Week 6 - December 19, 2011

Hi everyone!

I still can't believe it's December, and it's even weirder that it's almost Christmas! I get to talk to you guys next week! So weird. 

Well, my first transfer is over here in the field. It's been a pretty fast six weeks, and everyone says it only moves faster. I would have found out if I was leaving the area on Saturday. The President, Assistants, or Zone Leaders let everyone know if they're leaving or staying the Saturday before transfer meetings. This way we don't have to drive all the way to Louisville just to not get reassigned. The Elders did play a good joke on me though. We have a specific ringtone for the President, and we heard it go off. So Elder S ran and answered it. I didn't hear much of what he said, but he came back and said, "You're going to Louisville on Tuesday -- you're going to be training a greenie." Naturally, I started freaking out about it all, wondering why President Woodbury would trust me to train someone when I still have a hard time navigating our area! They told me like, an hour and a half later that it was a joke. Elder S changed the ringtone on the phone so that I thought the President was calling, but it was just the Frankfort Elders who were in on the joke. It was mean, but it was pretty good. Thank goodness I'm not training though! Haha.

The work has been slower this week. We did a lot of service with members this week since we didn't have many teaching appointments. I love the members in the ward, and the amount that they feed us is just nuts. All day Christmas Eve and Christmas we have families scheduled to go play games and eat food. We really won't spend much time in the apartment those days, which is kind of cool, but it also kind of wears you out a little bit too! Haha. 

My District

The Zone Leaders (Elders C and D) live in Lexington and serve in a Singles Branch. Well, since school is out, they are really bored and have nothing to do. They came down and we went on a "blitz" where we trade companions for the day. Elder C and I went tracting, and we were invited into a couple of Spanish homes. He doesn't speak Spanish, so it was all on me. It went pretty well and one of them, Victor, is super promising. He didn't make it to church, but we'll follow up with him soon, because he really seemed interested, and doesn't have any religion in his life. We also were welcomed into a home of this guy and his son. They had tons of questions and seemed cool, but then the Dad said that he's going to school to be a pastor or whatever, and then he's going back to Mexico to devote his life to helping young people see the light. I tried to tell him that we have the truth. He said he accepts lots of things, and that he believed the Book of Mormon was something totally possible. Well, if it's true then we have the one true way! But I had a hard time spitting that out and explaining it to him. But anyway, the Spanish all worked out okay, so that was good. 

Spanish speakers

The other thing we had was a Christmas Devotional in Lexington that President and Sister Woodbury put on. It was just the two zones in Lexington that met up -- I guess President is going around slowly but surely to all the zones that way. Anyway, they put on a really nice devotional. It was cool to go and see lots and lots of other missionaries. I still don't know many people, so going to that kind of stuff is weird, but it was lots of fun. I met the other Spanish speakers. They are way cool, so that was fun. After the devotional we played a game called "Who Wants to Be a Preach My Gospel Missionary?" I was selected to play as a contestant in front of the live studio audience. I only answered a few right, because they asked questions that are super specific, like, "which chapter and section is this tiny quotation from?" But it was tons of fun anyway. 

Things are going well. I'm excited to talk to you guys soon, so I can show you guys that I do speak a little Spanish, and I can talk a little more about everything we do and how awesome this place is. It just isn't the same in letters.

Think about the true meaning of Christmas this week. I know I'm a preachy missionary, but I wish we had "Joy to the World" in our apartment so we could watch it. We live for church videos we can share with people, partly because it's the only media we're exposed to, but also because they can be really powerful. Watch it this weekend and remember that, yes, gathering the family together is great, but celebrating the birth of the Savior is our true purpose.

I love you guys! Talk to you soon! :)

Love,
Zac