Merry Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we were able to skype with Jordan!  It was so fabulous!  The whole Bell family was here and we were able to visit with him fo 2 hours!  It was one of the best Christmas presents I think I've ever received.  It was so great to actually see him, watch him laugh, and to know that he is doing well and is being blessed while he is away from us.  The most exciting news of the day however was that he had a baptism in the morning before we spoke.  So even being in Mexico, he still had a "white" Christmas after all!
Tammy


¡Hola!

Feliz Navidad y prospero año!  Christmas has already past, and it was very different from all of the rest, but it was a good Christmas for me.  It was really neat to be able to talk to everyone.  But everything is going well down here in Comitancillo.  The parties are continuing, there is one outside the internet site right now, and also one right next to our house, hopefully they don't keep us up too long.  All of the fiestas will go all the way into the first week of January probably.  Its still kind of weird that the new years is bigger than Christmas.

I hope that you all did have a great Christmas and that everyone was able to travel home safely.  I don't have too much more to talk about because of the skype call, but I will move onto the questions.

(Did either you or Elder Vega get moved today?)

1.  We didn't find out until about an hour ago (4:00).  But the cambios won't be into effect until tomorrow.  So I'm going to be moving to... Comitancillo!  Hopefully that didn't freak you out and you remembered that that is my area that I'm already in.  So I quedaré here and Elder Vega will be moving off to the small pueblo of Comitancillo!... you should know that by now.  So we are both going to be staying here as comps.  Nothing interesting happened to us with the cambios.  We have a lot of work ahead of us in this Cambio, but I am hoping that we can see some more success.  I'm happy that we got to end this cambio with a baptism, and also on Christmas Eve!  It was truly a humble but beautiful experience.  I was able to feel the love of the Lord as we held a small service with only seven people beside a small river.

(How was Christmas?  How were the gifts?)

2.  Christmas was great!  I'm so lucky to have such a loving Mom, Elder Vega had a good time as well.  We really enjoyed being able to open presents and look through the missionary tip book that went with the stockings (though we noted how many tips there were about cars).  But I think that it was something special and different for Elder Vega.  Thank you so much for all of the things that you sent.

The Aggie shorts are really cool, they are big for Elder Vega, but he wouldn't change with me, but they work.  And we will be able to get air into the ball, we will probably use it next Monday.  We went to play sports the other Monday with the jovenes, but nobody had a soccer ball, so we played basketball.  (which was fine with me)  but now we can use the ball, one of the members has a pump for his bike.

(What did you end up doing on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?)

3.  We went and shared a message with a few members, but we returned home a little bit early, because the fiestas were getting a little bit out of hand.  But we opened the two Christmas Eve packages and we played the game you sent us, I think that it will be perfect for some family home evenings.  On Christmas we were surprised by how many people actually came to church, it was still low in number, but there were lots of excuses that people could use to not go, such as "my family is here", or "I was up really late."  But we had 25 people there!  And one of them was a less active that hasn't come for all of the Sundays that I have had here, we also confirmed Ruben in the Sacrament Meeting.  Later we went and ate with a family, we talked and sang some Christmas songs.  Then we went to visit all of the people that we knew, we didn't find too many.  About half of Comitancillo was in a grand quince-años fiesta, and the rest all had family and didn't want to let us in.  But we got to visit a few people, and I brought my guitar to play Silent Night.  Oh ya, and I also gave a talk in Sunday, it was a really good talk (I think).  I talked on the Savior and his Atonement, I shared a story taken from the book you sent me a while ago.  I thought it went well, my opinion isn't whats important, but its all I've got.

4.  Oh, I combined question 3 and 4 into 3.  Oops

I also want to thank Grandma for the presents that she sent me, and everyone else for the letters, I really did enjoy them all.  Also the Huff's sent me a package with some delicious M and M's, I already ate them all and also with a nerf football.  Ruben really likes football,Ii don't know how a Mexican even really learns anything about that, and we passed the ball with him a little bit on Christmas Day.  So we will be able to play all sorts of sports to help bring the young men closer to one another and to be with Ruben as well. Ii also received Grandma K´s package with lots of treats, the package from the Johnson's also came a while ago, but I want to thank them.  And also to Grandpa Call for the money that he has sent.  I'm sorry that I don't have any way to respond personally, but it really did mean a lot to me that so many people remembered me and sent those packages and the letters, Thank you to all of you.

I love you all so much, thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers.  I hope that you all had a great Christmas, and that everyone will have a happy new years.  Always remember that the Savior loves all of His children, and He loves you too.  I always have had that thought in my mind since I was young, butIi have learned it for real out here in Oaxaca, please remember that, and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Call