Oh family, what a wonderful time it is to be a missionary. Wow. The members of the ward and the other missionaries make this time of year so fun! We had a Specialized Training this past week and it was great! I got to meet all the other Spanish missionaries and we even said "Goodbye" to the missionaries that are leaving after this transfer. It is so funny because that seems like a thousand years away, but I know it will be great! For the last part of our training we split up into our districts and had a competition on who could make the best rap to "Deep in the Heart of Texas." It was so funny!! My Zone Leaders are the best and they rapped theirs. Everyone was cheering and I got it on camera! For the end of the training, we got to watch a movie. Missionaries are allowed to watch one movie for Christmas so we all watched Ice Age! My Mission President is the best, and he really pushes for excellence. It is amazing how he can really lift your spirits and make you excited for missionary work. It is sad that he will finish in June, and we will get a new Mission President but I am sure he will be great as well.
For service this week we sang carols with about 18 other missionaries from the English Zone and then our Spanish District! It was so fun, they appreciated us and they were singing along and dancing! This is such a fun time of year. We also tried to stop by a less active family in our area and see how they were doing and it turns out that the mom just had surgery and no one knew about it. So Hermana Vigil and I went in and cleaned her dishes and then we noticed that the Christmas Tree wasn't set up or decorated, so we asked if we could help. We were able to make this tree beautiful with the help of the 7 year old and the 4 year old and we listened to "Feliz Navidad" for a solid hour! It was so fun, the little boys were screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs and we were laughing. The funny part was that they only knew the Spanish part of the song and then they mumbled the English. We were laughing and having a great time. We were also able to find a member in the ward to come and give Hermana Hernandez a blessing after her surgery. It was a great way to serve another family and also lift our spirits after we had been knocking for hours.
I got to go on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders on Thursday night and that was fun. I got to go into Garland Texas and it is very different from my area. There are so many Hispanics and we taught so many lessons in 24 hours. I got to go with Hermana Ostler and I got to learn some new ways to teach lessons and to better my Spanish. Hermana Ostler is fluent so she helped a lot. It is very different seeing different areas, but I know that I am in Lewisville for a reason and there are specific people that I need to meet, even if there isn't a ton of Hispanics here!! Speaking of people I needed to meet, the Reyes family is amazing. They are the best investigators and we taught them this week. Hermana Reyes is just broken and needs people to lift her spirits so they sang "Abide with Me 'tis Even Tide" during the lesson and she was just balling. We have set a date for their baptism and it is a goal that we are working towards. They aren't married to we will have to throw a wedding for them, which is going to be so fun, but it is just great to see a family that is so open to the gospel. I will keep updating you guys on this family. Yesterday they came to church and we didn't even have to ask them. It was amazing, a Christmas miracle!
Yesterday, we had the Christmas program in the ward and the Missionaries got to sing in sacrament meeting. There were kids that were playing the flute and saxophone and it was just a wonderful meeting. We had the ward Christmas party on Saturday night and it was some nice Americanized food but also some tamales! Hispanics can cook really well and they love to be in the kitchen so I know that this week is going to be filled with some amazing food!! We are going to a family in our wards our for Christmas Eve to Celebrate "La Noche Buena" which is what they call Christmas Eve. They always make tamales for this event, so I am so excited. The family that we are eating with is so funny and they are just great company. Hispanics really don't celebrate Christmas Day so we are going to the Boyd's house in the morning to open presents and have a Christmas Breakfast and then for Christmas Dinner we are going to another family in our wards house named the Beards. They are a wonderful family of 8 kids, and she is for Puerto Rico and he served his mission there so that is how they met, so they are very Americanized. It is going to be an amazing Christmas and one that I will never forget!
I hope everyone has an amazing Christmas and spends it with the people that they love. Make tons of memories and eat good food! Also remember the true meaning of Christmas. Read Luke 2 and act it out, I think we are going to do that with the Boyd family, I am so excited! I hope you have a fabulous holiday season!
Feliz Navidad!
Hermana Cattich
COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT
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