8 months down. Wow.

Sorry, no pictures this week either. My card reader broke.

This week was a little sad. It started out looking great. We had a baptism set for Saturday (Juan), we had good lessons with some investigators, helping them progress, and I did an awesome exchange with one of my zone leaders, Elder Justensen. He came over to Los Hornos to do the baptismal interview for Juan. So on Saturday, we show up at the church to start filling the font, and we see a bike already there, and when we go inside, we hear the water already running. We investigate and find the ward mission leader from Los Hornos 1, the ward we share a church building with, already preparing. He told us that the sister missionaries who work in that ward also have a baptism. It was set to start only a half hour after ours, so we just asked him if we could join up, and have a double service. Of course, he agreed. So, everything went great, both of the boys got baptized, and everything was dandy. Him and his family were glowing with happiness afterward, and we talked for about 15 minutes about the experience. We told them they absolutely HAD to be in sacrament meeting on time the next day. Unfortunately, they didn´t get there on time. In fact, they never showed up at all! They are staying in Capital right now (1 hour travel at least) so we think that something happened with that. The other hard part is, that we haven´t even been able to get a hold of them since Sunday morning. Hopefully we can get it all worked out, and Juan can be confirmed and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost this next Sunday.

Other than that, not much has gone down out here in The Ovens, other than being hot and humid. It seems weird, but some weeks are defined by 2 or 3 awesome lessons, where you see the change and the growth, but you look back at the week and it looks like you didn´t do very much... if you look at the numbers. But this last week, we saw a family gain hope that their deceased father is still alive, a 75 year-old woman find strength and solace on a lonely day through the Atonement of Christ, and a single mother struggling to support her family finally see her last son be baptized, so that she can have a united family. I am so grateful to be part of this work. I feel so priviledged to see the experiences these wonderful people are having. And I am doing my best to do my part in this marvelous work and a wonder.

On a side note, I FINALLY got my Christmas package... and it was AWESOME!!!! I have been enjoying treats all week, but more especially, enjoying the notes and pictures from everyone. The kids are so cute! I can´t believe all the funny things they do, all the fun activities they have, and their simple radiance as they sit there looking at you. I have gone through the stack of pictures at least 10 times, just enjoying being with them vicariously. Thank you so much everyone who was involved in that package. I took some pictures enjoying the stuff, but sadly, I can´t send them today.

I love you all. I do not have much more to say. Keep sending my notes, letters, and pictures!