Hola All Y'all: December 28th - Christmas, Tornadoes, and Baptism Invites- OH MY!

It's been a CRAZY week. (See subject line).

On Christmas "Adam" (Wednesday) we went and got Arby's for dinner before we went to the church to teach English, but the latter didn't end up happening because we were ordered inside due to possible tornadoes. We left Arby's because it's 90% windows and went to our apartment with the other Hermanas (Moline and Mitchell).

There we essentially did laundry, hung out, showered, and tried to be somewhat productive while still relaxing. We got called a few times to have our safety/status checked, and were told we had an 80% chance of tornadoes. Ahhhh...... The wind was crazy and for a long time there was lightning every 3-8 seconds. I got a video I'll send eventually. Nothing ended up happening but we're experiencing lots of flooding right now and possible tornado watches again today/this week, sooo fingers crossed....

Christmas Eve was fantastic. We met a family from the Marshall Islands (Hna Acosta tracted into them with Johnson two transfers ago). The parents in the Abija family don't speak English very well. But, we taught their son (one of six kids) on their doorstep about the Book of Mormon last week while the rest of his family was gone and got his mom's number. He is very interested in symbolism, so I had mom e-mail me a Christmas symbolism lesson called "Teach the Children". Then, we went to teach them on Christmas Eve. Though the son wasn't there, we taught the rest of their family and they loved it! The mom got down on the rug where I had set up all the little symbols (a bell ornament, a wreath and holly plant made out of sticky notes, a paper star and angel, etc set up on the tree Erik sent me.) She started looking at them and said, "Thanks so much for the tree!" Me: "...You're welcome." That wasn't the plan, but it made them sooo happy and added a bit of color to their humble apartment. Plus, I was glad they had it because I left the story with them too for their son to read so he could get the symbolism too. It was incredible. When we asked when we could come back, they said we were welcome to come every day, any time. ....Wait, what?

SO, we came back on Saturday, two days later (a day after Christmas) and taught the Plan of Salvation/the 5 steps. We used cut out footprints for an object lesson with the words "Faith", "Repentance", "Baptism", "Holy Ghost", "Endure to the End" and "Eternal Life!" on them, and showed them how these steps make is possible for us the cross the 'lava' and make it safely back to our Heavenly Father. Though we have a partial language barrier, I'm so grateful that through the Spirit and past teaching experiences and lessons that Sister Acosta and I have had that we were able to convey the simple truths of the Gospel to this family. (P.S. the Mom's sister is a member, not sure if she's active though)

Oh, we spent Christmas Eve dinner with Hermana and Hermano Cruz. They feed us very well. We slept over at the other Hermanas apartment and opened presents the next day with them.

Christmas Day rained like crazy. Skyping home made up for it though :) Y'all haven't changed too much yet ;) 'Course, I've only been gone three months (in two days).

Last night, we also taught the Plan of Salvation to Dustin, and he agreed, once he receives the answer that the Church/Book of Mormon are true, to be baptized! For the third time! (If he follows through on being baptized this will be the first time being baptized by the Priesthood though). I'm so excited for him. He has so much potential and I know that the Gospel will bless his life immensely.

So grateful to see the Hand of the Lord in this work that I am so blessed to take part in. I am so excited to see the Gospel having positive effects on those that we've found and I can't wait to see them continue learning and changing for the better.

The Church is true, the Book is Blue, God loves you- Let's see this through!!

Hope you had a very Feliz Navidad and that y'all have a Happy New Year!

~Hermana Laurel Martin