Monday, December 31, 2012 - "The Year Is Dying In The Night"

Hola Mi Familia! It was so wonderful to start me week off being able to talk to you on Christmas! I think we all had a good time. Sounds like you all had a nice Christmas and that Santa was good to everyone. I quite enjoyed all that Santa and the family sent me! So I guess just a little re-cap of what I already told you about Christmas and then on to the rest of the week. For Christmas eve, a family invited us over for dinner. Apparently this night is just one of festivities and that it goes late into the night. There are piñatas, fireworks, dancing, music until all hours of the night. I woke up around 5AM to turn myself and could still hear music and fireworks outside. Pres. Hernandez gave us all special permission to be out later on Christmas eve till 10:30PM instead of the normal 9PM. We arrived with the family around 8PM and they still didn't have the dinner ready, so we just chilled around for another 2 hours or so until 10:15PM when we told them that we had to be going and they took everything out of the oven anyway to feed us. It was good! We had Mashed Potatoes, a delicious ham in like a chili type sauce and a pasta salad. Everything was really good, but I couldn't finish it all. Like I told you, we went the day before to eat 50 cm Burritos with the landlords who just love us, even though they aren't members. And my stomach didn't really sit well after that and felt quite sick that whole day. Earlier that day, we went and hiked a "mountain/hill" that is basically right in the middle of Hermosillo and looks out on the whole city! It was pretty neat. So yeah, I couldn't finish the dinner because I felt awful! We went home and I opened my Christmas eve Presents and once everyone was in bed, I set out what Santa had sent! In the morning, we had a nice little time enjoying what Santa had sent and opening presents from you guys! I was too busy talking to you all that I forgot to mention how thankful the comps were for the gifts and they said to tell you all thank you! So Christmas we went with a family and had a pre-lunch leftovers of what they ate the night before. That was basically the whole day, just eating left overs of what everyone ate the night before and it was usually ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, pasta salad, and maybe tamales. We went and ate with 3 or so families that day, but I really didn't eat too much on account that I was still feeling like horrible! The whole rest of the week was not as productive as it could have been. With Elder Searle leaving Thursday we sent Tuesday and Wednesday going around so that he could say goodbye to people and purchasing last minute things for his family. It was kind of sad to see him go, although we were together for just 10 days, he is the only gringo comp I've had so far and we got along pretty well. It has taken time to adjust back to being just 2 after being in a 3 some. The rest of the week has been kind of rough with everyone in vacations and such. We do have a few baptismal dates for this month, hopefully. The girl that just got baptized last week, has a daughter of 9 years old and so hopefully that will be a for sure baptism. This house that we have really sucks! We have one of those shower heads that heats the water with electricity, but since there isn't enough water in Hermosillo, the water pressure is low and not high enough for this thing to kick in and work, so we have had to heat water using a metal bar thing that is used for heating water and then we bathe with a cup. Well, this week the thing kind of exploded and doesn't work now, so we have been bathing with cold water which is not fun when you wake up in a freezing concrete house in the morning....oh what fun! I feel like this email has been a boring re-cap of things you already know. Sorry, I just can't think of anything to say. Well, that is all I got for this week, hopefully next week there will be more to say. I love and miss you all much! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner