December 30, 2019 Merry Christmas! This has been the most special and most unique Christmas season I have ever experienced. It felt good focusing more on Christ and the needs of others instead of focusing on gifts and food. The blessings for that have been very prominent. Ironically, in the form of... gifts and food! The members of the ward and the mission presidency made sure to take care of us, and they were so nice in giving us meals and Christmas treats/gifts. Christmas Eve!! In the morning we had a Christmas devotional with half of the mission. They served us a phenomenal breakfast and a bunch of missionaries shared their musical talents! Then we went to District Council. Since it was Christmas Eve, Elder and Sister Clark brought us homemade Christmas goodies like cookies and pumpkin bread, etc. It was amazing! Then, Elder Stanford and I had 2 dinner appointments! Oh man we were so full of food that day! One of the families went above and beyond and even gave us scarves, glov...

December 23, 2019 HELLO EVERYONE! I hope you all had another amazing week, and hopefully staying warmer than I am! I actually got a little sick this past week because we have been spending so much time outside! It got down to 9 degrees this week which was a new feeling for me! I have never been that cold before, and I would not recommend it. However, this week has probably been my favorite so far! So here's JUST A FEW of my favorite things that happened! First, WE WENT TO MANHATTAN TO VOLUNTEER AT THE GIVING MACHINES! Oh my gosh what an amazing experience! I got to see what downtown Manhattan looks like for the first time, and got to spend time in the temple! Don't worry, I got plenty of pictures. It was all so beautiful and big! Elder Stanford and I spent 3 hours standing in front of the giving machines asking people off the street if they would like to donate. Most people said no, but it was so much fun seeing all the crazy people and how they reacted to the idea of servi...

December 16, 2019 This week was an interesting one here in Richmond Hill! It seemed like every day our appointments got canceled at the last minute and we were left with no plans. Elder Stanford and I decided that New York only loves 3 things. Smoking weed, honking their horns, and wasting missionaries time. Somehow I am still happy all the time despite the inconveniences we endure. Something about the gospel really just makes you happy... who would've thought. Because our appointments kept getting canceled, we resorted to FINDING. We knocked doors, found people on subways, street contacted, all of the above. Only a handful of people we met were actually interested in our message, so we have only a few new people to teach. But we planted seeds in a lot of people and hopefully that'll grow into something when future missionaries contact them again. #NoEffortIsWasted Also, Elder Stanford and I managed to get shifts to work at the giving machines this Wednesday! I am so excite...

December 9, 2019 Hola everyone! What a great week it has been! We got our first proper snow storm of the season, which was super exciting because this is the first real winter I have ever been able to experience, and I got to see the transition between autumn and winter, which was CRAZY. I also had some amazing experiences in our lessons and meeting people on the street this week! So this weeks letter will be a few quick summaries of some miracles that happend to me. So, we have been teaching a lady named Marta Lucía. She hasnt been super promising lately and we honestly considered stopping teaching her. But, we taught a lesson to her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not to brag or anything, but this lesson was BIEN FUEGO. It went so well! We didnt plan on doing this, but we actually ended up inviting her to be baptized, and she said yes! I bore my testimony to her and she almost started crying, and she said how she wished all young people were like us. I dont know how else to descri...

December 1, 2019 Hola everyone! And Happy Thanksgiving!! This week was pretty interesting for me, because my companion, Elder Stanford, was sick! He had a fever of 102, and also had a problem with his tonsils. So Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we went to the apartment throughout the day because he was told to rest. While he slept, I cooked, cleaned, studied, and just tried to stay productive. But when he woke up, he insisted on still going out and teaching people! What a trooper! He was in a lot of pain but he did well, and we were able to get a lot of people taught. We had plans for dinner on Thanksgiving with a member named Gustavo. But the night before, he cancelled on us! We were SO SAD! But we were told to contact the mission presidents wife, Sister Teuscher, if we didnt have plans for dinner. Somehow, she found us a family to eat with, which we were VERY GRATEFUL FOR! The family we ate with was so amazing! They were just the nicest people ever, and thanked us for serving mis...