Written by Elder Dallin Remund, serving in the Virginia Chesapeake Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.
(**Note to reader: Clicking on highlighted words links to more information. Some names are omitted for privacy.)
Buenos dias, todos!
Les extrano mucho. (I miss ya'll a ton.) Hope ya'll had a GREAT Christmas and remembered the reason for the season.
I had a really good week. It was so nice to relax a little bit and most of all, to Skype the family. I miss ya'll so much! That forty minutes went by unbelievably fast. But what a blessing it is to get to do that twice a year. It had been so long.
Just like Thanksgiving, our Christmas was very Mexican. We spent Christmas Eve wrapping pressents with the Hernandez family and eating Honduranian tamales. They use banana leaves insted of corn husks and there's nuts, meat, and raisins in the tamale. Really good stuff right there. But it was great to get to serve by wrapping presents on Christmas Eve night. My mission president, President Baker, said that service is the best cure to any homesickness. So true!
Christmas Day I opened up my Christmas gifts. (Thank ya'll so much for the letters and presents.) We went over to the Espino's (the Hernandez's parents) and had pozole. They make it for us a ton and it is divine! We Skyped on their new iPads. We also got to watch Ephraim's Rescue, which is amazing! I'll be watching it over and over again.
Christmas Eve we also had a really great Mission Conference. President Baker put on a Muppet Christmas Carol. So fun, but we felt so weird seeing the Disney logo and the Muppets after 7 months of being a missionary. "Worldly" things start to get weird! We had a musical fireside and I got to perform, "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks." I'm still being blessed with opportunities to perform/conduct!
The rest of the week went well. Still a little slow, but Elder Lovell and I have been getting into spots of the area that haven't been worked by missionaries in a long time. It is so nice to have a change of scenery.
I know this gospel is true. As my gratitude for the Savior increased this Christmas, so has my gratitude of this restored gospel. We are in the last dispensation. What a blessing it is. This work is all for the preparation of the Second Coming of our Savior.
Con gratitud para ustedes y este evangelio (with gratitude for you and for this gospel),
Elder Remund
Merry Christmas from North Carolina!
Greetings from Antarctica
