Feliz Navidad

Today is the start of my second change! It feels like yesterday I was just a wee little greenie... I guess I still am a greenie but still I feel older so that´s nice. We got to have a christmas zone conference this week where we watched the Christmas devotional and ate a lunch with everyone and traded gifts. I got somebody one of those creepy little cats that just stares into your soul and waves at you. I don´t know why I did that to the poor guy....

If you want to do something fun watch a president monson talk in spanish... It cracks me up every time he starts to talk `my beloved brothers and sisters` and then the translator comes on over the top `mis queridos hermanos y hermanas` I don´t know maybe nobody else will think that its funny but I always get a kick out of it.

Secret Santa Gift Clayton made so you're always dressed
when you look in the mirror.

The Elders helped put up this sisters Christmas Tree

Christmas celebration with the mission.

Clayton and his companions Elder Benitez from Ecuador
and Elder Clements from Idaho

It was good to see everybody and their smiling faces on skype! That was definitely a good christmas present! We celebrated by sleeping in until 8 o clock thanks to president, and we found the bottom half of a christmas tree on the side of the road so you better believe we took that back to our house and decorated it. We put our presents underneath and opened them in the morning. We got little shot glasses from the bishop.. and mugs with tea in it from some investigators.... *facepalm* hahaha no it´s herbal so don´t even worry about it.

Family Skype

We got to have dinner with the bishop on nochebuena with his family. It was really good! The bishop told us to tell everyone hi! He likes to kiss us on the cheek so that´s neat. It´s a chilean thing.... or is it...

I hope that everyone everywhere has had a wonderful christmas!! I love hearing from you and seeing pictures! Keep on keeping on. 

Remember that Christmas is cool because we get to remember christ but that just because it´s not christmas doesn´t mean that we shouldn´t be thinking about him. We get to go to church every week to do that and say our prayers everyday and read his counsel for us in the scriptures. We get to remember him cada dia.

Elder H

(Since chileans can´t say my name...)

This week has been quite eventful! I am now in a trio for the last little bit of this transfer with Elder Benitez and Elder Clements. Elder Clement´s companion had to go home to help his family out with some things but he will be back in a jif! So now we have two areas to cover because we inherited their area as well. Our ward is split into the two areas and so the ward has had two sets of missionaries. Now they only have three.. It has been quite a bit of walking but it has paid off! Now that we have three we are able to enter any house we want. Before if there was a woman alone we would have had to wait and set a date for another day when we could return with someone from the ward. That has been really awesome! 

We were also supposed to have a baptism this sunday, one of elder clement´s investigators who was all ready to be baptized but when we called her the day before her interview elder clements told her, just so you know in your interview they are going to ask about coffee and tea and stuff just to make sure that you haven´t had any this week. Annnnnnnnnnd she had had coffee that last sunday. The rule is that you have to keep the word of wisdom for one week before your baptism... so unforunately we had to move it back a week. It was kind of funny to tell you the truth because we went to visit her later and she just said sorry I forgot... then she showed us the can of coffee she had and it said caffeine free on the front but on the nutrition facts showed that it had caffeine. Oh dear what are we going to do. But she is going to get rid of it she told us!

I am stoked to here that everyone´s soccer games are going well and that you´re putting the hammer down and just megging some kids. Every chance I get we play with kids and I can never help but go for the meg when I see the opportunity. 

On Sunday we ate with a family who the husband is from brazil. He does the brazilian fight martial art thing I can´t remember what it is called.... but he is so ripped. Anyway he was telling us about when brazil won the world cup in 2002 he was living in chile and he ran outside with his brazil flag in the streets. When Chilean teams are playing soccer it is pretty funny because everyone is just watching the games. We go to a door and they just yell to us that they are watching the game. And when a goal is scored everybody knows because the streets get a little louder. 

It has been a good week in 4 poniente I hope that everyone has built a few snowmen and gone sledding at least once.

Elder Holdstock

Hola Hola,

Hope everyone is staying warm... if you ever need to warm up just think of chile and you´ll be sweating through your shirts in no time! It is a little strange to see christmas lights and christmas trees being put up when it is 90 degrees outside. 

Lesson on Chileanos for this week

1. They´re always ocupado. Which means they´re busy. Which means they just don´t want to talk to you.

2. They´re watching the wawa. Which means baby. Which means they don´t want to talk to you.

3. They like to wag their fingers through the windows. which means they´re busy watching the wawa. Which means they don´t want to talk to you.

hahaha we just laugh every time any of these things happen at this point. But for every twenty of these people there´s always one person that´s cool and will talk to us! So I´m thankful for them. 

you asked if I can keep up with the kids when playing soccer...

We were playing the other day for a few  minutes with these kids and I always pretend at first that I am not super good... but I just saw an opportunity and had to get the nutmeg... needless to say he had to sit down the rest of the game because his pride was gonzo.

It sounds like Christmas Season is in full swing! We are doing Iluminate the world here as well it´s called Ilumina El Mundo and we are giving out tons of cards and showing the video to anyone and everyone! I love the little advent calendar and all the suggestions that it has of how we can help our neighbor just in our own way. By small and simple things, great things come to pass. 

I´m glad the house is all decked out (for Christmas). It did rain here super hard one day this week! So I got to break out the jacket and sweater! I love hearing about everyones week! Everyone always asks about my family so we talk about you all the time! We just got word from President Woodward that we will get to skype on christmas! Can´t wait to see your smiling faces.

Nos Vemos,

Elder Holdstock

Hola - po,

In Chile they say everything with po at the end... its sorta like a canadian saying eh. Do you like the food? Si'po... hahaha it's funny. Chileans speak kinda like the're singing. I am working hard on my accent... during companionship study I read a few pages from a book and my companion marks every time I pronounce a word bad, at the end I have to do three push ups for every mistake. So at this rate I won't be getting a latino accent but I will have pretty huge arms! 

This week has been a lesson in humility. Our area has a reputation of not being able to find very many new investigators. So this has been the topic of my study this week. There's an entire chapter in preach my gospel dedicated to finding people to teach. Anyway we have decided to take a few of those points and try and use them. After a few days of effort and quite a few prayers we had an awesome day where we found 3 nuevos! It was a lesson to me that we need to always lean on the lord in every moment not just the really bad ones and not just the really good ones.

I forgot my cord to send pics today so I will hit you up next week. But It's so funny because the people here are blown away to see a gringo that can juggle a soccer ball. Hahaha I have a video of me with like 10 kids surrounding me as I juggled for them. It's a good conversation starter that's for sure!

I hope everything is so good at home. Don't forget to apply your sunscreen because It is hot outside!!

Elder Holdstock