So Christmas here is not as big as Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is a HUGE party, where as Christmas day they are just sleeping and recovering, and they eat a lot, but it's much more quiet.
On Saturday we had the opportunity to go to a wedding for one of the member's son, and it was held at the church. The wife isn't a member, but the family really wants us to teach her, and it was even kind of awkward at the wedding. The husband's side is really strong in the church, the dad was the former branch president. The wedding was more like a baptism program to me, the bride walked in like we do, and then they sat down at a table in front of the pulpit. Then like 5 people gave talks, and then they got married, and then 2 more talks, then we ate. It was just different, and the awkward thing was that the speakers talked about how they were going to get sealed in a year... and we haven't even taught the bride yet, or even know if she is interested. Me and Elder Abel were laughing after, cause it doesn't seem like she has a choice, or we do either, we have to teach her- which we are happy about ha.
Sunday was a great day, we visited a lot of Less Active members, and the hard thing is the only reason they are less active is because they don't have enough money to go to church because they live so far away! It's so sad! They know so much about the gospel and so kind, but they just can't get to church. It is really hard for me to tell them that they will be blessed for going, even though it would be a financial burden, and sometimes I just don't want to tell them. But I realized that is where faith really comes in. I believe if they made the sacrifice to go to church, they would be blessed, and so we talked about faith to them.
One thing I have been thinking about this week is New Year's Resolutions, and how much I just absolutely hate them. I HATE New Year's Resolutions. I can't stand them. I have never understood why we need the beginning of a new year to decide that we are going to make changes in our lives. And the few people that actually make new year's resolutions don't end up following them through. Granted there are known to be few, but realistically in June no one remembers what they were going to try and change in their lives. We should want to change our lives every week, even every day, but by setting weekly goals, every day we strive to achieve that goal. I remember the talk from President Uchtdorf about the plane needing to make constant changes to fly on a straight path. If we only corrected our lives every year, and halfheartedly when we take the sacrament, we would miss out on so much! We miss out on blessings when we stray from the straight path, and a New Year's resolution which we end up not keeping wouldn't help us.
I liked the an article in a Liahonna I was reading, and it talked about the great and spacious building. It asks the question what is so great about it? Well, it looks fun. "Who ever said that sin wasn't fun?" -Spencer W. Kimball. I was shocked to read that, but then realized that sin does seem fun, but it is happiness. That is the difference. Sometimes the straight and narrow path doesn't seem very fun and we want to go on another more fun route, and that is where Satan wins. He isn't trying to get us to go down one specific path, but any other besides the one we are on. We need to constantly remember why we are here, and for me, it is a lot easier when we have a goal in mind every week.
Don't make any goals seem like a restriction, but your own choice. If we want to follow the commandments, say "I won't" go shopping on sunday, instead of "I Can't" go shopping on sunday, then we feel empowered, and are more likely to appreciate the goals that we make.
Well that's my spiritual rant for the week. I will leave with a funny story that happened on Saturday. We we're doing our personal study, and we heard someone at the front door (No one knocks, they just yell TAPO) So I went down and it was 3 girls, two older, mid 20's and one like 8. I couldn't figure out what they wanted so I got one of the other companions to figure out what they were saying. We went to the gate to talk to them and I saw a bunch of people in church clothes in the road in front of our house, and realized it was Jehovah witness missionaries haha. I didn't have my tag on the first time I had talked to them, but this time I did, and it got real awkward real fast for them haha. I went up stairs to get the other two elders and we were laughing so hard. They gave us a pamphlet, and we tried to give them ours, but they wouldn't take them. So we said if you don't take ours, we don't want yours, but they wouldn't take that one back either! They hurried and left haha. It was great. They were nice and we were polite to them, but it sure was funny for us.
I hope you all had a great Christmas! And hope you will have a great new year!!!
-Elder Rock
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