Chapter 41: ¡Feliz Navidad!

Twas the week before Christmas, when all through Castellón,

All the missionaries were working, indeed all of the zone.

The citas were were handled and taught with much care,

In hope that a baptism we would soon need prepare.

Yes this week definitely proved to be a trick! Everyone was working, preparing, finishing finals, and getting ready for the holiday. Which also meant that no one was available to meet! Oh well, at least we kept the spirit of the holidays in the work. The ward was preparing their big Christmas celebration/ talent show, and so the missionaries decided to just invite the world! Haha Ok, maybe not quite that many people, but we focused all of our contacting and many of our lessons with investigators on getting them to the church to see this great Christmas program. So obviously, if we were going to invite so many people, we had to make it good. The missionaries all did a musical number of the 12 days of Christmas remixed (choreographed, might I add), but that´s not all. There are only two of us “gringo” missionaries in the district, so we decided to do a taste of Christmas from the states. We made a medley of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Deck the Halls, Dashing Through the Snow, Let it Snow, Winter Wonderland, Sleigh Ride, Rudolph, The Christmas Song, O Holy Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, Silent Night, Joy to the World, and finishing with the First Noel. Not to brag, but it was pretty awesome, and it definitely used all the creativity that I have. It ended up being so great! We had so many investigators that came! Ana, my Spaniard grandma, even came!! I can´t believe we got her out of the house. She said she just came to here me sing and nothing else, but I know she felt the spirit throughout the night! And she brought her granddaughter, Cristina, who also seemed to really enjoy the evening. I really love this ward! We have also really been focusing on our new family Tony and Kati and Gemma. I honestly just love them so much! We had a couple really good lessons with them this week (yes, it would be appear that they are the only people in Castellón that were available these last couple days). We taught them the plan of Salvation, and Kati practically jumped out of her chair at the end and bursted, “I want to be baptized. I know this is exactly what I need.” Tony, although not quite so explosively, also nodded and said he would like to be baptized. I could hardly believe it. However, they will be a little bit more difficult than I originally thought. We came back a couple days later to teach the Restauración. I wanted Gemma to be involved in the lesson (she is four years old), so we came up with the idea of using little plastic cups to teach it. (build a pyramid with the priesthood as the middle bottom cup, then the 12 apostles, then the gospel, then a few points of doctrine, and you top the pyramid off with Christ. When you this example of apostasy, you pull out the priesthood and the church collapses, and you build little churches.) It was great! They understhood it perfectly. Even Kati said that this explains why she never felt right in the Orthodox church. Then we explained the story of Joseph Smith. We got to the part of the first vision, and after we said, “Este es mi Hijo amado, Eschuchalo” (This is my beloved Son, hear Him) there was just a silence. Then I looked up at Kati, and she had her hand kind of over her heart and gasped a little. Oh no. I had a fear about this. Orthodox are so strict on no one seeing God the Father (and Catholics aren´t so great on it either, so I was keeping my eye on Tony). After another pain-stakingly long moment, she looked at us with tears in her eyes and just said, “How pure. How pure Joseph Smith must have been.” Phew. I glanced over at Tony now, and he just said, “I know people have revelations. I don´t think I will see God the Father, but I had a dream before my daughter was born that I would have a child, and so I know God talks to us.” Ok, so at this point I was just so excited!! They love the Book of Mormon, and now they understood a little more of where it came from. They informed me that they are on like chapter 20 of Nephi (This is after 2 days of receiving the book). Tony said that he loves the Book of Mormon because it is so relatable to his specific needs, much more than the bible. Score!  Afterwards, we rebuilt the church with the cups so that they apostles now showed the faces of the modern day apostles, and the top of the church is President Monson with an upside down cup that says revelation with Christ once again on top of the church. They said they knew it was true. So they are so golden. Kati said the closing prayer, and she pled that they would be ready for their baptism. After we said Amen, the thought came to my mind, “Ask them if they are married.” Oh no. I fought with the thought back and forth for a minute since we just had an incredible lesson with them, but the Spirit is never wrong. I asked them, “So…how long have you been married?” And they both replied together, “We´re not married.” NOOOO!!! Sigh. However, I have hope because they continued, “Marriage has always been in the plan, we just have been so busy and stressed this year that we haven´t gotten around to it.” We explained to them that in order to be baptized, they needed to be legally married because the gospel is for the family. We testified of how from the view of children, having parents married has been a great blessing to us of security and love. It was funny, Kati turned to Tony, and said, “Well, what are you waiting for, propose to me!” haha  So, we will be planning a wedding before the baptism, but I just love that family. They have a lot of family problems (neither of their parents want them to get married for one), but I know that with God they can over come anything. We have also been working with Ana, our recent convert. We decided to read with her Lehi´s dream this week, and she just said how she wants us to work with her family more, and of course we are more than willing! I am so excited to finally be working with families. Aglaice´s sons are coming for Christmas and planned a party for the young adults in the ward to come and introduce them to the church. Everyone is just getting into the missionary spirit! Towards the end of the week, all the missionaries realized that normal proselyting was just not going to work before Christmas, so we decided to do something completely original. Ok, so not so original, but we have been going caroling in all of our areas with the ward. On Saturday, we visited the nearby towns and sang to them, and on Sunday night, the ward choir wanted to do it as well. So us missionaries and about a fourth of the ward went around to all of our recent converts, less actives, and investigators and sang to them some Christmas songs. I think it was the most success I have ever seen in one night. I am always shocked by how music really invites the spirit, and seeing the support from the ward was incredible. (We even had a traveling piano. Yes, we do caroling the fancy way hahaha) It was such an amazing experience. I guess it really made me think about Christmas. I really have had a hard time thinking about Christmas away from my family this month, but this week was different. I realized that this is the only Christmas that I will be set apart as a missionary of Christ´s church to give people the greatest gift they could possibly imagine. It really did bring me a lot of joy. I think this was kind of like the midlife crisis that I hit this week. haha Yes, I am halfway through the mission as of this week, and I can hardly believe it. It has been so hard, but I am just starting to see how incredible this work really is, and I love seeing it bless families. I am so grateful for the church, the gospel, and the Savior in my life because it really has been the greatest gift.

So, especially during this Christmas time,

I hope you can feel of my love through this little rhyme,

I´m  grateful for you, and I hope your tidings are glad,

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a Feliz Navidad!”

Les Quiero,

Hermana Hopkins