoration. But with these kids, we were able to explain our Savior to them. The 10 year old had tears in his eyes when we told them that the Jews killed Christ. It was truly a beautiful moment.

          Last night I got to go to down town Seattle for the first time! We went to the Ensign Choir concert with Virgilio, so we didn't do any touristy stuff. It made me all giddy and stuff just being in the city and being able to do something semi-normal...I mean something that I would be doing around this time of year if I were home. It was good fun!

          We also had a mission Christmas party this past week. All the zones (there are 8) made Christmas videos and we watched all of them at the party! Some of them were spiritual, but most of them were so funny! For my zone, the Seattle Zone, we did my idea of the 12 days of Christmas song and we said "my mother gave to me" instead of "my true love."  Hna. Wrubell and I were crying we were laughing so hard!

          We also met a really mean lady on the streets yesterday. You will have to remind me to tell you about her when we Skype on Christmas!  So stoked!  Until then, have a very beautiful Christmas season! Dios les bendiga (God bless you).

Week 24 Challenge:

Con Amor,

Hermana Stoddard