A Very Feliz Navidad

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!

 

On Christmas Eve, Hermano and Hermana Aragon (he is the Elders Quorum President and she is the Relief Society President) took all 8 of us Union City missionaries to Olive Garden! That must have been a huge check! They're awesome. It was a really fun Christmas Eve treat!

 

Christmas was great. In the morning we opened our presents from home (the ones that we hadn't opened yet haha) and then we went out and contacted like crazy. We gave out 6 Book of Mormons and probably 40 He is the Gift cards! First we visited Martha (the Ecuadorian lady we reactivated) and then we went to spend the afternoon with the Quiles family (the same one that fed us on Thanksgiving). They fed us a super good lunch and then we got to Skype our families at their apartment!

 

Calling my family on Christmas morning to set up our Skype time for that afternoon.

I may or may not have been crying a bit ;)

 

 

 

 

Christmas Day I hit my 6-months mark! It was perfect because I got to Skype my family for Christmas and it had been exactly 6 months since I had talked to them. I was proud of myself for only crying at the very end haha. It was so good to talk to them and see how they were doing. 

 

This is my only Christmas in the mission (I should get home two days before Christmas next year) so I definitely made the most of it! How special it is to be a full-time representative of Jesus Christ during the time of year when we celebrate His birth. It was weird being away from home but I know this is where I needed to be this Christmas. 

 

Oh something else cool is that Sister Galvan got called as a sister training leader and now she is in Bayonne so she gets to do exchanges with the sisters in Union City, Jersey City, and West New York. So on Friday I went to Bayonne and she was here in her old area with Sister Stone for the day so I'm sure that was fun!

 

Also, CARLOS WAS BAPTIZED YESTERDAY!! He is amazing. He had his baptismal interview on Friday (I missed it because I was on exchange in Bayonne) but he passed it with flying colors. The baptism went smoothly and he was so happy. At the end of the service he asked us if he could share his testimony. He is usually super quiet so we were surprised that he wanted to speak in front of a bunch of ward members he barely knows, but it was a beautiful and simple testimony. He is by far the easiest investigator I've ever found! We found him on December 2nd and he was baptized on the 28th! He just progressed so quickly and kept all his commitments without hesitation. One of those people that the Lord truly prepared to receive the Gospel. We found him the week we contacted 250 people. So we may have to contact a ton of people to find the prepared one, but it is so worth it when we do find them <3 He was truly a Christmas Miracle :) His two sons come to church with him but haven't been progressing as fast as he has. But now that Carlos is a member we are going to work really hard to get his sons to follow his example ;) I'll keep y'all posted on how that goes!

 

Peace, Love, and Happy New Year!

<3 Hermana Harris