Hola, Y'all! : I picked out my gravesite today

Hey everyone! Transfer calls happened today and.... I'M STAYING!!!
Looks like I will be dying in Memphis! I'm super excited. Elder
Peterson is staying here too, so it's gonna be a great transfer!

Monday was a ton of fun! We practiced our stuff for the talent show,
which went ok. It's hard to practice much when you're a missionary, so
it went about as good as you'd expect. Then we headed down to
Southaven, Mississippi as a district and went bowling. It was a ton of
fun! One of the sisters' recent converts showed up, too. I don't think
any of us got higher than 122 (I didn't break 100) but it was still
really fun. Then we went to the Tanger Outlet mall, to do a bit of
"looking at stuff I don't have money for" shopping. Then we went to
Family Home Evening at the D's house. It was great, we had a really
good lesson and then played Uno. I got family flashbacks :P

Tuesday we set about to do some secret service for the R.
family. Unfortunately, they ended up not being home, so we had to move
it to another day. We couldn't find a lot of people outside until
later that night, but we did manage to see some people! We had a
really cool lesson with this couple, L. and L., about the power
of the Book of Mormon. They had read what we had left them, which was
great, but they didn't really see why it was important. I guess when
we had taught them about it, they were under the impression that it
was just selections taken from the Bible. Soooo we fixed that one.
It's actually a really common misconception people have. The Book of
Mormon is a completely separate book from the Bible. Two histories,
two civilizations, so completely different records. However, they
teach the same gospel. It's like taking two different algebra books.
The examples and problems will be different. The order may be
different. But the principles are the same. You learn math from both
of them. It's the same idea with the Book of Mormon and the Bible.
Reading both only strengthens your knowledge and testimony of the
principles of he gospel of Christ. It's that simple.

Wednesday we managed to do the service for the R. family! They
still don't know for sure who did it though, so shhh :P Then we did a
lot of walking to find some new people. And we found some too! It was
great, and we got some exercise. We also saw the Pinto family. We
really want to see them progress, but there is so much works against
them. Guess that means Satan really doesn't want them in church, so we
will work harder on them :)

Thursday was the Christmas Zone Conference! We got there about an hour
late because we went and helped a less active member change the tire
on her truck. Not the easiest thing to do in a suit, let me tell you.
:P It was a great meeting though. It was Elder Wells' LAST MEETING!
That's crazy! I remember him from my second transfer! We had a gift
exchange, made from stuff we had around the apartment. I struck gold,
and got a Nerf gun. Then we did the talent show, which was crazy.
Everything went well, barely. It was still good though. We have some
talented people in the mission! Then we got to watch a movie, the one
time a year we get to. We watched the Cokeville Miracle, about a
terrorist attack at an elementary school where no one died, and all
the miracles that went with it. It was a pretty good movie. It was
pretty intense for the people who hadn't seen a movie in like two
years, like me :P That was about all we had time for. We went to the
chapel and helped clean up from the branch making 400 tamales for the
Christmas party Friday, which got me pretty stoked.

Friday was sweet! We went to our first appointment and they weren't
home, so we talked to the neighbors who were outside and had a good
lesson with them. We gave each of the 7 of them a Book of Mormon,
which meant we were out of books. So, we went back home, got some and
did a lot of planning for the next week/transfer. Then we went down to
the Christmas party! It was advertised to start at 6:30, so everyone
would be there by seven. That was the "secret" start time. So
naturally, everyone showed up around 7:45. It was still a good program
though. They had singing, piñatas, Santa, and a lot of tamales. I got
like a dozen. They're in the freezer right now :P

Saturday went ok. We weren't able to do much teaching, mainly just
walking around. No one was home, except for those who were sick. We
got some district Christmas shopping done while waiting for the other
guys to pick us up for dinner (I got everyone funny Christmas socks,
they're fantastic) and then we went to the B. house for dinner.
It was pretty good, and it's always fun at their house! We had a bit
of a jam session at his request, and everyone just had fun. We are
going over again Christmas Eve. Aww yeah.

Sunday even less got done. Church was awesome though! We were in a
meeting before church and we got a call from a random number. Turns
out it was a less active who hadn't been to church in years! He ran
into Peterson and Butler a few months back and got our number, then
called to get a ride to church. So that was cool! Also another cool
thing, R. got baptized! R. is the husband of this family the sisters
have been teaching. He is the last one to get baptized! He's a stud.
So yeah, that happened. Then we took pictures with our Christmas socks
(which they loved woo) and went home. Since we were on bike week, the
other elders drove us down to our appointments. None of them were here
for them to drop us, though, and then it started dumping rain. So that
kinda ruined it. But it was a good day looking back!

Hope you guys have a great week! AHH CHRISTMAS IS SO CLOSE!!!
Pics: the district with our funny socks! Aww we are awesome.