Venid y Ved

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure had a fun one! We didnt have power friday through sunday so that was an interesting adventure but its all good because missionaries are almost never in their house anyways! We had a stake missionary activity in a public park in Cuernavaca at the beginning of the week to spread the good news of our Saviors birth. The program was called Venid y Ved and the Cuernavaca zone of our mission sang hymns and it was a great showing. We had our branch christmas party later that night in Tepoztlán and we also had a great showing of about 80 people there in our tiny house of prayer. My companion and I enjoyed serving the food and mingling with the members and their non member friends throughout the evening. On Christmas Eve night, we went to the Relief Society Presidents house and had dinner and enjoyed watching the kids open their presents that were under the Christmas tree. The Sister even gave us wrapped presents that all ended up being chocolates. On Christmas morning we had to wake up early, get ready in the dark, and head to San Andres to teach a lesson. We taught a 21 year old that has already been to church 3 times and loves it a ton. He is a super cool and nice guy and our lesson went great. He is going to get baptized in a couple weeks!! We then welcomed all the members of San Andres to church and quickly took the combi to get back to Tepoztlán in time for our services. Not many people showed up to church. In fact, only the Branch president and the Relief Society President were there with us when we were supposed to start but after waiting a little a few more filed in. We enjoyed our Skype calls to the family, it was great to hear from them and see their faces. We found out this past weekend that they are not going to send missionaries to San Andres for at least 6 weeks more so we will continue working in the two areas this change. I would like to share today something I shared with my family yesterday that was one of the highlights of this Christmas. Our mission president here challenged us at the beginning of the week to write down in our daily agendas something specific about Jesus Christ for every hour of the day. Throughout each hour, we think of that thing to keep out bad thoughts and distractions and to also keep ourselves focused on our purpose as missionaries. This week has been such an amazing week just as I have strived to follow that counsel of our mission president. I feel like my relationship with my Savior is growing and that He is helping me in every phase of this ever-important work. I love Him and enjoy serving in this part of His vineyard. Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and Happy New Year!!!! Love,

Elder Stutz