Feliz Navidad

Hey Mom and Dad,

Man I can´t believe it´s Christmas week! Seems like just yesterday I got here (and actually it literally kind of does, the weather hasn´t changed much at all:). I´m glad it sounds like all of you are doing good. That´ll be exciting to have Robbie and Kristen there, and I bet it´s already great to have Ryan. I´m excited to be able to talk to them since I didn´t get to on Mother´s day. And wow so you got a new horse for Christmas mom?? That´s awesome! Lol I´m glad haven´t you been keeping your eye out for a while.

But anyways, so this week I got the most packages that I´ve ever gotten in one week and I´m pretty sure I will ever get in one week, lol. I´ve felt so spoiled I almost felt bad for the other missionaries. It was crazy too because we had Conference (which was AWESOME I´ll tell you about later) and so we got all our mail there and Hermana Gamboa came up to me and was like “Elder, you have been getting package after package in the office, we have counted up about seven!” lol, just because I got the 3 packages from you this week and two packages from you the week before, then Grandma sent me a package and Melissa and Aunt Janet and some other friends. So yeah thank you so much. And thanks for all the candy and stockings for the other elders, I think I´ll have to try and get up early and play Santa Claus to give them each a stocking and candy and everything. I hope it´s ok I decided to open everything today instead of Christmas, I figured I´d rather see it all and feel a bit trunky today instead of when we´ve got to teach ;P And yeah the tie is awesome and everything you sent. We listened to the tabernacle choir Christmas CD this morning when we were cleaning, lol that was fun. It was great especially getting the pictures and that picture book. It was great seeing the old and modern pictures. Just made me miss home a bit :P So yeah tell Grandma and everyone thanks for the packages.

But anyways, so everything here is going great. The best day was definitely Thursday. I don´t know if i told you but the president told us that this month we were going to be able to go to the temple!!! So finally this week we found out that we were going on Thursday! Our sessión was at 8 in the morning so we had to get up a little extra early and as a zone went to Guayaquil. It was awesome because Elder Ethridge´s zone was there as well as Sister Brown´s so I saw them and several other missionaries that I knew. It´s fun I think I´m at the point where I have enough time to have known a good number of missionaries so now zone conferences are even better because I see missionaries that I know and have worked with. It was fun seeing Sister Brown because we talked about how crazy it is how we´ve already been out in the field for so long. She is already halfway done with her mission! Then of course entering the temple was awesome. Only thing was after our sessión we had zone conference in the lobby of the hotel, so we didn´t have much time to stay in the Celestial room but that was alright. It was crazy hearing and going through it all in Spanish. I think I´m kind of glad now that I went through after having some time here so I was actually able to understand it all. Had it been my first day I wouldn´t have gotten anything, lol.

But yeah then the conference after was amazing. First the Temple president spoke to us and that was awesome. He told us about the general visión of the area presidency has a lot of focus on the temple. How getting members baptized is only the first step because it´s the temple that everything focuses on. We can only gain exaltation through temples. It was neat to hear. He also taught us a way simple but effective way of teaching the plan of salvation. It was neat. Then after of course President spoke to us about Christmas and baptism and this time of year. It was more jovial than usual. Than lastly Hermana Gamboa spoke some words and then asked if we had any gifts yet, lol then she told us of course the missión was giving us gifts! Then she had the assistants bring out a wrapped present for every missionary there! I was surprised, I couldn´t believe that they had bought a present for every missionary in the missión. But it was definitely awesome. I got a hymn book cover, tie and socks. Others got shirts and pictures. It was way neat. After we all took pictures as a group and then by the temple. I couldn´t believe it but I forgot my camera so I´ll have to get the pictures from someone else in our zone.
Then when we finally got back, believe it or not, we had a baptism!! 9-year-old Juan got baptized. His parents were less active but are now coming back. So yeah it was an amazing thing to see. I´m pretty sure a day in the life of a missionary couldn´t get much better than that, lol. Temple in the morning, Conference afternoon, seeing missionary friends from other sectors, then ending the day with a baptism. Yeah, it doesn´t get much better than that :P

Other than that everything is going well. This week should be pretty crazy. We´re getting lots of investigators telling us that we have to pass by at specific times on Wednesday, i wonder why ;) lol then Christmas should be great as well. Yeah it definitely doesn´t feel too much like Christmas yet, but yeah like you said Dad that might be better because it feels like a normal work day. If it felt too much like Christmas at home that´d probably just make it harder :P it´s sweet because we have 2 baptisms planning for the weekend after Christmas so we´re excited.
Other than that-- oh I had the opportunity to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday. I didn´t have as much time to prepare it so I was a little more worried but I ended up going over on time (the second counselor had to slip a piece of paper in front of me saying “TIEMPO” (time) lol so I hope it was good. I guess I need to get better at putting all my thoughts and what I wanna say in an 8 minute span better, lol.

Alright well I´d better get going. Thanks again for all the packages and letters! I love you and can´t wait to hear from you Friday!!

Love,Elder David Frome