Miratejo: Week 33

Hey everyone! 

Sorry I didn't get to email yesterday. My email stopped working because I sent home too many pictures. Haha didn't know that could happen! Anyway how was everyone's Christmas? Well I basically know about the family Christmas since I got to SKYPE you! :) Haha that was so fun! How did the rest of the day go?

Christmas here was awesome! On Christmas Eve we went and passed out cookies to everyone and then went to a member, Hugo and Cristiana's house for dinner. On the way walking to the chapel it was SO windy and rainy and my umbrella got destroyed haha it was hilarious. We sat underneath the hand dryer in the bathroom to try and dry ourselves off. When Cristiana picked us up she saw that we were soaked as well as the Elders so they gave us clothes to wear. The Elders were wearing jeans and looked like dads it was funny. We got to wear sweats it was sweet! We ate bucalhau which is codfish, their main food here haha, and potatoes and 900 desserts. Seriously I was STUFFED! They gave us presents too. They're so nice! We came home and opened our Christmas Eve PJs! SO fun! 

Christmas day we woke up and kept the lights off except some candles (We had to keep my traditions even if you guys don't :) ) We all opened our presents in our pajamas and then we studied together and read Luke 2 for companionship study. After we went caroling in the town square. Practically no one was out there and it was raining but a few people stopped and listened and clapped haha. I felt like such a freak but it's fun because on a mission you can do whatever you want and it doesn't matter because you're weird no matter what. Then we went to the Estrela Family's house for lunch. I got away with only eating one plate of food... Don't know how so I felt GOOD! Remember how last time I ate a way hot pepper at their house? Well they challenged the Elders to do the same and Elder Gardner put two in his mouth. At first he was acting all tough but then he turned bright red and was sweating and crying haha. It was hilarious.

Bela invited us over too so we went and passed by her house. She only made us eat a little bit of fruit so we got away lucky there too! She's so nice her and her mom gave us these huge bags of food to give to one of our investigators Maria Jose and her husband Joaquin. They don't have any food and their house is basically like living in the street it has holes and is falling apart it has absolutely no warmth. They live a sad life so they gave us a bunch of veggies and fish to give them. They were really happy! After visiting some other people we went to the chapel with all the other missionaries and played a fun game that the Halladays sent us and then we ate pizza. Haha I know that sounds funny we had pizza for Christmas dinner but it was fun. We all took turns skyping our families and then we finally got to! It was way good to see you guys. Passed by so fast! 

On Christmas Eve our hot water went out so we have been showering in cold water for a week. I've had to do that a lot on my mission but now since it's winter time it is SO cold haha. We had 3 people come look at it and no one knew how to fix it but we just barely got it fixed so now we will be warm again! I definitely shouldn't complain at all because last night we watched Ephraim's Rescue for Ward FHE about the pioneers having to walk barefoot in the snow and iced rivers. We're so spoiled!

One awesome thing that happened this week is that my companion had the impression to call all of our less active members in our Area Book. Only 3 of them answered and only one of them made an appointment with us to pass by. We were having a hard time figuring out where he lived and we thought about just canceling the appointment so we didn't waste a ton of time lost, but we decided we needed to go visit him. When we got close we saw a man standing outside that motioned for us that it was him. So we went and met him. His name is Carlos and he was baptized 26 years ago. He hasn't been back to church one time since he was baptized, but the day before we called he had the thought that he needed to go back to church. Both of his parents recently passed away and he's been going through major depression. So he said a prayer to ask for help, and the very next day is when my companion called him. I know it wasn't a coincidence and he came to church on Sunday! We got to see him renew his covenants for the very first time since baptism. I'm so excited about it and it made me realize even more that we are being watched over!

Well I hope everyone has a great New Years Eve tonight and make some awesome goals! We made a bunch and I'm excited to work on some things! :) BE SAFE though there are some crazies out there! Have a GREAT week!

Love you all!

Sister Carroll