Happy thought for all of you, the next coming December will
mark my homecoming. So whenever you miss me, just remember I will be back
before you know it :) As for me, it's A LOT OF TIME!! I don't want this to end
:) I am having a great experience here and love the work. Happy Birthday on the
6th Maddie! And congrats on the engagement, I'm really happy for you both and
am excited to have a new brother. Sounds like Thanksgiving was full of food and
good times! Everyone sounds like they are doing well! Good!!!
Well, Saturday had the most events so I will tell y'all
about it. I was putting on my makeup and felt like I should ask Hermana Ramirez
why Elder Temple called last night because she didn't tell me. I was going to
wait until we started breakfast, but then decided to ask her anyway. She turned
white and gasped and said, "WHAT TIME IS IT?? I FORGOT!!!" I told her
it was 7:20 and she said, "Oh Hermana! We have got to go!" I asked
her why and she said we had choir practice in Pradera and needed to leave in
the next 10 minutes to catch the buses. So we ran and ran to the bus and got
there on time for our big Christmas choir practice with the President. Good
thing I can run fast for a while. I am so happy we got there on time because if
you are late with the President, you get sent back to your area. (Good training
to be on time.) Anyways, we had a baptism that same night for the Elders of a
young man they were teaching named Edgar. For the baptism ordinance, the man performing
it did it with his left arm instead of his right arm. The Elders must have been
sleeping while acting as the witnesses or something because nobody took note of
it and they finished and went to go change after the baptism. When we stood up
and turned to walk out and go back for the talks and musical number, I was
still thinking that something was off with the baptism but couldn't put my
finger on it. Then it hit me and I told Hermana Ramirez that we needed to talk
to the Elders. Long story short, we had to gather everyone together again and
have Edgar change back into his baptism clothes and do it all over again. After
the baptism, we had a dinner. And guess what was cooking: MENUDO!!!!! I was
really excited to try it! All the ward members were very excited and were
telling me all the things I needed to put into the soup to make it taste good.
Hmmm, in the end it was really chewy, interesting, smelled really gross, and
did not settle well in my stomach. I don't want to say it was horrible, but it
was ha-ha. :) I had to finish though because everyone was soooooo excited about
it. I put on my big girl pants and downed that thing....but never again!!!! So
Saturday in a nut-shell: we got ready and arrived to Pradera in record time,
taught lessons, fixed a baptism, and ate menudo.
There is an initiative the Church is taking called, "El
es la Dadiva", which I think is "He is the Gift" for you guys.
It's super cool! The Church is having the missionaries world-wide do the same
thing because they want to bring Christ back into Christmas. They have
announcements in Times Square, cards to hand out, a hashtag, a video,
EVERYTHING!! As a matter of fact, you might get a little surprise in your
Facebooks sometime this month ;) It's that important....long story short, we
are going to be busy at this special time trying to help bring people closer to
the most precious gift any of us have ever received in our lives. You guys
should check out the video and share it!! :) I really love it, and right now I
know that I am right where I need to be, sharing this message with the people
here in Juarez. I am so grateful for Christ and all He has done for me.
Christmas is really a special time to remember Him and show our gratitude by
serving others and by sharing what we know. When Christ is the center focus of
our lives, mind and all, everything has so much more love to it! :) Sure, life
has a few bumps in the road to roll over, but there is so much happiness to be
found when we remember Him and who we are too. We are blessed!
Well, I love you all and hope that
you all have a great week :) Living the dream! XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Sister Anderton!!! I love your blog posts.
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