Feliz Navidad!

Christmas is just around the corner, and I´m so excited! We´ve already been invited to two Christmas Eve dinners, and the Fagerstens are putting together a breakfast brunch the 24th. And my family sent me a gingerbread house to decorate and the ingredients to chicken gnocchi soup, my favorite. And I get to Skype my family in a week! When I first got here, I was really worried about this Christmas, but I´m so excited to spend it with the members here and to focus on the real meaning of Christmas.

As the traveling singing sisters, Hermana Clove and I got to go to the zone conference in Santiago yesterday, and I ran into the two elders who came here with me from the CCM. It was so fun to catch up with them, and talk about the good old days in the CCM. 

Something that has been a challenge here in the DR is that a lot of the people don´t understand our message. It´s almost like they have too much faith. It´s wonderful because almost everyone is willing to listen to us share "the word of God." They believe everything we teach, but they don´t seem to understand it. We´ll spend 30 minutes explaining the Restoration of the church of Jesus Christ, and they believe everything we say, that Christ established his church, the priesthood was taken off the earth with the death of the apostles, and Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ, that they told him that none of the churches had the whole truth, and that through Joseph Smith we have the priesthood once again and the fulness of the gospel. Then we finish the lesson and invite them to be baptized once they read and pray to know for themselves, and they say "Oh, no. I was already baptized!" But, didn´t you just agree that we need prophets today and that our church has the correct authority? haha It´s a unique challenge, but they are quite a few people who understand the power of our message and are willing to change their lives to follow their Savior, Jesus Christ.

We´ve started teaching Brendalis´ two best friends, Odri and Carleny. They´re both sweet girls, and they really understand the things we´ve been teaching them. I love teaching them, because it reminds me of the time when my best friend was taking the discussions. I always feel the same excitement that I did when my friend, Dei, was progressing in the gospel. I´ve really enjoyed teaching them and I hope that they can accept the gospel and become incredible examples just like my best friend. It´s been so fun to teach them.

A Day in the DR:

Something that cracks me up is seeing my companions give people compliments. A few months ago, Hermana Hunsaker and I were visiting a less active, and Hermana Hunsaker commented on how cute she looked that day and that she liked her shirt. She said "You like it? Oh, let me change so I can give it to you!" So she ran inside and put on a different shirt and gave it to her. Hermana Hunsaker said that it was okay and that she didn´t want to take it, but she finally accepted it because she was afraid that she was going to hurt her feelings. She also got a silver ring the same way. haha Last week, the same thing happened with Hermana Clove. Her and a member were talking about painting and she tried to give her her paints and some fabric. She tried so hard not to take it, but she started to get offended, so she took it. We´re quickly learning to keep compliments to ourselves!