Christmas letter

Well, we had a great time talking with Elder Williams on Wednesday.  It was a little late because they had to got to the church building.  The two sets of Elders had to use an Ipad and Laptop to skype with us, but it worked!!  We also got to quickly see Elder Flores (who stayed another transfer) and then the two new elders, Elder Lines (DL) and Collin's companion.  They all seem like nice guys.  I guess the two new guys are a little "stiff".  They think that Elder Williams is having too much fun with the members and not enough spiritual.  Elder Williams is trying to find a balance with this new addition.  He thinks that this will be his last transfer in Autlan.  He is sad to go, but looking forward to a new adventure. 

"I miss a lot of people here already and knowing that I will be leaving Autlan soon is starting to sink in.   I'm going to do everything I can to make this possibly last transfer here the best it can and carry the momentum to the next area.  I really want to finish strong and I want to look back and not have any regrets on the work I "could have done" and see "I did enough".

"I hope you enjoy your NYE (New Year's Eve) because we can't do anything fun here....  Christmas was fun and we ate a lot!!!!  We had pizza twice in one day and then we had a very yummy "Turkey" dinner with a very yummy fruit salad that I am begging for the recipe.  I loved spending time with some of my favorite families here even though my comp didn't let me joke around with them as much as I would have liked.  He just cut right in to teach a lesson.....  Oh well.  Still trying to find a balance."

"I had to talk last minute yesterday because we had 45 people at church for the rain storm...  It's been raining for 3 days straight.  It's terrible.  I talked about the same thing as the Elder there (in Florida).  Don't be afraid to talk to someone about the church and just do it with a prayer in your heart.  The Spirit and faith will take over the fear."

Elder Williams looks great!  He is definitely a MAN!  He is no longer my little boy or my little young man.  I can't believe how much he has already changed!  He sounds happy and is really enjoying his mission.  He had a hard time talking with us...he kept reverting back into Spanish as he was talking.  Chris laughed at him the whole time!  Our only bad part of the skype was when the rain storm came into Autlan and took out our connection.  We had to type and stutter our way through the last 10 minutes of the call.  And as you can tell from his email, it has been raining ever since Christmas Day.

Well, as we leave the wonderful warmth of Florida and Elder Williams gets to forge through the rain of Autlan, we will see what the new year brings to us all.  We hope you had a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year!!  Elder Williams only has 8 months left!!!!!!