Merry Christmas!!

Talking with this Elder was amazing! He has grown so much, and we could not be more proud of him! Here is his testimony he bore in Spanish yesterday. Truly and amazing man and missionary!

December 23, 2013

Hey Family!!

Well its been a really good week here in Villa! We have been super busy here in the offices getting ready for Christmas to come! And it has been really good because I finally got to go out and work again! I have missed it so much! I miss having my own area, but its nice to be a part of the offices and still be able to have an area to work in too! Also this past week we had transfers! And in this transfer we had all the new American Sisters that were coming into the mission! We had 9 American sisters come in to the mission and 2 American Elders. The first time that this mission has seen American sisters. It was crazy! So we couldn't find a place for them to stay, so the President told us to clean up our house and they were going to be staying there! The next morning they were all walking to the offices the same time as us, and it was pouring rain.... haha. They had all their bags... haha. I felt pretty bad for them  but it was really funny too! haha. They had no idea what was waiting for them! Then we had to get all of their visa work planned out for them and we started filling out forms and documents! It took so long because everything was in spanish and we had to sit and help them with everything! Once we finished President took us all out to eat and then sent all of them off to their areas.

Wednesday we had our Christmas dinner with the 3 zones of the area. It went really good especially because the family that cooked our food was my Bishop from Parrilla!! And a bunch of members were there serving the food for us! I was so happy to be able to see all of them! I never got to go and say bye to anyone in Parilla. It was really nice to say bye to them and be able to give my email to them so they could give it out in church! The dinner went really good! Then that night we had a activity in a big Mall that is here in Villa. A couple weeks ago, the presidents secretary and I went to  this mall to ask them if us as missionaries could do an activity and sing Christmas hymns. So Wednesday night the zone Villahermosa went to the mall and we sang some Christmas hymns and were able to receive a bunch of references for the mission! It was a really busy day. We had to take all of the equipment for the singing to the mall really early and set it all up and make sure that everything was ready for when everyone showed up!

For the last couple of days I was able to go and work in the area that im in! It was really good! I was able to meet some of the investigators that we have here! They are really good! We have a pretty good investigator that is progressing really well and is ready to be baptized! But she doesnt want to be baptized in the font of the church, but in the ocean or a river like Jesus she says haha! She has good intentions! But the ocean is like 2 hours away! But the area here is really good and I am really excited to work in it!

So the last week I hit a year in the mission!! I cant believe it! The time has gone by so fast! I feel like I had just gotten here! The time really has flown by! I have learned so much in this time! And I am so thankful for all of the things that I have learned in this past year and I am really excited for all the things that wait for me in the year to come!

I love all of you guys and so thankful for every one of you! Way excited to be able to talk to my family on Christmas!!

Elder Liljenquist