Well, this's week's been a good week for sure, with Christmas and the chance to see my family, and everything. I have definitely felt the Spirit of Christ this Christmas season. I also know that my duty now is to carry that Spirit with me more fully through the end of this year and into the next. As far as the work goes, holiday times are often hard to adjust to, but I feel like we've been able to have successes and miracles despite the challenges of the holidays.
One of the miracles that we've had was that yesterday we were able to teach 4 lessons. We were able to teach Salvador Padilla, different than the Salvador that we've been teaching, and we met someone new, Jose that we taught. Jose especially was a miracle, he was washing his car and we offered help. He said he was alright, but we just started talking to hiim. He had a lot of good questions, and was really open to having a good discussion, not argumentative like a lot of people are. He's only here on vacation and leaves Wednesday, but he said that we could come over anytime between now and then, and we intend to prepare him as much as we can and then make some other missionaries very happy with an awesome referral! We also were able to teach 2 of our recent converts, Rodolfo and Lupe yesterday. They are both awesome, Rodolfo is the husband of a member and although he's a quiet guy he has a great testimony already and a good knowledge base. He remembers a lot of what the missionaries taught him, and only needs to keep doing what he knows he needs to in order to become a rock solid member of the branch. Apart from that we also were able to teach a less-active, Luis, who I've never taught before and who had a lot of questions about Joseph Smith, like who he was, what he did, what his life was like. He is a nice guy, and smart, but he seems to lack a lot of testimony. He kept refering to "your faith", instead of "our faith". And apart from those lessons we were able to meet a lot of new people that are pretty solid potentials. We also took some time to carol as Spanish missionaries to some of our less-actives, investigators, and members. I believe we touched some hearts and helped people see that we aren't just here to "shove religion down their throats" as some people seem to think. That was really nice and one of the things that I think might make a difference in some people's hearts.
I also wanted to thank everybody that sent me packages through this time, although it's been fun to open the presents and "get" a lot of stuff, I mostly want to thank all of y'all that keep me in your thoughts and prayers. The packages meant more to me as the thoughts behind them than the actual things I recieved (although I appreciate all of that as well!!). I wanted to tell y'all that I feel the power of your faith and your prayers in everyday. Sometimes I don't recognize the help I recieve until later, but I do for sure feel your faith and prayers sustaining me and providing miracles here in California. I truly am grateful for everything y'all do for me!! Have a very Happy New Year!!!
-Elder Whitaker