Week 45 - I'm grateful for this Christmas season.

Chillin' and waiting for calls last night.

Elder Smith: "What did the farmer say when he lost its tractor?

Elder Me: "No idea. What?"

Elder Smith: "...where's my tractor?"

hahahah. Stupid jokes.

Elder Smith chasing a crazy member's kid. hahah he's awesome.

Well here we are chillin' in a small town college campus here in Sierra Vista. I think there's slightly over 20,000 people here? Rough guess. I felt a bit of weight on my shoulders coming into the area, but this past week reaaally helped out and it's awesome to be out here.

We are trying to get a YSA branch formed down here, since there's enough YSA aged people. Tomorrow and Wednesday (before D-meet in Douglas) we're going to Seminary where one of our members are teaching. Hopefully something good will happen. Nothing a little fasting and praying can't handle.

Let's start off by going over our baptism we had on Thursday! It was for a 9 year old whose name is Jeffrey. They set a date with him the day before I got here, so it was sudden and was fun to jump into it. The baptism went well and he was confirmed right then and there. His baptism was the 2nd time I've met with him...but it went well and had a really good turn out. YES!

Jeffrey's baptism! It went smoothly and had no problems. 

I've learned that life isn't necessarily about being COMFORTABLE, but it's more focused on being COMFORTABLE with CHANGE. If you sit in your comfort zone, it's hard to learn since we learn by experience. But if we get thrown out of it (like being transferred) it teaches you more than staying in the same area for two years straight. Just a thought. 

Elder Smith had the mindset of getting a real Christmas tree this season...so nonetheless, we have one! :D YES! We had just a few minutes to spare, so we quickly went and skimmed over a few trees, and then went up to the front where the display tree was...it was bigger, nicer, and cheaper ($20) than any others. So what happened is, the worker bought us the little bow on top of the tree, and then while we were splitting it up between us, the same worker threw down $10 and said, "Merry Christmas!" and walked off. AWESOME. So we have a real 6-7' tree in our kitchen. 

Our Christmas tree. :D

From one of my buds who went home this past Wednesday (What's up Elder Banner!) gave me this tie. LANCER FOR LIFE.

One of our finding ideas was tracting down houses with Christmas lights to tell them how we like their decorations and then make the transition to talking about Christmas resembling Christ and how we invite people to "come unto Christ." We picked up a couple potentials and will be seeing them this Tuesday. We had two Priests with us then, so we're glad they got to experience some of it.

They've been working with a couple investigators for a couple months now named Jen and Jeff. We have ALMOST gotten them to come to a couple activities, but things have gotten in the way. Bleh. Satan is not a stupid man and knows how to pull some strings. I think it was a picture I saw that showed two guys. One was a very evil man and only had 1 of Satan's workers with him trying to tempt him. The other man was righteous and had 10 or 12 of Satan's workers on him trying to tempt him to do evil. It's such a blessing that the Gospel (which freakin' rocks this world - literally.hah.) can overpower any of that. It's sad how the world isn't quite realizing what Christmas is about. Bleh. Whatevs. Just more stuff to work with! :D

Being a ZL now puts me where we deal with more things. So it may come down on our shoulders and what not. We had an incident with some missionaries this past week which some guy really over-reacted, but all was good after a call to President Killpack. More errands, calls, and lots of other things. It's a blessing to be more involved with the work out here which I love. It rocks. Even though sleep is as important anymore haha.

If I have your address, you'll probably be getting a Christmas card we're making today....keep your mail boxes ready..

After serving in Deming, I've learned that there is potential no matter where you serve. The harder the area, the more we must rely on the good man above to deliver. Plus the members out here and are SO awesome which truly has a huge impact on the work.

Our Sunday's are quite busy, and will get more busy next year. We teach mission prep. every Sunday morning before 9 o'clock church, then have meetings, scheduled appointments, and then calls later that night. It's pretty insane that if you stay busy how fast time flies. DANG. 

Yesterday we talked with some members who wanted us to come and see a friend of theirs. SICK. We went over and her friend didn't really know what was going on, but has been interested in the Mormon religion. We went over there amongst the chaotic ness of the little kids and were able to teach the Restoration which went well considering the conditions. The spirit was there. At the end, the prompting was there to invite her to be baptized, but the kids started talking and what not. Elder Smith turned to me and said, "Go for it and I'll follow." Alright! I started talking and then was able to invite her, and with no questions asked, she said "yes!" After that her apparently 11 year old daughter asked "Can I be baptized too??" hhooooold up there. Yes. It was awesome. We have appointments with them and will be teaching them both. It was a good week this past week, and it was all from God blessing us in our efforts. Hopefully we can keep it going out here.

A member gave to us to give to other missionaries as a referral. He had a lot of fun preparing this. haha. 

Well, time is almost up. I'm grateful for this Christmas season. Although it's quite weird to be somewhere where it's 60+ degrees and almost Christmas time (which is AWESOME) it's an incredible opportunity to help people improve the quality of their life by letting the Gospel do its thing. These scriptures have stood out this past week. D&C57:10 and Luke 1:79. There's so much darkness out there, it's stupid. But God loves all of His children, regardless if we feel that we deserve it or not. I love this Gospel so much! I miss a lot of people at home, but there's absolutely nothing better than serving.

I love you all.

MERRY CHRISTMAS YO!!

Can't wait to Skype home!! :D (sorry friends)

-E.D.J.Hales