Feliz Navidad!

Merrrrrrrry Christmas!!! :)

SANTA!!!

I hope you all had a FANTASTIC Christmas!!! and a wonderful week! :)

I had an amazing one!!! I had so many fun things happen! :)

I must say holidays on the mission, are kinda hard at first, BUT overall they rock! :) I felt so much love and felt so happy!
 

Here are za highlights.. :)

A Screen Shot of my AMAZING Fam!!! :)

>So my FAV was that on Christmas I got to see my family!!! It was so so neat!! :) It was so surreal lol But I LOVED IT!!! There was about 18 people at my house! I got to see basically all my family minus a couple of my sisters' fams :) It was so crazy! I got everyone in a screen shot which I posted on facebook :) I got to speak to my brother in Spanish and it was a blast! I could understand him! :) I love love love my family, they are the greatest!!! :) I miss you all, BUT I know I am doing the right thing here! :) I LOVE YOU!!!

 

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

>I had a wonderful Christmas, going to see members and having breakfast and dinner with them :) All throughout the day we got to share a message with them on the true meaning of Christmas :) it was amazing spending my Christmas out serving others and sharing the message of the Gospel :)

>My comp and I did have a little fun on Christmas too :) We had hot chocolate in the morning as we read the Christmas Story in Luke 2 and then we got to open our presents that we received from our families and friends..Which btw I LOVED them :) Thank you so so so much for those who thought of me out here!!! :)

SNOW SHOEING! :)

>We also got to go snow shoeing lol. It is ok if you don't know what that is..because I didn't! lol :) It was neat going up and down the hills on the Elk Ridge golf course by walking on top of the snow lol  It kinda reminded me of the movie Harry and the Hendersons :) lol I love that movie!! I didn't see a big foot though!! haha :)

>We got to have dinner on Friday with the Ewell Family :) which btw is Brother John Lawson's sister's family :) and GUESS WHO WAS THERE! JOHN H LAWSON! (I actually don't know his middle name, so...lol It sounds cooler with a middle initial haha :)  It was so super neat! And a cool part was that he was facetiming someone and I go to see who it was and it was....JOHN A VALLETTA!!!! Oh my goodness lol So I got to say hi!!! :) It was so so cool :) I had the best night ever! I was so excited!!

John Lawson and I!
Do you like my socks? :)

 >Yesterday, we were able to skype and teach Susie again, who lives in Puerto Rico! :) She is so open to the Gospel and wants to follow Jesus Christ! We invited her to be baptized on February 8 and she accepted!! She lives far from a church so she is already saying that she wants to find a carpool to go to church each week! :) SO AMAZING!!! :) She is the sweetest lady ever!! :)

LAST THING!
>On Christmas eve, we got to go caroling as a district and we even convinced our district to sing in spanish and it was amazing! We caroled to one of my favorite families!! :) Also that night, we had dinner with the sweetest lady from our ward. We asked her about her traditions and she said that they read and pray together and then we asked do they open their presents at midnight (a tradition in a lot of the Hispanic culture) or in the morning and she said that they do not do presents because they already have their family and the greatest gift that we can receive and that is our Savior Jesus Christ :) then she took both of our hands and said that she loves us and said she is so grateful for us too :) It was amazing...She is so so humble and she truly knows the real meaning of Christmas! :)

I hope you all had the chance to capture the true meaning of Christmas this week! :) We don't have to give up our gifts nor stop giving them to others because that is one way of showing our love to those we love :) We just need to remember that we can show that love in so many wonderful ways. We just need to remember the true reason for the season.  We need to remember Christ in all that we do.  If we do, we will become more like Him and we will be happier and those around us will feel our love and be happy, as well :)

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful day!!! :)

I will talk to ya next year!!! :)

Love, Hermana Derges :)