Dec 28

Dear Fam,

Yesterday we had the first counselor of the Santiago Temple come to speak to
us, it was soooooo cool to hear from them. Just by having temple workers
there in the church brought a different feeling. It was almost as if we were
in the Temple itself. It was very cool. They talked a lot about the Plan of
Salvation, and how we all personally should decide to do all that we can to
fulfill that plan and return to live with God. Both the counselor and his
wife were excellent speakers and i learned a lot. We also had a secret santa
activity that went really well. In this ward it´s typically hard to get
people to come to the activities but a TON of people came to this one, and
many people who haven´t come to church in a while came to church AND the
activity, which made me really happy. Haha...i kept on telling everyone that
i would make them brownies for the activity and everyone was excited to eat
them....but something was wrong with the oven and they burned on the outside
and were crude on the inside! I was so embarrassed because i was talking
them up all week and that was the result of my cooking skills.
Haha...everyone was telling me that i needed to learn how to cook better
before i get married. Gotta love the Latins.
We also had a cool little experience yesterday. During the week we talked to
many people who haven´t gone to church in a while, who at one point were
very strong in the church. I saw the result that it had on their children,
who know very little about the gospel and really have no goals spiritually
speaking. I got a little frustrated knowing that some of these people have
even served missions and now their children don´t even know the basics of
the gospel. But yesterday, Hector passed the sacrament for the first time,
and his son, Michael (he´s 7) focused all his attention on his dad. It
impacted me a lot, the look on Michael´s face. It was as if his dad was his
hero, and was leading him by example, showing him how he should live his
life: a worthy priesthood holder. Hector is literally turning his life
around. 5 months ago he hadn´t stepped in the church for years, now he´s on
his way to becoming a leader. He´s a bit crazy, but he´s a good guy
(Haha....we started teaching them the plan of salvation a few weeks ago and
he took out a marker and started drawing the Plan on his WALL....it´s still
there...along with the Salt Lake Temple....) It´s interesting to see how
much things can change for either the better or the worse.
Anyway, i hope that you all are dong well. I love you and think of you often

Love ya,
Robyn