December 17

GREETINGS

Howdy ya'll. First of all I would like to inform you that yes I will be able to skype on Christmas and Bishop Caldwell's house. His skype address is brian.caldwell473 so you'll need to send him a request-a-majig-thing. We don't know for sure what time it will happen yet because they have a son who is also on a mission and we're probably gonna work around when he is skyping and stuff. We should have a time for sure by next Monday but if not I'm sure the necessary arrangements will be made. Father, I'm super jealous that you have already been skiing. That's one of the things I'll miss quite a bit. I'm definitely jealous about surfing too, that sounds like something I'm going to have to do someday for sure. Make sure you dedicate your greatest run of the day each day to me.

We had an awesome Christmas Zone Conference this week which was at the Rio Rancho stake center so we didn't have to travel anywhere really. It was really great. President and Sister Miller did a training on how we can make relating the first vision with our investigators (and anybody) a very sacred and spiritual moment. They did a roleplay with some of the Elder's and had us all say prayers in our hearts for them to bring the spirit into the room as they taught some sister missionaries. The spirit was so strong. Half of the mission all praying for the same thing makes a pretty awesome experience. I also got to see a lot of the missionaries who came out into the field with us. Elder Kendall is in a bike area and has lost 30 pounds since the MTC so he's looking sharp. It was really cool though. We got fed awesome food, gained weight, and felt the spirit in grand abundance. Now that's what I call a killer triple combination. Not a cool triple combination, a killer one. Remember that. We have two Christmas trees. They young men in the ward came over to our apartment and decorated a tree so we had to hide our other tree in the back room so that they couldn't see it. It was pretty funny. So now we have a tree in our front room and the other one is in the kitchen. I don't really know why it's there but that's where it is. We might give it to the ZLs. Remember how in Mazatlan we eat at Pancho's and they feed you those stuffed jalapenos? Well, a couple nights ago we ate a stuffed green chili. They pretty much look exactly the same but green chili has way better flavor. I have not received any boxes yet but I will be impatiently waiting for those to arrive.

Anyway, it snowed really hard one night here in Rio Rancho. We were down in the ghetto and it was time to go home and we started biking up the hill home and all of a sudden it just dumped on us. Mother nature destroyed us and annhilated my face with the snow. It stung. I couldn't look straight ahead it was that bad. We were planning on biking up the whole hill and not getting a ride but when we were covered in snow we decided to stop at the John's and get a ride the rest of the way up. I love snow, but not so much when you have to bike in it.

This week was a decent week as far as the work goes. One of our highlights was teaching a part member family named the Harney's the night we had our zone conference. Chris is the member and he has a solid testimony of the BoM but because of work he hasn't been able to attend church for quite a while. In January his work schedule will change and he will be able to come to church every Sunday so I'm way pumped for that! His wife Justyne is very Catholic and knows her stuff about Catholicism. Catholics are either hardcore or don't go to church ever but she she is staunchly Catholic. Anyway, they've been married for like 2 years and they're in their early twenties and have their first kid on the way. The first time we saw Chris we asked him if he would be willing to hear the lessons and he said he would be glad to but then he warned us that Justyne is Catholic and might not want to hear us out but when we went there she was all for listening. We brought a member with us who was a former Catholic and I'm not kidding when I say this but this dude could probably logically, scientifically, theologically prove that the church is true. That doesn't really matter but this guy is just crazy and knows pretty much everything. Anyway, to get back on track the spirit was definitely there as we talked about the Restoration of gospel and the first vision. I know that everyone felt it there for sure. We asked Justyne what it would mean to her if Joseph Smith was prophet and the BoM was true and she basically told us that she is content where she is at. Elder Jacobs and I apparently drank some bold sauce that morning because we said some of the boldest things I've ever heard either of us say. One of the things we told her was that we know for sure that this message is true and that. It's either the biggest lie ever or the greatest truth to ever come to the Earth and we made sure she knew that. Then out of nowhere, Chris bore a super powerful testimony about the BoM and how everytime he picks it up and reads from it he knows it is true. Chris wants his wife to know that this is true as well. We're not sure where this all will go but I'm so excited to work with the Harney's. They are gone till about January but it will be awesome. That was one of the coolest lessons we've had but I don't think my description really did it justice.

As for the Malachi and Cowboy situation, this week nothing much happened there. We tried by their house almost everyday during the week and they were never home until Saturday night. All we had time for was to re-invite them to church and they said that they'd be up and ready. We had arranged for a member to go and pick them up yesterday morning and when he got there and knocked on the door nobody answered... Later that night we went back over and they both said they were really sorry but they slept in. Malachi was pretty sad and the first thing he asked us was if he could come to church with us next week. Of course he could!

I forgot to mention that we both spoke in church yesterday too. We spoke about giving and receiving gifts so naturally as missionaries, we talked about giving the gift of the gospel to others and receving spiritual blessings for that. We invited like 10 people to come to church and hear us speak and they all said they would come and that they were excited to come but in the end only Shariy showed up. Gordon was super sick so he wasn't able to make it. We taught Gordon the word of wisdom this week and he knows that he needs to quit smoking and he really wants to. Gordon loves the BoM and has his copy of it all marked up. He's the man. We also kind of touched on the law of chastity a little bit but we definitely need to go over that more in depth with him.

We had a lot of other cool things this week too but I don't have much more time. We're gonna go play some tennis and bball. I'm excited for tennis but I'll probably be horrible. This week I was reading in 3Nephi and what really impressed me was chapter 19:28-29. It's when Christ prays for those who have been given out of the world as His servants. I know that Christ pleads for all of us and wants what is best for us. He wants us to feel the power of the Atonement which makes it possible for us to become like Him and our Heavenly Father. I know the Savior lives. I know our Father in Heaven loves us and answers our prayers and pours out so many blessings on us that we can't even notice them all. I love the gospel and I love this church. I'm so grateful to have been born into it!

Now it's time to go smash the ZLs in tennis!

Elder Black