I can't believe that the week of Christmas is already here! It should be good to get most of the crew home and enjoy some time with them. Tell everyone hi for me! I'm looking forward to getting to see you all for a few minutes though. If there's anything you want to talk about or ask me, write it down and have it ready because 40 minutes will fly by haha.
I'm hoping it's just the busyness of the people during this time of the year, but we're struggling to help people keep their appointments. We had 12 set appointments during the week and not a single one went through haha. It's always fun getting the chance to be out and talk to everyone though. On Saturday, we had our Christmas devotional with half of the mission and it was way good. Super spirit-filled and all centered on Jesus Christ. President had everyone who had been at the Christmas devotional last year stand up and I was one of not many. Then he made a comment about being old in the mission haha. It's weird how I've slowly become one of the older missionaries in the mission without even noticing it. I see the new missionaries come in and I feel like I was just there! He sent us an email todayinforming us of the new mission president that will be replacing him in July. President Robert M. Haynie from Shoreline, WA! I won't have a chance to meet him, but I figured maybe you'd hear of him or run into him sometime between now and then.
We also got a bunch of rain on Saturday. It rolled in super quick and we got soaked haha. It was a fun day though. Our mission now has our area book and plans on the iPad and I didn't want it to get wet out in the rain, so we just put it away and tracted all night. We ran into some pretty cool people and got a lot of referrals sent off. It's tough to find Hispanics sometimes! One guy was an African-American who answered the door and kind of unpleasantly said no thanks. We continued to knock the rest of the apartment complex and before we finished, he walked back out and he had on a 49ers beanie, so I commented him on it. We ended up talking for about 10 minutes and he completely changed and ended the conversation being real nice! Some people just need someone to be nice to them haha.
On Thursday, we had dinner with a member from Oaxaca and he prepared this plate called "Tuxtepecana." Apparently, from the area where the dish comes from, pineapples grow all over the place, so they are super cheap and the people have so many that they don't even know what to do with all of them. It's basically just a pineapple cut in half and gutted, filled with black beans and rice, a fried salad made with pineapple, tomato, and onion, topped with chorizo, and then cheese thrown on top. He also topped that with some shrimp and avocado. It's eaten with tortilla chips. It was good stuff! Then to top it off for dessert, we had chapulines which are basically grasshoppers. I love getting to eat all the different foods haha. I'll send a couple pics.
Well teammates, I guess we'll be talking soon! I hope you all have a great Christmas and that you are able to take some time to sit and quietly reflect on the reason for this season. I know that He was born over two-thousand years ago in a small town. I know that He lived a perfect life and then gave that life for us. I know His sacrifice allows us to improve and change. I know that He was resurrected and that in doing so, we all too will be resurrected. I know that He lives and that He loves us. I know that wise men still follow Him. May we all be counted among those wise men and continue to follow Jesus Christ and His perfect example during this Christmas season and throughout all the year. Merry Christmas! I love you!
Elder Reynolds
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