We did have Shantal and Luciano’s baptism. How great it was. What made it even greater was their wonderful family. We are working on the mom still. They had lots of family support as you can see from the pic. It rained all day, but stopped just in time for them to arrive at the church. They are great. Their confirmation was awesome too.
Christmas eve... it was interesting. No one wanted to talk and no one was in the streets. It was a wee bit difficult, but we still managed to find new people to teach and enjoy ourselves. Since everyone here celebrates Christmas starting at 10 pm on Christmas Eve, we didn’t really get to spend any time with members celebrating the holidays, but that’s ok. We made our own celebration. We got money from members for lunch which was so great of them. Trying to go grocery shopping on Christmas Eve isn’t exactly ideal. We spent a couple of hours out and about, not okay. But in the end, we had chicken along with mashed potatoes and gravy from the states that we made. Probably the best meal yet, Wahoo! We attempted to make chocolate chip cookies with the stuff mom had sent from awhile ago, but they don’t have chocolate chips here so we had to improvise. It wasn’t that good, but we shared with ward members and they LOVED US. We did eat dinner with our landlords; they live in front of us. We were out until 10:45 eating! We had permission to be out late. We had lamb, which I discovered is not my favorite. But it was good being with a family. We went home and hurried to plan and get ready for bed. We pushed our beds together and stayed up talking for awhile and then when we finally fell asleep the fireworks lit off at 12. So we watched the show. It was good times. You cannot sleep even if you wanted to here. The entire sky is FULL of fire. It’s crazy and everything illegal in the states is totally legal here. HUGE fireworks that sounded like bombs were going off at our next door neighbors. So scary. My comp has videos. When she gets home, you can see. Crazy. We woke up dead tired on Sunday. But we had all morning to open the presents we did have. Kenny sent me a package so... I wasn’t completely without Christmas. I actually waited to open it too! And then my comp got me a scarf, tweezers (because I lost mine here) and a ruler I have desperately needed to mark my scriptures. She also bought me American candy from a store we found in Punta. Then she made me a picture frame of a picture of us. It was so great of her. Love her!! We didn’t have church till 10:45 so we had lots of time to celebrate and relax. That was fun. We made french toast and it was good. We had it with real syrup that we also found in Punta. It was a gift from a member who manages the place. It was awesome. Then we got to Skype! It was great.
This week had some interesting events with the work. I mentioned this man Pablo before. He has been searching for something more in his life. Whether or not it’s here, while I am or not, I’m sure he will be baptized. He sent us a message last night saying he was reading the Book of Mormon, loving it and that we didn’t have to worry because soon he would be in the "celestial way." He’s so great. We lost Diahna. Her daughter got sick so she went back home which is in the other mission. We passed her info so she can get baptized right away over there. I hope it works out. We found this lady and a couple days later went to teach her and found her completely drunk. First time that’s happened here. She literally lived in a tin shack. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen anything that bad. Water came in everywhere and you should have seen the GINORMOUS spiders that had made their homes in her ceiling. I was scared for my life. She was also the first person I’ve seen with a garden here, lots of sunflowers and lettuce that she sells. She lives with 13 dogs and 13 cats, 30 chickens and turkeys and 4 birds. It was... interesting. We tried to help her. She got her daughter taken away when she was young because she has always had a problem with drinking and she wants to be with here again. So she’s sad. So she drinks, yet that is the very thing that took her daughter away. It doesn’t make any sense. I hurt for these people. She wouldn’t listen to us. It was kind of hard when she was in that state. When we went back a few days later, she wasn’t there. We do what we can.
Anyway, life is good here. Things are well. I’m loving life more and more. Stay being good. I love you.
Love, Ash.
A Note from the Madre.... Whoa! What a surreal experience to be able to "SEE" Ash while we talked with her for about an hour on Christmas day. She is nothing short of amazing. She sat so poised and mature. We all witnessed the transformation that has occured within her. She updated us on her adventures as a missionary. She has such a great love for the people, the area and the work. For the final ten minutes, she bore her very strong testimony of the gospel and missionary work. She challenged each one of us to serve a mission. She spoke of how life changing it is and how she will be a better person: wife and mother because of this experience. She said it was difficult to put into words what this experience has done for her, but the blessings she has received will be eternal. It was sooo awesome!!!
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