2015!!!

Wow it´s incredible that 2014 already finished. It was a big year I´d say. Time just keeps marching on and there is nothing we can do about it other than take advantage of every minute! I hope you each had a wonderful New Years! I´ll quickly tell you about ours. After 6pm it was just like a free day and we could do what we wanted but we had to be in our house at 11 so we just decided to visit people until like 8:30 and afterwards we wanted to find a place open that we could buy empanadas or completos. The problem was that every place we went to was either closed or full of people that were already a little drunk so we opted to just head to the house. Haha and I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies (using that silicon cooking mat you sent me and it works very good! I love it!) then we made our plans for the next day and got in bed at 11! Haha reaaal exciting I know! But it was good, we just talked about the year and a couple of highlights of every month which was cool to think back on! The next morning we had to go to San Felipe for our District class and in the morning there was absolutely no one in the streets... They were all knocked out I believe. When we got the the Plaza, where we take the bus, there was like ten people there and all drunk. They all asked us for money for a cigarrette or another drink. It was a sad sight. A night that everyone gets excited for just so they can be out of their minds the next day... Then we had to wait like an hour for the first bus to come. Usually they start at 6:30 but that day they started at like 8:30. So that was our New Years but it wasn´t a bad one! Only one more left!

This week we have made some very good progress with one of our investigators named Adela(25 years old). We found her and her mom(about 50 years old) a couple of months ago with Elder Anderson. Recently, two or three weeks ago, her mom didn´t want to have anything to do with us. So we had been teaching just the daughter (both are named Adela so it´s a little confusing) and she has made some incredible progress. And I mean incredible! When we first started teaching she didn´t understand hardly anything and never read or said prayers. Her eyes were always sad and heavy, she never had energy, had kind of a negative vibe, and didn´t have a job. She has come to church six times now, went and bought highlighters so that when she reads the Book of Mormon she can mark the things she doesn´t understand so that she can ask us, prays every morning, night, and before meals(with out the steps we wrote down for her so she wouldn´t forget), has more energy, has a job, is more patient, and the most noticeable has the Light of Christ in her eyes. There has been a change in her heart and it shows in her appearance. It is so amazing! I don´t even know how to explain it! She is doing what the Lord asks and he is blessing her. AND those around her. Early this week we were in a neighborhood and we saw the Mom of Adela(the other Adela). She was talking to her brother and had two big bags that looked heavy so we chatted with them for a little then asked if she needed help with the bags. She was a little hesitant because she had told us that she didn´t want anything with us but in the end said yes. So we grabbed her bags and walked to her house(well the bottom of her hill) which was pretty far. We talked the whole time and I think it touched her heart a little that we would help her even though she didn´t want to take part in our lessons. Yesterday we went up to visit Adela(daughter) but her mom answered the door, told us that her daughter wasn´t there, and asked us if we could come in anyways. Obviously we said yes!! She started off by telling us the differences that she has seen in her daughter and that she feels like she is missing something in her life. So she told us that she started reading the Book of Mormon and praying on her own and that she wants to take part in our lessons again!! Ahhhh! It was a tender mercy from the Lord. The Light of Christ is real and it is something that Adela(mom) has seen in her daughter. And then a little act of service was needed and just like that she wanted to be apart of the lessons and the church again! I am so excited for her and her daughter. Her daughter has a baptism date for the 25th and we are going to work very hard so that she can be ready for that date!

We hiked a pretty big ´ol hill(mountain) today for P-day, here it is.

the wind was so strong that I could lean like this and not fall! (Kind of a joke, I did fall but the wind was super strong)

Thank you for the love and emails, things are well here! And still pretty hot haha and I hope everything is fantastic there!

Love,

Elder Gunnell