Week 8 Christmas in Duitama Colombia

Down here in Colombia they do most of their celebrating on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve we ate lunch at a members house and they made us homemade pizza with lots of vegetables on it. It was really good. On Christmas Day we studied for about 4 hours in the morning. Then we went to a resturant for lunch, the one we usually go to was closed so we went to a different one, it cost a lot more, probably more like what we are use to paying in the US. Then we went to a members house and he was going to give us some apple cider but it contained a little alcohol. My companion luckily read the label, and told the member that we couldn't drink it. He did give us some cookies instead. After that we went caroling to some referrals we had and gave them a wrapped Libro de mormon, that was how we spent our Christmas. 

Friday we went to the country to teach an investigator. It was cool because it reminded me of home. The lesson went well and Maria wanted to get baptized the next day. She's scheduled for baptism this coming Saturday. It is so awesome!! After we left her house we needed to catch the bus back to the city, we saw it pulling away, we tried to run and catch it but it kept on going. We had to wait for about 30 minutes for the next bus, so that wasn't too bad. 

Saturday we helped clean the chapel. We had to move all the chairs out, so we could wash them all by hand. There were about 200 chairs so I got my exercise in for the day. We also fasted for the Tejedor  family, they are super awesome and have tremendous faith in the gospel and are progressing super fast, and hopefully will be baptized this coming month. We almost got attacked by a dog, good thing he was on a leash, but the dog took me by surprise and I jumped about 10 ft in the air. 

Sunday was good we had a super awesome lesson in gospel principles class. It was about eternal families. I am so grateful for you guys and all the love you have for me, and the examples you set for me. 

Today we played some Futbol at the church with some of the youth and an investigator, it was awesome to be able to play soccer finally. They don't have grass fields here so I don't need my cleats. 

I love you guys and hope you had a great Christmas it was really nice being able to skype you on Christmas Eve. Love, Elder Strong