Happy Christmas, Harry.

                   Star wars shirts.

"Yo soy tu padre"

Friends and Family, 

 

It's Christmas this week. My mind is blown. I have NO idea how time has gone by this fast. I'm still in denial that Christmas is in 4 days. It's basically not real. And I am officially in the single digits of how many weeks I have remaining in my mission. So everything is SUPER not real. So much denial. 

 

This week was okay. I've been sick. So that's always a delight. And I forgot my planner so I can't even do a list of things that we did this week. So I'll just tell you what I remember. :) 

Or maybe not. My mind is blanking on everything we've done this week. Too much pressure in my head and too much cold medication.. 

Okay, I know that we've taught Jose a few times this week. He's doing really well. Handling the fact that he has to post-pone baptism very well. We taught him yesterday and had a REALLY good lesson with him. We asked him what he wanted to talk about, and he said overcoming temptation. So we read a few scriptures to him and just talked about it. He told us he was feeling really down all the time because all of these bad influences from his past life are still here haunting him. We ranted to him about how frustrating it is that he can't get a fresh-start that he desperately needs, but that through reading the Book of Mormon and going to church each Sunday he can overcome those temptations and feel even happier. We talked to him about how he needs better friends and to stop hanging out with the people from his past. He agrees and doesn't even want to hang out with them anymore. It was a really good lesson. He told us how much he appreciates us and how much we've helped him change his life. 

 

We saw the Rodriguez. Obviously. :) We saw just Noemi on Thursday, I think. We watched Legacy with her. We didn't have it in Spanish. #outweststruggles But the good news is she understands English pretty well. #thankyoumissouri It was good, she loved it. We ate dinner with them on Thursday as well, and we talked to Beto a lot about why we don't worship the Virgen. He understood it, and it was really good. On Friday, Noemi had someone in her family pass away. So we wanted to cheer her up, so we printed out ridiculous pictures of ourselves, pictures of them and us, and put them in a photo-book. And we took her chocolate. She said she loved it and it made her feel a lot better. 

This week, we're having a baptism in our branch. A really adorable 11 year old kid named Julian. :) We're really excited, because he's really awesome. I'm sure you're all wondering why you haven't heard anything about this kid, and it's because we're not teaching him. It's this really long story, and kind of a sensitive topic. But he's being taught by some English Elders. But we're really excited to see him enter the waters of baptism on the 26th. :) 

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and that you truly remember why we celebrate Christmas! Take some time to remember and reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ and the true reason why He was born. 

 

I know that Jesus Christ is truly our Savior. That He loves us so individually that he suffered for every single one of us. For our sins. For our sadness. For our weaknesses. I know that through Jesus Christ and His Atonement, we are never alone. We can overcome all things in our lives. I know that He lives, that He loves us, and He wants us to be happy. 

Feliz Navidad a TODOS! Les quiero mucho, 

Hermana Sherilyn Harper