(**Note to reader: Clicking on highlighted words will link to additional information. Clicking on photos will enlarge them. Some names are omitted for privacy.)
I hope all of you had an amazing Christmas and have cool plans for New Year's Eve!
It has been a fun week!
Christmas Eve and Christmas day it was really hard to find people to teach. But talking to my family was great! Also, on Christmas I bought a little chess set so me and my companion play chess every night now, after our planning and before we go to bed...I still haven't lost.
Thursday, the 26th, the other set of Elders in our ward had a baptism. The man has been wanting to be baptized for over a year, but he and his wife still weren't married so he couldn't be baptized. And now they have plans to enter the temple in a year!
Friday we had our district meeting, like we do ever week. I taught an English class beforehand. It is sweet that I can talk to the Elders in my district in English, if I talk slow. They are all learning pretty fast. It's been a pretty chill week. But I have a cool story:
Saturday the whole ward was going to the temple because a family in our ward was getting sealed . We have a family of six investigators that wanted to go to see the temple and the newly remodeled Visitors' Center. Then, at the last second, they decided not to go. We think it could have been because of how much the trip would have cost, and the dad told his employer he could work that day.
We went to their house Friday night and sat and talked with them. They told us their story, and that their daughter is pregnant and had been having contractions. So with all the things that they had going on, we knelt in prayer with the family and asked God to let them know what they should do. After the prayer we gave the daughter a blessing. Then Saturday morning, bright and early at 6 o'clock, we received a phone call saying the whole family except the pregnant one and her husband were at the church waiting for the bus to go to the temple. After the temple visit, (I wish I could have gone!) the ward had a big wedding/sealing party. Our investigators were there, we talked to them, and they all had the time of there life. Just a cool miracle that I could experience this week.
I am attaching a picture of me in my Santa outfit. An Elder that was going home gave it to me. And there's a picture of me and the first edition Book of Mormon in Spanish. This book is very rare and I imagine it's not cheap. My bishop had one, and he let me take a picture with it.
Elder Burgess
Merry Christmas from Mexico!
