Hola!
First, I want to throw out a disclaimer: My grammer and spelling is awful, and I know that. Most of the time I am using the computer in the Spanish lab, so it doesn't pick up English mistakes very well. Also, I have a very limited amount of time to write. I just wanted to let you know that I realize that my spelling and stuff is really bad
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I am glad to hear that you had a good Christmas! It sounds like you were able to spend time with lots of family, which is super awesome! I got to spend time with my family. I got to spend it with the brothers in my district! It was super cool to be here over Christmas. Our schedule on Christmas was pretty legit... Russell M Nelson came and spoke to us. His talk was good, but his wife's was better. She talked about how Christ paid the price for everything, even for our spiritual gifts. We just need to pray fervently to obtain those spiritual gifts. He pretty much just wanted to throw out there that missions are becoming increasingly more dangerous, and that we need to follow the rules. He also said that there are no secret missions to China, which is funny because Elders talk about that all the time. We had a fireside with the painter Greg Olsen. He pretty much painted ever picture that we have in our house. It was a good fireside. Also, we watched "it's a wonderful life." I had never ever seen it before. It has seriously changed my outlook on life. Christmas Eve was sweet to! There was a talent show, and we watched a Christmas Carol. There was quite a bit of free time, so most Elders chilled at the Residence Halls. Wanna take a guess what Elder Taylor and I did? Yep, we studied. We still studied for like four hours on Christmas day. My study was centered specifically around Christ that day. It was a little weird to not be at home for Christmas, but I still think this was the best Christmas I have ever had (don't be offended by that). It was just so cool to be with 2500 other missionaries on Christmas day.
Okay, so I guess I better tell you why I titled my email "We ate dust sandwiches for Christmas." It was actually super funny. We were teaching a lesson yesterday to our investigator, Leonardo. We were asking him about what he did for Christmas. He asked us what we did and what we ate and stuff. So Hermana Clay was going to answer. She whispered to me, "how do you say turkey?" I thought I knew and I said, " I think it is Povlo." So she says to Leonardo, "Comemos sandwiches de Polvo." And I said, "They were delicious!" She was trying to say, "We ate Turkey Sandwhiches." Well, it turns out that the word for turkey is PAVO, Not POLVO. Polvo means dust. So... We ate dust sandwiches for Christmas. Leonardo lauged so hard! That was kind of embarrassing, but still super funny. That lesson actually turned out to be the best one that we have ever had. We prepared for it differently than we have for other lessons. We didn't assign parts. We just went in there with a basic outline and had a natural conversation with him. Hermana Clay does a lot of the talking. She actually lived in Spain for three months, so she is a lot better at Spanish than we are. Anyway, Leonardo told us that he didn't think he would be able to see his son again. He had a son that passed away when he was 10 years old. My heart starting pounding. I shared my personal experience with him about Nicholas passing away. I told him that it is a really hard thing, but our loved ones go to a better place. I told him that his son was living with God again. I assured him that he would be able to see his son again some day. The spirit was so strong. I had never really felt the spirit in our lessons before, because they were just memorized lines of broken Spanish. But this time was different. It was powerful. We taught him about baptism, and I invited him to be baptized. He said he couldn't commit to it yet. We committed him to continue reading the book of Mormon. He said he would pray about it, and about being baptized. AND he is going to come to church with us on Sunday. He told us after the lesson that he could feel the spirit really strongly, so that was a huge success. Our goal is to invite others to come unto Jesus Christ. It was obvious this time that we were able to make that happen.
I forgot to mention that I am super grateful for all of the packages! Thank you so much. I am good on money! I haven't spent any money here. They give us $6 a week to spend, and I only spend $3 a week on laundry supplies and stuff like that. I want you to get in contact with Wendy Jones and see if before I leave if I can send stuff home with her! My suitcases are all too heavy... and there is a possibility that I will have to take three flights to get to Osorno. So, It would be best not to have suitcases that are overweight. So ask her about that and let me know. I have saved boxes, but I would prefer to not have to ship things home. I need to write some thank you notes, so if you could send me some addresses of people, that would be great. Maybe the Potts? The Keetches? Anyone that you can think of.
I wanted to say that I am taking some pictures. I am going to mail home my memory card today! I don't take a ton of pictures, because we are always really busy. There isn't enough time in the day to accomplish everything! Thats okay, because I am being more productive here than I have ever been in my whole life. Hey, will you send me my big yellow Spanish dictionary and my 501 Spanish verb book? That would be awesome! No rush, though. No rush with the music either, because we aren't allowed to listen to music in the MTC.
Well, I am out of time! I gotta go study and then Elder Taylor and I need to clean up after our roommates. :/
Love,
Elder Warren.
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