Almost a New Year

Oh man, oh MAN did I have a crazy week! Mostly the good kind of crazy though.

So Monday was the usual P-Day routine, but then we started a Fast as a Mission at 6pm. We were fasting for Mission Goals that would help us be more effective in our service. Tuesday was the day where we did the most work this week, or at least tried to. A lot of things fell through, but we broke our fast at 6pm after 24 hours. That soup tasted really, REALLY good!

Then Wednesday, this is where a large part of the crazy comes in. We wake up early, carpool with some Elders up to the Mission Office, and meet up with ALL the Missionaries in the Houston Mission. English AND Spanish, we filled the gym! We were all there for Mission P-Day. We started with a song, prayer, some Testimonies and Talks, then we broke into three groups to give a couple hours of service. My group went to a GoodWill kind of store to do whatever they needed. It was really fun, except for the part where I sliced open my arm on a screw that was sticking out of a wooden pole. Owies. They didn't have bandaids so I got a big patch of gauze taped to my arm. It was funny seeing people's faces when I told them I'd been attacked by some wild animal, haha!

We returned to the Hafer Chapel next to the Mission Office for lunch, then it was off to cycle between playing Ultimate Frisbee, building Gingerbread Creations, and thowing "cow pies" (a.k.a. frozen beef pot pies). My favorite part was the gingerbread, which was actually graham crackers. My companion and I made a replica of the Last Supper and many people agreed that we should have won. I am also in that opinion, I was beat out by a cheap baptismal font! *shake fist* Ah well, it was fun eating our creation afterwards. I walked around asking friends "Would you like to eat an Apostle?"

After that we changed to look nice and took a Mission Picture all together, another chunk of craziness. Then it was dinner, followed by a very good Christmas Devotional with a lot of beautiful Musical Numbers. I was sooooooo tiiiired after it was all done!

Then Thursday we had the chance to go to the Temple and had some lessons in the evening when we were back. Friday was CRAZY, Hispanics celebrate New Years Eve, usually staying up until Midnight to open their presents and going to sleep like 2-4am. We couldn't stay out that late, but we did have dinner appointments every two hours.... uuurgh... Well the first one was Filet Mignon wrapped in bacon, Mmmmm. THAT was nummy. The following meals were also nice, but I was so full I could not properly enjoy them I'm afraid. We followed the Spanish Tradition and opened our presents Friday Night before going to sleep.

On Saturday we went and had a breakfast of Pasole at an Investigator's house, then we basically chilled out for the rest of the day since we were not allowed to Proselyte at all. So we hung out with some Elders in the Chapel, playing basketball, piano, frisbee, nerf guns, watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas, ate stuffed French Toast, aaaand at some point in there I passed out on a pew because I'm sick. It was a good day :)

Yesterday despite all odds we had a Baptism! Of someone who had been Investigating for like nine months! It was so awesome! He was really happy too so that was the best part to see.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well, and will have a Safe and Happy New Year!!

Love and Good Wishes,
~ Hermana Smart