Monday, December 1, 2014

Baptism!

Family!

Good to see the CLMK again!  I'll start off by answering your questions.  No, I didn't get your Thanksgiving package yet.  The post office has stopped leaving the packages at our doorstep because they don't think it's a safe enough location, so we have to go by the post office today and pick it up.  (By the way, I was given a scarf this week, so I no longer need one for Christmas).

Thanksgiving was really good!  We started it off with a 3 hour-long planning meeting.  Then we went to an English family's house for a Thanksgiving lunch.  Later on we had dinner with a less-active family from the branch.  They made a pretty traditional American meal, so I didn't really eat anything too crazy.  We played a little Mexican bingo with them, which is just normal bingo except that the squares have pictures on them and the markers are beans...

This week Valentina got baptized!  It was a really great service, and afterwards her family threw a huge party.  They invited at least 30 non-members to the service, so the whole party was spent talking to all the people who came.  Crazy!

This week I did English work for the first time in over a year.  We went on exchanges with the English Zone leaders, and I went to their area.  It was still basically foreign work though because the families we visited were from Micronesia and Ghana.  It was super hard not to speak Spanish while we were teaching them.  I also had to focus super hard while praying or I would slip into Spanish as I was praying.  It was a super fun day, but it was nice to go back to Spanish work when the day was done.

Nothing else super huge happened this week.  Most of the week was spent prepping for the baptism and things like that.  Here's a few random small things that happened:
·  I ate flautas (tacos durados) for the first time this week.
·  I committed a 7 year-old to never drink tea again.
·  We tried to put out a metaphorical fire when Gospel Principles class turned into a 30 minute-long discussion on polygamy.
·  I learned that our assistant branch secretary's older brother once slapped Pancho Villa in the face.
·  I talked to a few different families who are absolutely ecstatic about the Executive Order.
Just in case you haven't heard, the church is launching a huge initiative called "He is the gift."  It's a video about the true meaning of Christmas.  They bought out all of the billboards and televisions in Times Square on black Friday to promote it, and on Dec. 6th they're going to buy out the YouTube banner all day.  You should definitely go watch it and then share it if you haven't already.  christmas.mormon.org

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Foote
Elder Foote will teach anyone who will listen
Elder Foote and Elder Elbaba November Baptism
New Member of the Church
Elder Footes Thanksgiving Package