P-Day update week 43, 12/12/2022

 ¡Hola a todos!

This week has been super good! It's gone by fast and I feel like we've been able to get a lot done, but we can't slow down!!

Cute little Christmas tree in the mall!

So like I mentioned last week, we have new transfers! Just about nothing changed except for the fact that there is a new area in my district! It's actually half of my current area that was split into two, now there is my area, Alborada, and another area called Miradores! It's been a little interesting because they came into our area basically, and suddenly our teaching pool is a little smaller! These new Elders are Elder Escárzaga and Elder Hummel! Elder Escarzaga is training Elder Hummel, Escarzaga has a lot of time in the mission (24 Months) and he´s super excited to finally be training! Their super good missionaries! And now that they're here with us it's been different. They aren't in a new ward or branch or anything like that, they are just in an extension so we do a lot of things together! We eat together everyday so we see each other super often! And when they first got there we showed them around a little bit in Miradores since we know it a little, and we were able to help them find some new people! The fact is that this new area was highly needed, our area was super huge before, but now we can focus on a smaller area and give more attention to the people we're teaching that are progressing close to home! They also stay over every now and then when we have a late meeting and can't make it home thanks to the fact that the buses stop passing, so it sometimes feels like we're just in a big four man companionship! It's been fun and hopefully we can learn to do good work together and strengthen the ward!

From our singing activity last week!

I'm sure Cristiano Ronaldo would go to the metro!

This week was also the week in which we had our leadership council! If y'all remember, my first transfer here I had the chance to go to the mission leadership council, and since then I haven't been able to go because it's been in Poza Rica, on the other side of the mission! But this week they had it here in Xalapa so we were able to go! The day before we also had to prepare to receive a companionship of Zone Leaders who stayed with us! The two zone leaders were Elders Beltrán and Parker!! That's right my old companion came back two times in the same week to visit us! They are the zone leaders for the zone called Papantla, which is 30 minutes away from Poza Rica! When they arrived in Xalapa we went and had dinner with an hermana from the ward so Elder Parker could visit her and catch up! It was honestly super fun, Elder Parker and I helped a lady take some things to her house and we were able to do a little teaching on the way, it was nice to work with my old companion for one last ride! But after we ate and traveled back home, I was able to show off my new tree to the ZLs and then we went to sleep in preparation for the following day!

The new quad-team

The council was really awesome! It was nice to see so many of my ZL friends that have been stuck in the north for so long that I haven't been able to see them! Obviously being able to see so many missionary friends wasn't the best part! The council itself was very different in comparison to how it was before, usually we spend the time listening to guidance from president and we write it down to then take to the zone. But this time we really counseled, we talked about a few certain themes and talked about what was working in the mission and what wasn't working. We talked a lot about what we can do as a mission to become even more elevated, the big point was to get rid of casualness! That obviously can talk about a lot of stuff, but the big thing we tried to focus on was just making sure to remember that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and making sure that those around us can see that! That means dressing well and not having anything that distracts from our message! It's definitely going to be a little sad not being able to wear my new Christmas socks outside of the house, but it's for Jesus so it's fine, and I can just enjoy them even more in the house! Anyway the council talked about a lot of things that we can do as a mission to be better and we all had a chance to put in our opinions! President Day is very different from President Perkins in the sense that he likes the councils a lot and is very open to hearing everyone's words! It's been really cool! The council went basically like that for three hours, then we ate some Costco pizza and we got out of there! It was really nice! I lost my keys right when we left but besides that it was super edifying!!

Daisy during the cold!

Cool little cat!

I'm just about out of time today, but I did want to tell you all about the activities we've had this past week! So just like back home, they have Christmas concerts here! This week we had our stake Christmas concert in my stake and it was super cool! We had a Christmas dinner the night before and we had 3 friends over! And it was really nice to just think about the birth of Christ and be able to remember him this Christmas season! And the choir was really good, not like the Madison stake but it was pretty good!

I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week full of love and joy!