The Week Before Christmas!

This week was kind of a weird one. It's been weird watching the calendar get closer to Christmas but not seeing any snow. No skiing, no sledding, no Christmas music. Well no good Christmas music. The stuff they play here, not all that great. Haha. There will definitely be a different feeling to Christmas this year, but that's ok. We should be going to a member's house for Christmas at least and that should be pretty fun. And we may even have a dinner appointment for Christmas Eve! Which is great because lately we've just been goin with spaghetti a lot. 

On Monday, we didn't do a whole lot. Just a typical P Day. But we did buy some hammocks! We set them up inside our apartment so we've gotten to sleep in those a couple nights and it's been nice to have.

On Tuesday, we got to work with the new Senior Couple Missionaries for the first time. We took them to on of our less actives, Charita, and I had to translate everything for them because they don't learn the language before they come over. They had a great time though, and we even let them teach part of the Restoration in a first lesson we had with a potential investigator. Again I had to translate what they said and everything else, but they absolutely loved it and want to work with us again soon. 

Wednesday, we started off the morning with a service project for Charita by doing yardwork. This meant taking some machetes and hacking at bushes for a couple hours, but by the end, it actually looked pretty decent. She thanked us by making us a TON of food. But it paid off because she came back to church for the first time in years on Sunday!

Thursday was...Christmas Conference! The whole mission went to Naga for a party where we had food, a movie, and a talent show. Elder Asbell and I started off the day in Naga by stopping at the closest McDonald's, just so I could have a taste of American food and it was GOOD. Worth every peso. At the Conference, I got to catch up with all the other missionaries I know and it was a ton of fun. Afterwards, we stopped at the mall in Naga because I wore a whole through one of my rubber shoes. 

Friday was an interesting day of work. We went to an investigator's house to teach, and the lesson was going ok. He knows what we are saying is true, but basically he just wants to read and attend church. Not get baptized. What? Then he started randomly singing some Born Again Christian song out of nowhere. I'm not sure if he expected us to join in or not, but it was pretty weird.

Saturday was our Branch Christmas party. They bought a whole roast pig for the Branch and had videoke, games, and more. It was a ton of fun. We had to leave a little early to go try and get some lessons, but when we got to the house, the guy was drunk because it was his daughter's sixth birthday. But he invited us in and gave us some food, so it wasn't too bad. Then we walked into the middle of nowhere in pitch darkness trying to find a referral and ended up staying out way past when we can usually catch a ride back to central Nabua and we were about a 2 hour walk back. But then, while we were walking back, some tricey driver pulls over and says "It's me, your friend! Get in, no charge!" It turns out he saw us and felt like he should pick us up, because we were out "sacrificing". We had talked to him twice before this, but got interupted both times so we never got to the Gospel. We realized this was our chance to get his name so we could visit us and he seemed so happy to have us over! We will go back this week.

Overall this week was fun, and even had a couple unexpected little miracles. I'm going to miss all of you as Christmas comes up, but I'm so happy to be out here serving right now! Love you all so much, and I'm excited to see how your Christmas went next week!

Elder Van Boerum

12/22/13

Buko (coconuts) 

Sunset