Week 60

Happy New Year!

Sorry I didn't write last week, I was lazy and had already talked to my family on the phone on Christmas, so I went shopping instead of doing a bunch of emails :) The Holidays have been so good! We have been spoiled rotten by the members of our ward. On Christmas we went over to the Acosta home and played with the kids and ate all day. Calling home was fun, kind of weird because we mainly talked about me coming home in 3 months. Talking to my family made me a little more excited to come home, but it will definitely be bittersweet. I am sure I will miss being a full-time missionary every day of my life. Anyways, New Year's Eve we had to be inside the apartment after dark so a group of us missionaries brought some food back and played apples to apples until curfew, which was alright. My favorite part was watching all of the fireworks through the porch window. You can just buy fireworks on the street here in Texas, and it's legal, so fireworks were going off alllllllllll night. Pretty neat. On New Year's Day we went to the Acosta's again because their family and the Estrada family had some carne asada and invited us over. The food was delicious and after eating they had a Foosball tournament. I played offense with Hermano Estrada (2nd counselor in the bishopric) on my team as defense and we beat everyone! We won 5 games straight and eventually just stopped playing because we were tired and there was no one left who hadn't lost, haha. It was so much fun, especially because all of the hermanos who played were pretty competitive and didn't really appreciate losing to a sister missionary. Hermano Estrada was just hilarious, he kept telling me, "Acabelos Hermana!" which means, "Finish them Hermana!" I was just cracking up the entire time.
I am super excited to begin a new year here in the mission. I have been thinking a lot about repentance and what a blessing it is to have the opportunity to change and become better each day. There are many many things that I want to improve on this year, and I am excited to see what challenges the Lord will dish out this year to help me become more like Him. I sat down the other night and wrote out some goals to accomplish this year, and it was very strange to see that they would have to be accomplished outside of the mission. Although I am nervous to go home I know it is just the next step in my life and that it will be full of new adventures and experiences. I know that in the next few months we will be witnessing miracles here in the Texas Houston Mission. It has been promised to us that as we are obedient with exactness our baptisms will double by the end of March. I know this is true, I can just feel that we are standing on the edge of something huge here. I know I have a lot to improve on, a lot of loose screws to tighten up, so that I may be worthy to witness those miracles here in West Green.
I pray all is well back home and that everyone is excited to begin a new year!
love, Hermana Taets