The one where it is almost DECEMBER

Hey guys! What's up. Elder Hayes here back again with another weekly!! It's kinda crazy that it's literally almost Christmas. That's pretty exciting. Christmas time is the best!! This week was super good!!

On Tuesday morning we helped out the Salvation Army! They are getting a ton of gifts ready for needy families and we got to help out with getting the bags in the right place!! It sounds super boring but it was actually pretty fun haha. We were going to also have a lesson with Evelia but she canceled, sadly:( she said she got sick! And then Blanca Rojas reached out to us again and just said she had been very busy with work and so we are trying to set up something with her!! She is awesome.

On Wednesday we went to the Buddhist temple like normal and it was awesome. They gave us free t-shirts and masks which is always fun! Also, they had a ton of miscellaneous items and they let me take a ton of protein home muahahaha so I'm super super happy

After that, we filmed a music video for Light the World!! It should be posted on Facebook this week so stay tuned:) we did Away in a Manger!! Then at night both Elder Vickers and I had personal English classes to teach and mine was really good! I see some potential in her to learn the Gospel as well as English so wish me luck! We also stopped by a part member family's house and met Ismael! His wife isn't a member and we set up a lesson with them for Friday!!

On Thursday it was Thanksgiving!! It was so fun! As a zone, we got together and had our own Turkey Bowl! We played football and some soccer!! I ran so so hard haha. I hadn't run like that in a really long time and wow I haven't been so sore since Highschool my back, my quads, my hamstrings, my obliques, my hip flexors, my feet, you name it. It was all so so sore the next 3 days were painful, to say the least. I'm mostly better now haha. We also ate with a member family called the Eccles and played Charades with them!! Yayyyy. We did boys against girls and I got a little annoyed that the hermanas beat us twice in a row but you know what we'll get 'em next time

On Friday it was a pretty lax day. We had an incredible lesson with Ismael and Erika! They haven't been married for a while and Ismael really wants to buckle down and start having plans and goals in his life! He said they were going to go get married next week so fingers crossed they are able to!! The lesson was awesome though. We got to know them to read the Family Proclamation with them! It was super powerful we are going to keep in touch to make sure they are able to get married! That's a priority!

On Saturday I was in an exchange with my best friend Elder Guajardooooo! It was just like old times and jeez I love him. His family actually came for Thanksgiving and we got permission to go to breakfast with them how cool is that?!? so I got to meet his family and we ate super good food at this place called Cracker Barrel. I loved all of it!! Win-win all day!! We stopped by a referral that night who wanted both an English and Spanish book of Mormon! He is from Honduras. His name is Omar and he said we could come back next week in the day on Saturday! So we are looking forward to that:)

We exchanged back and then it was Sunday! Sunday was a pretty chill day. We had correlation and church which were both really good. Then we had an awesome Family Zone Evening!! We played a jeopardy Christmas game and my team won naturally so that was great.

This week something I studied a lot was honor. Being honorable in all your relationships and especially as a missionary is so so important. We have important work to do out here after all! If we aren't able to do that then why would our Heavenly Father so readily entrust us with more? It's only going to get harder from here on out and we need to start preparing for some of the greatest blessings and challenges of our lives. Anyway, love y'all!!

Elder Hayes