Can't believe all of you will be celebrating the new year tomorrow :) I will be out trying to teach some people until approximately 9:30 at night :) And ya know what??? I would rather be anywhere else!!! My compa lost her planner yesterday and I forgot mine at the house when we came to e-mail so I am going to do my best to remember what happened this past week. Christmas already seems like a month ago. I can't believe how fast time passes!! It was so good to get to talk to y'all on Christmas :) Everyone still looks good!!! :D It all sort of feels like a dream. It sure was good to see your face and hear your voice though :) My first time in just about 8 months! I'll get to see you again in 4 1/2 months on Mother's Day! It'll be here before you can blink. I hear there's TONS of snow in Utah. Not a flake here. There has actually been a few days here lately when we just about hit 60 :) It's not too bad being in Texas through the Winter if you're willing to go through a few random ice storms ;) Alright... So Christmas Eve and Christmas were SO GREAT!!! On Christmas Eve The Buchanan's invited us over to dinner with a lady from their work that isn't a member and didn't have anyone to spend the holidays with. We were expecting five of us. Me and my comp, the couple, and this lady. When we get to the house there are tons of cars. Turns out it was ALL of the Buchanan family, all of the wife's family, and 2 people from work that didn't have anyone to spend the holidays with. Not to mention some people from our ward!!! Talk about intimidating :) We had a whole Christmas lesson planned out. We didn't get to do the whole thing but we shared about a 10 min. message. IT WAS SO GOOD!! The Spirit was there so strong. I honestly couldn't have been more proud of our members :) The dinner was delicious!! Ah man, it was seriously a MIRACLE! After that we headed over with the Chequer family. When we got there Madelay told us she had cooked us dinner :) It was so cute of her! She's only 20 and she said it was the first one she has ever cooked. There was some potatoes and gravy and I was like hmm :) Haven't eaten that for a while... this should be good!! Took a big ole bite and it turns out it was PEANUT BUTTER on mash potatoes!! :) Hahaha, I guess that's something they do in Ecuador?? We got them a few simple presents and they were so excited. They really don't have much at all. Christmas Day was honestly one of the best if not the best I have ever had. Christmas morning we woke up and made some hot chocolate :) Then we watched The Lamb of God. Afterwards, we opened presents. I got to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to everyone that sent me cards and packages!! I've never felt so loved in my life ;) I honestly could never say thanks enough :) Then we got ready and went to District meeting. We did something like a white elephant there and had an amazing testimony meeting. IT WAS SO GOOD! I love being a missionary. Afterwards the biggest miracle happened... our recent convert Alma invited us over to her daughters house for dinner. We have been wanting to meet her daughter forever!! Well, once again... we are expecting a few people. HA! There ended up being about 40 people there. All of them (I am pretty sure) were non-members! We asked Alma if she told them we were coming.. she said yes but by how everyone reacted I don't think she had :) Everyone kept giving us the weirdest looks but they were all super nice even if they were a bit uncomfortable. We didn't get to share a message but spent the time talking with all the people and explaining what we do :) Dinner on Christmas with 40 non-members??? DONE and DONE! It was so incredible :) After that we headed to nothing else but another Christmas Dinner. HA! I have never been SO stuffed in my life. It was with our Ward mission leader. He is an awesome guy and actually just completed 1 year of being a member this last 15th of December!! Can you believe it?? After that we headed back to the Buchanan's where I got to call home :) How bitter sweet it was! Mostly sweet though. When we got done calling home it was dark and cold outside and we were wondering what would be the best way to contact a bunch of people all at once. I had the bright idea of the movie theatre :) Hahah!! Well, it worked out! We ended up contacting over 60 people in just a short amount of time. I even got to contact the guy in the booth :) I told him how awesome he was for working on Christmas. He was super nice and hopefully he gets baptized ;) That was it for Christmas. Honestly, one of the best in my life! Can you believe it that next year I'll be home for Christmas?!? Where does time go? To be honest I don't really remember what happened the rest of the week... We took Alma to a lesson with us :) It was her first time being out with the missionaries since her baptism. I think it got her super excited because the next day she wanted us to go over and visit her neighbor :) So last night we went and had a lesson with her neighbor! When they offered us coffee she said oh no! We don't drink coffee! It was too cute :) Also we met this really awesome girl named Alex. She has tattoos and piercings all over and has had a pretty rough life. We talked to her for a good half hour in her drive way. We are excited to go back and talk to her again and hope that we will be able to help her turn her life around :) Well, I love and miss you all!!! Also, HAPPY BIRHTDAY MOM!! I hope y'all have a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! You're all in my prayers :)
From Deep in the Heart of Texas- Hermana Jenny Hadlock
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