BEST DAY EVER (for this mom...well, one of the many).....Christmas Day from Spain

Yes, those are my bed sheets, mom...

Streets at night

December 25, 2015

Merry Christmas!
Holy cow I never thought this day would come. I've got just over four
months out here in España, my training is done, and I get to see my
family in T-Minus 3 hours and 30 minutes. What a great day to be
alive.
K so it's almost been two weeks since my last PDay but not a ton has
happened in that amount of time. The people are colder than the
weather here, mostly because the weather is quite nice. But I mean
still...
Last week we had our Zone Christmas Devotional and President put Vigo
in charge of the food. We thought it would be easy but let's just say
we finished the week with one lesson taught.. Getting ready for the
devotional consumed our whole entire week. Late nights, lots of
stress, and a whole lot more of stress. But we pulled it off and it
was awesome! We made ribs, chicken, salads, French fries, sausages,
eggnog, and a whole lot more. It was an awesome day. I was also one of
the (not so)wise men for the play we did, I've got a picture of that
for y'all. I helped one of the Senior Couples take some Elders to the
bus station afterwards and we almost ended up in Portugal after so
that would have been fun since President was waiting for us back at
the restaurant.
The members here have been treating us awesome this Christmas. I think
we are with four different families yesterday, and we have some more
today. I'll be needing to hit my morning workouts extra hard to make
up for all the rice pudding we've had too... Last night we slept over
with the other Elders here and lit a ton of candles and put them in a
circle, then read Luke 2 and basically had a two hour long testimony
meeting about everything. It was amazing and the Spirit was really
strong. This morning I woke up and made them all French toast! It was
actually really really good. I made this Cinnamon Syrup stuff and did
some experimenting and although it was more of a frosting than syrup,
it was really good #wifemeup #homemaker
We haven't met with our investigator in the past two weeks, we can't
get ahold of him so it's really sad...but we'll see him soon
hopefully we got two member referrals this week, which is two more
than we have gotten in the past 12 weeks...so that was awesome. We
taught one of them The Restoration and the Spirit was incredibly
strong. His two sons, 11&8, bore incredible testimonies!  The other referral we
actually met with THREE times yesterday in the morning we showed up
at our District Presidents house to make cookies with the YSA (4 girls
actually) and she was there so we used it as an ice breaker. We went
to her house three hours later so her mom could teach us how to make
Peruvian food, then an hour after that she had dinner with us with a
different family. So we shall see where this goes with her! She loves
doing things with the YSA so that's awesome.

K spiritual thought.
This Christmas we've decided to challenge people to give a gift to
Jesus Christ. Because birthdays are a time of giving to the person
whom we're celebrating (even though his birth was in the month of our
Dear Lord (like mine) of April). As I've pondered what gift I
personally want to give Him, I came across quite a few choices. I
noticed a trend of topics in conference about being Disciples of
Christ, and also keeping his commandments. What better gift could we
give him then to be obedient to the things he's asked of us? Many
people think commandments are there to restrict, or think one of them
is so small that it doesn't hurt to not follow it. Well when you break
even the smallest commandment, you move closer to Satan. You may not
even realize it until you're already on the slippery slope. Samuel
Johnson said "The chainz of habit are too small to be felt, until they
are too strong to be broken." RT of the week. We can't afford to fall
into bad habits. "Eat, drink, and be merry. For tomorrow we die" is
the attitude of some. Have fun now, break the commandments, then
repent at the last day, because God is merciful and will forgive you.
But we should Keep the Commandments, constantly repent, and strive to
do good. Why? Well...because tomorrow we die. Carole M. Stephens said
"His laws are a manifestation of His love for us and obedience to His
laws is an expression of our love for Him." We show love and
appreciation to him by obeying his rules. "If ye love me, keep my
commandments." It's not complicated. If you keep falling back into the
same transgressions, go read the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehites
starting in Alma 23. Once they were murderers and did very bad things,
but through repentance and love for God, they turned into some of the
best examples I can think of. Literally they buried their weapons in
the earth just to refrain from being tempted to use them. We all
should "bury our weapons" per se, and avoid and not do anything to
rekindle those things again. I prooooooommiiissseee you all that
commandments are not to hold us back, but following them will bring us
more happiness and joy than we would have had if we broke them, and
more than we could possibly imagine. President Monson said "May we
realize that our greatest happiness in this life will come as we
follow God’s commandments and obey His laws!" Just Trust in God and in
His timing especially. Jesus gave us The Atonement, and we should not
let it go to waste. Use the Atonement every day.
Y'all are the best and I hope you remember the reason why Christmas is
a thing! Be safe traveling, it's better to be late than to never make
it at all. Much love!

Living in a White-less Wonderland
Elder Gearig

Christmas in Spain>>Christmas in Florida