The Blanca Beat: It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas 🎄

Christmas Conference!

On Tuesday we had the grand Christmas Conference! We had to give gifts in the Conference so on Monday we went shopping downtown and I think it's safe to say we saw every other missionary in Bahia Blanca. I think we saw literally every single missionary from 3 different zones so that was crazy.

But the Conference on Tuesday was so awesome and fun. I of course received lots of revelation and learned how to be a better missionary, and there were lots of fun games! We played Kahoot with 2 teams, President Antuña and all the elders, and Hermana Antuña with all the Hermanas. Team Hermanas won obviously, it was easy.

Then we had a gift exchange, I got a nerf gun and used it quite a bit. We also had a jewelry exchange between the Hermanas and I got such a cute bracelet from Hermana Armstrong.

It was a great super fun Conference and it was almost my last which is scary.

Divisions with Hermana McCombs

Woah, random comp switchup for a Day since Hermana McCombs and Hermana Cordero were in Bahia doing legal paperwork for a day (Hermana McCombs passport has a different name, I don't even know how she got here).

So in the afternoon I left with Hermana McCombs and we had some super fun divisions where we taught some great lessons, got horribly rejected by some people in the plaza, and put a baptismal date with our friend Pablo! Didn't end up eating Gridos at the end though so that was disappointing.

Service

On Thursday almost lost an inactive member to the Jehovahs Witnesses. Just worth mentioning.

We spent Friday morning painting a school! That was super fun and one of the few times I've gotten to participate in a service project so that was awesome. After we finished we ate Choripan and drank coke with some of the YSA who went to the service activity.

Painting

That afternoon we went to Veronicas house and put a baptismal date with her because she said she wanted to receive the holy ghost!! Finished that day with the long awaited Gridos ice cream.

Gridos!

Weekend Parties

On Saturday the 2nd ever temple sealing preformed in the Bahia Blanca Temple was done for our sweet little more than a year converts Raquel and Julio. They are a sweet old couple and they had the best day ever! It was so amazing!

Then on Sunday we pull up to church in a car with our sweet 86 year old friend Susana (skrskr). Veronica came and they announced her baptism!

Pablo also came and felt the spirit so strongly he started crying and left after the first hour. That afternoon we went to his house and asked him about his experience and he was just so overwhelmed. He'd never felt before what he felt in church.

He is so determined to get baptized and wants to do whatever it takes. Unfortunately whatever it takes means stopping smoking which he's been doing since he was 11 years old. He promised us the day of his baptism he'll stop smoking for good, but he's gonna have to stop smoking a little before that since,

" they were not baptized save they brought forth fruit meet that they were worthy of it." Moroni 6:1

But yeah, prayers for Pablo please.

Spiritual Thought

In the Conference (spoilers) we talked a lot about being Valiant.

It made me think about the part in Doctrine and Convenants where it describes the people who go to the terrestrial kingdom as being people who "are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus."

What does it mean to be valiant in the testimony of Jesus? In this context I think it means diligent. Doing everything in our power.

I've found that in general, people are pretty lazy. I think it's super easy for us to not be valiant. To be complicit with what we know or what we do. A lot of the times people lose their testimonies just by forgetting to do small and simple things like praying, reading the scriptures, and going to church.

Valiant is not just courage, it's diligence, a good attitude, and integrity. When we are valiant we put God first, and in the mission that's something I've learned how to do.

Stat Check

Days left in the mission: 9

Days we played Truco and ate cookies: 1

Emails/blog posts left: 1

Amount of times we sang the Rhett and Link song Are You Gonna Eat That: too many to count