Merry Christmas! I almost don´t know what to write to you because I´ll be able to talk to you on Thursday! I am so, so excited to see you all.. I think as a missionary you just get so used to being without your family and only communicating with them once a week that when it hit me on Saturday morning that I´m really going to see you and be able to talk to you for the first time in 7 months I got really, really excited!
All is well here in Guadalupe 2. On Wednesday we dropped Hermana Lopez off at the bus center and she traveled first to Torreón and then home to Oaxaca on Thursday. The first week with Hermana Quispe has gone really well! She´s a great missionary and really, really easy to get along with. We´ve been having a good time together. I can tell we´re going to grow a lot together. I´m so grateful to Heavenly Father and Presidente for giving me the opportunity to be here with her in this area at this time. There were some humbling moments for me last week as I took on a little bit more responsibility as senior comp, but so far we´re okay. I know Heavenly Father will continue putting me in the situations I need to be in to grow.
This Saturday our investigator Rosa is going to be baptized! We met her about four months ago when we began teaching her brother Carlos, who was baptized in November. For about two and a half months she listened to us but always told us that she already went to a Church, etc, etc. But in October she started going to Church and about a month ago we had a FHE with a family in the ward where we watched the 20 minute Joseph Smith video and talked for a long time about all of her doubts and questions about the Restoration. We invited her to pray about Joseph Smith and two days later when we asked her if she had received an answer to her prayer, she told us she had and accepted the invitation to be baptized. Ever since then she has been so firm in her decision to be baptized in spite of all of the opposition that she´s faced in the past month. She is so excited to be baptized and I am so excited for her!
I am so grateful for this time of year in which we have the opportunity to remember our Savior Jesus Christ and His birth. I know that because of His atoning sacrifice we can repent of all our sins and weaknesses and live better each day, and eventually return to live with Him and our Heavenly Father. He is my Savior and my Redeemer and my best friend. I love Him and I love this opportunity that I have to serve Him as a missionary.
I love you all so much and I´ll talk to you on Thursday!!!!
Hermana Southard
