From what I heard from everyone Christmas was a success, and that new years should be fun as well! This week has been pretty awesome for sure! On Monday the whole mission went over to Sonzacate to have a mission party. There was a talent show, games, and as well as a more spiritual part, talking about the birth of Christ. It really got me motivated to start working a little harder and searching for more people who need his love. There was a scripture that kept coming to my head the whole time. It goes very well with the scripture on my mission plaque (omni 1:26) It's from Heleman 3:35. It talks about the sanctification of your heart as you give it unto Christ. In that part of the scriptures the church was going through a lot of trouble and hardship because of the prideful members. But those who trusted in Christ took that hardship and used it to grow. Don´t know why but it just kept coming back to my mind this past week, especially during the meeting.
The Bishop also invited us over to eat at his house on the 24th. We had turkey, rice, bread, and wait for it ROOTBEER!! Here a can of rootbeer cost about a dollar which really thinking about it is a normal price. But here that's just ridiculous. It was so nice to get to drink some good ole A&W rootbeer again. The turkey was also really good, I ate so much I almost threw up, but it was totally worth it. He is also giving us dinner tommorow for new years which should be way good as well. Rest assured I am being well fed. We were being pretty carefull that day because mostly the Christmas tradition here is to get crazy drunk and walk around the streets, or go to the beach and drink there. The whole city just reaked of alcohol. But luckily drunk people can´t walk very fast so we were able to avoid most of them. New years eve is supposudly going to be worse, but we will be fine. The strangest thing was that no one was home on Christmas Eve. The streets were just empty, and no one was home. We ended up going and meeting a few less active famlies that live out in the jungle, about a kilometer outside of Campos Verdes. Which was pretty fun. Some very humble people.
Christmas morning of course we got to skype the family which is always a treat. Thinking back on it, its the second to last time that I am going to be able to do it. Baggy thought for the day. You all seemed like you were having fun, and doing well. No one cried either which was good.
in response to some questions that people had. While we have four missionaries here in the ward, we both have seperate houses. I would prefer to have four to a house, but that's the way it is. There are a total of eight missionaries in our district, four here in Campos Verdes, and four more in this place called Nuevo Lourdes. All gringos. Which makes things pretty interesting. We all get along really well and it makes P-days and district meeting really fun. This next Monday we are going to go to the Ruins that are really close to here in this place called San Andres, we already have the bus and everything. So just FYI I won´t write that day until later, hopefully around 1 or 2 in the afternoon.
Now that 2013 is almost over I have been thinking alot about what I want to accomplish in 2014. I don´t know about you guys but there are lots of things I would like to change, better habits and talents I would like to develop. I would like to challenge all of you to put high goals. And then work hard to reach them. A few of my goals include: becoming 100% fluent in spanish, exercise every day, and be able to do 100 pushups straight by the end of the mission, baptize more than 13 people and read through the bible and triple, in spanish, twice. I want to make the best of my time here, and realizing now that I only have another year to do it kinda scares me. Lets go! Okay I´ll talk to you all next year! 2014 here we come!!!
Elder Schriever
