Monday, December 14, 2009

Today's forecast: 80 degrees, windy, with a 97% probability of hering salsa-techno on the bus

Hey family
!It's good to hear from you all. This week we had Christmas Zone conference and Christmas lunch/dinner with the missionaries in our part of the mission and the president. It was fun to be all together and exchange gifts (my district did secret santas). Plus it's always awesome to hear from President and Sister Madrigal. They are amazing. I love when SIster Madrigal speaks, because she gets all animated and firey. This time she started by asking us to raise our hands if we believe our calls came from the Lord, and if we believe we've been set apart and have authority to teach, and then she asked if we believe we can have 100 baptisms in a month as a mission (we've been having between 50-90) and some of the missionaries didn't raise their hands. She talked about fear and how it's a tool of Satan and then she got louder and pounded on the pulpit and pointed at us and said "If you don't believe you can have 100 or more baptisms in a month, arrepientense! (Repent!)" It was awesome.
She talked about a lot more but I don't have time to write it all. Pretty much it was amazing. Mom, you definitely have the power to change the lives of the missionaries and motivate them. I can't really imagine you pounding on the pulpit, but you have your ways too :)
One of the sisters who is going home bore her testimony in zone conference and talked about how much she loved the people here. I want to be like that. I love the ones I know, but it's not the same as that pure, Christ-like love where you can love complete strangers even while they're rejecting you. I'm still working on that.
Dad, your spirit/passport experience was awesome to read. It definitely motivates me to pray to be able to be sensative to spiritual promptings and to have the courage to act on them immediately. I am always inspired by your example.
These days we're still working with Juan Aruaz and his daughters to prepare them to get baptized. THey had a baptismal date for Dec 19 but yesterday he said he didn't feel ready and we moved it to the 26th. He is a single father and has been fighting for the custody of his daughters for over 2 years and finally has them. I think having them live with him is definitely helping to soften him and motivate him to live accoring to Christ's teachings to be able to give them the best.
Ok before I forget. Hermana Madgrial said if you said packages, send them with only "N Dance" for my name, not Hermana Dance or anything that lets them know it's for a missionary. Also, decorate it with pictures of the virgin mary and the pope because then they don't open it. They've learned that when things come for North American missionaries, they're nice or expensive. So if it's decorated with Catholic stuff they're either more afraid to open it because of God or they know it only has bibles, rosaries, etc.
Welp I'm out of time but I love you all and I'm stoked to talk to you soon! I think I'll probably call on Christmas morning, but I don't know the time difference. I think you all are 7 hours ahead. So I guess sometime in the night of Dec 25.
Love you!
Love,Hermana Dance
D & C 61:36

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