Staying in Guachupita for Christmas

Saludos!

We do know what is going to happen in transfers! Elder Blake will be heading for a place called Oriental to be a Zone Leader! I am staying here and an awesome Elder named Elder Clayton is coming here! I think he is from California, and he will be the District Leader too just like Elder Blake was! He was an office elder, and I've seen him a couple of times, he actually picked us up from the MTC here! I hope that we can tear it up! Yes, we do have a cell phone, and I think that we will be calling from the cell phone at Christmas.

I actually already opened the Christmas packages that you sent me, haha. Sorry, I had to, Elder Blake opened his and shared it with me. His Mom sent stuff for both of us, so I opened mine too and shared some stuff with him! But don't worry, the cd player and cds were wrapped up, so I left them like that for Christmas Day. So I will have something to open then. But the cereal has been sweet! As well as the Ding Dongs and all of the candy, thanks so much!

Oh, I forgot something! Elder McBride called me, and he is coming to my zone!!!! (Elder McBride is our good friend from Gilbert. He and Jeff have known each other since they were little guys!) He is getting transferred to an area that is only an area away from mine! But his poor companion is named Elder Brown. I know him from District meetings. I was talking to him this week, and his Dad just died last week. I feel so bad for that elder. He is a really good guy and I'm sure that he and Elder McBride will work miracles!

Iraida is looking like she's not going to get baptized until later. She still doesn't want to get baptized yet. She has to work Saturday, but if need be, she can be baptized Sunday morning if she decides to. But we have some great news that we received from a family that we have been working with for 4 and a half months (even before I got here!) Their names are Jose Luis and Claribel. They are an amazing family that is practically already members with I think two daughters and one son, one of which is already baptized. They have been waiting on papers to get married for four and a half months, and hopefully they will be getting them this week and getting baptized on Christmas Day! How awesome that will be! They are going to be such a powerhouse for the Lord! We also have a goal with another family of four for Christmas Day to get baptized! The mom and dad are named Carmen and Henry, and the kids are named Henri Antonio (17) and Camila (10). They are an awesome family, and the Gospel has changed Henry so much! Wow, what a miracle the Gospel has worked in his life!

Yes Mom, I have finished the 12 days of November, I was so grateful for it! And I'm writing them all letters now too! But in the meantime, thank you so much Adi, Aubree, and Lauren!!! I really appreciated that! (Some of Jeff's good friends sent him a package for the twelve days of Christmas, but he opened it by accident early so he just decided to do the twelve days of November. Thanks so much Aubree, Adi and Lauren! We appreciate all that you do for Jeff and the other missionaries that are serving right now!)

Thanks Mom, I really appreciate what you said about me trying to give the impromptu talk last week in Sacrament meeting. It wasn't easy, but I hope that it showed The Lord that I wanted to serve Him.

Thank you so much for all that you do, I love you so much!!!!

Elder DeSpain

P.S. Send more chili if you can. That is such a delicacy and was such a great treat, ha ha!

Love you so much!

Oh, one more thing, I forwarded some pictures to you from Elder Blake of our last baptism.

(Henry will put one of these pictures on the blog later this week. We have to use Elder Blake's pictures because Jeff lost his camera. Another camera is in the mail on it's way to him so hopefully soon we will get some more pictures from him!)