:)

Hi everybody!! :D

First of all, I would love to thank you all for all the lovely Christmas letters I've recieved thus far! especially the Primary in the santa cruz ward, and for the fun gifts, I really needed those coconuts and colorful pens!!! most importanly however, those letters made me feel so LOVED! thank you and you know who you are!

 

this week in Phoenix AZ, the Elders refferred us a new family of 8! the mother is single becaue her husband got deported and she has 4 children that are over 8 years old, twoo young women that are really nice and i am so excited for. This women is so prepared she is so eager to obey all the commandments and to have  a good values and to love God. We went over to teach them about prophets and it was wonderful, know i know what that scipture was talking about, i could rememeber what i needed to say, so i said a simple prayer and then came the inspired questions and as she explained what she remembers about waht teh elders taught about jospeh smith , the rest of the knoweledge came back to me and my companion and i taught in unity, it is the best when the companionship is united, the spirit is stronger. We also helped her a little bit with some  house stuff, which was fun. They unfortunalty sisnt come to church because one of the babies was sick the whole night and they were too tired to come, grrrrr, o well  they are still great. Oh and by the way they have a baptisimal date the mom and the 2 oldest daughters form two weeks from saturday. We're excited.

We have another family we were granted permission to go to jail to meet her husband. Well the mother isnt a citizen so she isnt allowed in, her children are the only ones that are able and need an adult to take them, so we volenteered to go in, one of us and a child, yes i know, but president with all his wisdom knew this is the way to help this family. We need the trust and the approval of the father to be able to baptise this family, by the way the father is sick becaue he hasn't been eating and can't walk very welll because his strength has slackened because of lack of food and depression.

I wasn't able to see him, but i will today. We are taking some time out of preparation day to go visit him so his children may see him, well one only, till next week , we will have 2 down and 4 more to go. We are so happy, we know this will pick up his hope, please pray for this family, they need the powers of heaven. The Rojos. this is a picture of them

 

Also we met another lady, she is a pinata seller, a very talented one, we went over and taught her The Restoration, she committed to be baptised and to come to a Relief Society dinner, and she came and she brought a friend, it was a wierdly reverent dinner, the cool part was when the President came up and started to get to know our investigators and shared what the purpose of the society is, it made me so happy that someone took the time to get out of their confort zone to talk to a newbee. However, she didn't come to church becaue she had to be somewhere else!! trials!!! They are only there to make you stornger :)

 

And onether day, we went to go look for a less active lady, she was home! and cleaning, at first she was timid and unwelcoming, but as we talked and talked she eventually let us in and accepted our request to help her clean, so we all cleaned up the house and tehn taught her, she is less active becaue she got offended that someone corrected her child and she also said that she doesn't know why she even got baptized. I was a little confused and at the same time eager to help her gain a testimony. She was so kind and greatful for the help, she even gave us some yummy tamales :)

On Friday we went over to a less active family's house, we focused more on the father. I'm not going to lie, he is a scary grumpy looking man, and i had a feeling he did not like us very much, but as we stareted to talk, he began to open us and confessed that Satan had gotten a hold of his heart,  how ever since he was a child he has been mistreated, and still is at work and everywhere else and how sometimes he reacts violently, yet he doesn't want to blame anyone and he recognized that he has forgotten in whom he should trust. As, he spoke my heart felt so much compassion for this man, i almost cried, but didn't,  he said he wanted a lot of doctrine not just a little bit. I was reminded of this scripture in the bok of romans 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but ^aovercome evil with good"  I began to share my testimony to him that i know that God has been the father that has always been there for me, even tho I cannot see him, I know that he is there, he has strengthened me, comforted me and has given me hope and has filled me with his love, and I will contunually put my trust in him. I know that people make so much mistakes and those expiriences make us feel horrible and weighed down. Nonetheless; thanks to our Savior, for taking it upon himself, we wont have to suffer if we trust him, repent and follow him.My companion and I loved that wonderful moment we shared with that family. I gave him a list of scriptures i wanted him to study and apply in preperation for our next visit.

• We went caroling with the other sisters to a new converts house, and even tho our intent was to do this for free, she abducted us into her apartment and pretty much force fed us cheescake and a glass of milk. haha members are so funny. I love them, and i was so full i only ate half and put the rest in  a zip lock bag.

Well I love you all and hope you have the best christmas of your lives!

much love, Hermana Salas