Receiving the Holy Ghost

Hello my family and Merry Christmas!!!

Guess what! I actually got your package today! I'm assuming it was a bit quicker than the last one. I haven't looked at everything, but I did find the most important part....REAL MILK!!! Oh my goodness, I've never been so happy in my whole life!!! I'm trying to decide how to ration it out you know, since this is a treat that should definitely not be wasted by any means. Haha, I literally jumped up and down, that was my level of excitement :) Thank you so much for all your love and support. Seriously, every mail day I have a million pages of letters from Twit, and Chanae and you and then some randoms here and there and I just feel so lucky.  Some of the other missionaries don't even get an email every week, how sad is that. I just feel so blessed, that's all.

So first to answer questions: No I don't remember a thing of Spanish. Actually, just yesterday, I was talking to Jeyer and I asked something and then I sat there and thought....how do you ask that in Spanish? You know what, I still can't figure it out. What is the word for "what" in Spanish? I'm drawing a complete blank even now. Como maybe? Seriously the only thing coming to my head is Ano...that's tagalog, not Spanish. Oh boy, sad day. But no worries, I have a firm belief that Heavenly Father will let it all come back to me when I need it again. Right now I just need Tagalog so that's what's he's giving me and you know what, that is perfectly fine with me :) I love dad's comment...thanks for the booster :) honestly, I'm not really homesick. It's hard to be homesick for Christmas when there's no snow, no Christmas tree, no lights, no parties just work, so...not bad. The only time I really feel a twinge of homesickness...get this...listening to the Forgotten Carols. It just makes me think of coming home for the break with snow and our beautiful Christmas tree and of course, the Forgotten Carols playing in the house. Yep, noticed that last week, so we stopped that practice real quick like. haha. Nah, it's not bad at all. and ps though dad, I’m still working on your Christmas letter. Work in progress....well, I'm still in the thinking stage so hopefully it'll be done by Christmas. Haha. We all know how slow of a writer I am. And just one request, could you send me some pictures....#1: of a sunburn. I was thinking of the one from San Diego where twit and I are laying on our stomachs on the bed and our legs and backs are just fried. I tried to explain it to my companion, but I think a picture would be a little more effective. They get sunburned of course, but it's more like it just hurts a bit and they're darker. It's not like a  white and red difference. #2: lights at Temple Square. Once again, hard to explain. They have  temple lighting here too, which I'm stoked about. And what's even better, we get to go twice! Once because we're in charge of the stations and another with our investigators. Can you say happiness. #3: our house with some snow and Christmas lights. I just want to behold it's glory, that's all. Surprisingly enough, I'm actually missing me some snow.

Sigue, so now for the week! This week has been interesting because our schedule has been all sorts of skewompus so you know how that just throws things off. It's because, we moved!! We moved houses. President was having troubles with our land lord because they kept raising the price for "taxes" so we got a letter to give to her on mail run day that says, we're moving out and we were told to move the next day. Yep. Life of a missionary. So yep, we're in a new house now. Just image, 4 sister missionaries moving everything. bahaha, it was super fun. And can I just say, oh boy were we all just DEAD by the end of the day. I was carrying my desk up the stairs in our new house and I just got to the top and was dying. Haha, too funny. But bonus! The toilet flushes, although I've decided I prefer non flushing toilets. Much easier, and also there's screens which means I won't get eaten alive my mosquitoes. Pretty happy about that one.

But what with moving and such this week, our work struggled a bit. Sunday night we were practically running to a less active so we could make our key indicators before curfew. No seriously though, we really ran there, we had to make it before the gate closed. The work is going just as usual. We have 5 baptisms coming up that I'm super happy about. I have to be honest, they were a hard case to crack. But they're finally starting to get it. We started teaching them almost 4 months ago. Sometimes I forget that it takes time to change. Haha. of course. News of the week though! I have a stalker. I am not even kidding you. He is CREEPER too. Oh my goodness. So we go to the computer shop every Monday right after district meeting so that's what we did last week. And creeper man was there. I think he's an addict or something. Not sure. But he's looking over my shoulder the entire time, talking to me and such. He's usually there at the computer shop, but most the time he leaves us alone. Anyhow, we leave and go to the grocery store.  I'm in the aisle and look to the side and what do you know, but creeper man is there at the end of the aisle staring at me. I am not kidding. Then, he leaves and we're checking out and he shows up again! Then disappears, then we decided to eat there and he starts pacing back and forth at the front of the grocery store waiting for us to leave. Oh my goodness. So as soon as he turned the other way to wait at the door, we grabbed our stuff and literally ran out of the grocery store. He didn't follow us, but in case he did, well, we just moved houses so a lot of good it would do him. We're in a different computer shop right now, so I think he'll no longer be a problem. Creeper seriously.

So this is my thought for the week. I was listening to a talk by Elder Bednar about the Holy Ghost. Man, that guy is seriously so smart. He really understands about the Holy Ghost, that's one of his specialties I think, and how to be in tune and recognize promptings. I can think of 3 talks off the top of my head that he's given just about the Holy Ghost. Brilliant he is. So this talk though was about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. He highlights that when we get the gift of the Holy Ghost, it doesn't mean that we just all the sudden have him as our guide. It means that we now have access and the right to have him as our guide. But it is our choice is we will actually "receive" him. And the only way we can receive him is, #1, we have to constantly ask for his guidance, and #2, we have to be worthy. We have to keep the commandments, however small they may be, and we have to be diligent in our sacrifice and consecration. Then we can truly receive the Holy Ghost as our guide and as we do, he will change our hearts and our desires to match the will of our Heavenly Father. I just thought it was so interesting, because it's actually a process. I feel like that's one thing that I've really learned here on my mission...how sensitive the spirit really is. Even the tiniest things can drive him away and I can honestly FEEL it. Holy cow, it's crazy the difference. But I know that he really can change our hearts. I've had a few times where that has happened. My mood will honestly just switch like that and all of those feelings just go away. But we have to desire it and we have to work for it. We have to  "receive" it, go up and take it. It's there waiting for us whenever we want.

 Love you all and thank you for everything! Mahal ko kayo (means, I LOVE YOU!! so does Mahal kita, ps. mahal ko kayo is just plural) bye!!!