Happy New Year!

Crazy Crazy Week.

I'm sorry that it rained on you all down there. I hope you're all enjoying it anyway.

My week was pretty much a roller coaster.

Last Tuesday (P-Day) we were up in Windsor because the Elders up there invited us to go to a funeral...for P-Day. It was super awkward, but we got lunch afterwards. So that's good I guess. Later that day a member in Windsor texted us and asked us if we could help him move some big stuff (refrigerator, washer, etc.). So we did and he surprised us by feeding us steak afterwards. It was SO sweet. I don't think I've had steak like that since I've been on my mission...which has been a long time. :)

We had District Meeting last Friday, so I brought some fudge that I had failed at making (because it didn't set), and we used it for Banana Splits!! So that worked. We also celebrated New Year's Eve Eve. So that was good. Later on Friday I went on an exchange with Elder Anthony Bybee from Kimberly, Idaho. He is a stellar guy and we had a great time. 

Saturday was New Year's Eve!!! Elder Bybee (since he's half Venezuelan) wanted to go to the Venezuelan restaurant in Leamington. So we had a delicious lunch there. It's sad because he doesn't speak Spanish so the elderly waitress there ranted about his parents and how they should've taught him Spanish. I told her (in Spanish) that my father is Colombian and he taught me a little, so no complaints there. ;)

Later that day we did some service for a member, then we went back up to Windsor to spend New Year's Eve with the Elders up there. We met a sweet Costa Rican part member family up there (who hopefully we'll teach and baptize the parents) and then we went to the apartment. I had prepared to make a Smores Cheesecake for New Years, but when we got to their apartment, their oven was broken. Somehow it slipped their minds (after I talked up making this cheesecake for days) that you need a working oven to make a Cheesecake. So no Cheesecake. But that's okay!! Because I made it today. See photos below.

The New Year's was pretty chill though. We went on the porch at Midnight, and cheered and yelled and looked at Detroit. The Motherland. 2017. I'm coming home. :')

When Sunday rolled around. We were tired and hungry (because it was fast Sunday) and I may have dozed off a few times in sacrament meeting. Whoops. Later that day, though, we stopped by our Venezuelan investigator who postponed us until the New Year. She was super happy to see us and super grateful for the little Book of Mormon we got for her for Christmas. She still hasn't read it though. :|

On her own anyway. We re-committed her to reading it and she seems solid about reading it this time. So that's great.

Monday, we had a sweet lesson with two investigators that we've been trying to meet with, basically since we got to Leamington. It was a sweet lesson, we watched the Restoration video and committed them both to coming to church. They're a mother and father who have been trying different religions for most of their life. Now they're going to try ours!! They remind me a lot of you two, Mom and Dad. They talk a lot and the man has a beard and a belly and reminds me of cavemen. Like you Dad. ;) Hopefully we'll see them this Sunday!!

One super sweet experience I had this week was, on exchanges with Elder Bybee, we visited a member in the hospital who I had never met before. From comments from members and one phone call we had with her, I was expecting a cranky, cold old woman. But when we got there, and I saw her, I felt this overwhelming sense of love for her. I can't even talk about it right now without tearing up. We talked with her for about an hour and she became one of my favorite people in the whole wide world. He name is Laurena and she is missing a foot because of a disease she has called Sharku Disease. Because of that disease she will soon loose her other foot. But she was actually in the hospital because she caught pneumonia. So she has a lot of things not going so well for her. Nonetheless, she was one of the happiest people I've ever met and was delighted to talk with us. I ended up giving her a blessing and I KNEW that she was going to be alright. She'll overcome the pneumonia and get back to her everyday life. I felt so much love for that little woman lying in the hospital bed. I can't explain it in words other than it was Charity. The pure love of Christ. As a missionary you have these experiences and grow to love the people you work with because of the Spirit and the Charity you feel with them. And then you have to leave them. THAT! is the hardest part of missionary work. It's not the cold, it's not knocking doors, it's not homesickness, it's not bad companions. It's leaving the people you love and have had incredible experiences with. And there's a lot of those people. But that's life. We are blessed, though, with the knowledge that one day, we will dwell with them in Heaven. With such joy and happiness that we can't even comprehend on this Earth. And I know that is true. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!!