All right, so big news of the week...I got to call home this past week for La Navidad!!!

So yeah, this past week was pretty ridiculous. Pretty much because everyone down here goes into like "let's go buy explosives and blow stuff up for the weekend", president just told everyone that Christmas was going to be a P-day for us. And we didn´t want to miss all of the awesome fireworks...soooo...we talked to President Maravilla and he gave us permission to sleep in the church for that night which was really cool.

We bought a couple of Roman Candles and did like a little duel type thing, lol, and we brought all of the candy and food that we received over the holidays, camped out in the chapel, and watched the Grinch and some other Disney movies, it was soooo much fun. Then around midnight all the fireworks started going off! I have never seen soooo many fireworks go off at once. It didn´t matter which direction you were looking, you could see explosions and fireworks in every direction and house! And a lot of them were the really big ones too, I don't know how these people got their hands on them but I´m glad they did, lol.

Also this past weekend, right before I called and talked to you all actually, we had another baptism! It was soooo much fun! Her name is Noehlia Dolores Zapata Mejia, Noehlia painful shoe, lol, just a little fun translation of her name. But yeah, she reminds so much of my 1st baptism with Jessica, likewise, she was ready the Book of Mormon, was following through with all of the assignments that we were leaving for her, and best of all, when she did have questions about what she was reading or what we were teaching, they were actually legit questions that were helping her understanding and knowledge of the scriptures grow!!

I love it when we can actually find those that want everything that we have to offer and get that same excitement that we have about the gospel! It's so amazing to see that light in their eyes when you give them a new piece of doctrine that they were missing in their lives and maybe didn´t even know it until then. I really hope that we can find more people with that same hunger and drive to get through to the finish line of baptism where all of their questions are waiting to be answered!

A little something else that we did this past week was place a few more baptismal dates for the month of January!!! One of them is just a pre-teen, has only about 12 years or so [the Spanish way of saying he is 12 years old], but still has that drive that we look for when we try to teach people. His name is Jorge Mario DeLeon, we took him to church for the first time this past Sunday and he just soaked it up! He made friends with all of the other kids and really enjoyed the classes.

Next, we have Mauricio Diez. This man has been one of the most and still is a difficult person to convert...not convince. We have been teaching him since like the 2nd week that we first got here and little by little he is progressing towards his baptismal date on the 8th of January. The problem that Mauricio has is that we cannot get him to go to church with us. And it pretty much all has to do with his work. He is a Tuk-Tuk driver, a little 3 wheeled dome looking car/bike, and has yet to come to one sacrament meeting to experience it for himself.

I'm kinda lost as to what I can help him, to give him that desire to go to church that he needs but we´ll see. He also has a really cool family of 3 boys and his wife is currently working in the states, which I can imagine would be a little difficult for them both. And come to find out his mother who was visiting this past week is Mormon and we didn´t even know it!

Then, last but not least, Sara and Julie. They are the aunt and cousin of Jaqaline, the little 8 year old girl we baptized about 2 weeks ago. While teaching Hermanita Jaqaline, her aunt, Sara, was listening in on the lessons that we were teaching and one day after the lessons she came up to Elder Langi and me and said that her 17 year old daughter has yet to be baptized and would like us to teach about the life of Christ and baptize her. So needless to say we gladly accepted the invitation to teach and baptize her daughter, lol.

And last night night while we were over at their house teaching them, we found out that the mother also was not a member of the church. So, while inviting her daughter to follow Christ´s example and be baptized by someone holding the authority to do so, we also invited the mother to prepare with her daughter for the 15th of the month of January!! They were a little startled by this date, I think they thought it was a little close, but we reassured them that this date was only a goal to prepare for and that if they were following all of the advice and assignments that they would be ready for this date, so they accepted also..

And as it is right now we are preparing to have another 4 baptisms for the up-coming month of January! I just hope that we can justly teach to their needs to the end that none of them fall through.

But yeah that is what little ole Elder Marquis has been up to this past week. I hope that all of this didn´t bore you guys too much, lol.

I don´t know..this past change that we just completed wasn´t a complete and utter failure as far as mission work and baptisms go, but it definitely wasn´t as good as it could have been. I mean we were kinda of just not putting all that we had into the work as we usually do. So the four of us had a little companionship inventory and reset the goals, rules, and just overall tried to fix what it was that we weren´t doing so well. And now it seems that since we have repented of our somewhat lazy manners and have all talked to President Maravilla of these problems, the spirit is working stronger and because of our repentance our investigators and their families are receiving greater knowledge and understanding.

But yeah, since that little experience both my companion and I have been able to hear and feel the whisperings of the spirit soo much stronger. Something that Maravilla told us at this last conference was this - A lot of times we receive the inspiration to go speak to certain people and a lot of the times if or when we follow through with these inspirations...nothing happens. Either they don't want what we have to share or they just simply aren´t ready to receive our message. But, no matter what, we should ALWAYS follow through with these whisperings. Because although many times we do not see the rewards from this obedience, the spirit is testing us...the spirit is doing trial runs or exercises with us with the random people that we see everyday, so that when the time comes that we are walking by a prepared family, the spirit knows that we will listen to his voice and obey His command to listen...This is just a little something that I really enjoyed from this past conference with President Maravilla.

So yeah It was really great talking to everyone for Christmas, its so crazy to hear how everyone is progressing and growing!

Anyways, thank you all for everything you do!

Love you all tons,

Elder Marquis