Thursday, December 25, 2014

Feliz Navidad! letter from 12/22

Oh man, the festivities, though! There are a lot of cool lights here; it makes me miss setting those up back home. I think it's gotten warmer this week, so that's... something haha. I'm still stoked to be spending Christmas here on the island. 
     This may be the first Christmas season I'm losing weight :) Or rather, getting into really good shape! We did the Aphrodite workout three times last week, and today, started another one called Artemis. In Artemis, you do 50 burpees, 50 pull-ups (yes, you read that right), 100 push-ups, and another 50 burpees. It was so amazingly hard. But awesome! Man, the muscles though haha. After doing the Aphrodite the second time, my lats got soooo sore, and swelled up. It looked almost comical. I bought some beautiful Icyhot to relieve the pain. But all in the sake of good health :)
     So yesterday, I went on splits during church so Elder Johnson and I could play the piano in primary (he played left hand, I played top). That was fun and hilarious. The director was all, "well I don't think we have any birthdays, so we'll move on to the opening song." Elder Johnson had a birthday last week, and mine is this week, so we made them sing to us anyway :) We got a treat and everything! With that and playing the piano for Sacrament meetings, I'm pretty set as far as piano playing goes.
     While we were splitting, Elder LeBlanc went with my companions and they had a meeting with the stake 1st councilor. Elder Havens and I have been called as Elder's Quorum advisers. That's interesting! And we'll pretty much head up the home teaching in the branch now. Elder Leszynsky- there was a rumor about him staying here for a year that Reverend Lawson said he heard from President Ashton... now I believe it- He got called as the branch clerk and executive secretary. They told him he'd be here long enough to get things going. Pretty big stuff. 
     So last Monday, we had a dinner appointment with the English elders and a guy named Mark and his wife Terry. The food, as with the other two times, was amazing! They made me sing for them, so I sang A Living Prayer. They love it haha. We've got another dinner with them tonight; I may sing something else. I love applying myself musically! 
     I've made so many friends here in my area! My first convert, Guadalupe, is the sweetest old lady ever! I'll probably get to see her on Christmas, which is nice. The Villalobos family, the one in which the grandma, Maria, has cancer, loves us a ton! She's still not doing well, unfortunately. Continued prayers. 
     We made two trips to Sugar Land this week. One was for a trainee conference for Elder Havens. That was really cool. I actually learned a lot about the Atonement. Man, Heavenly Father is amazing. I absolutely love Him! I hope all of your Christmases are wonderful, and filled with the Spirit. I encourage all of you to remember the real reason for CHRISTmas this year. I love you all,

-Elder Spjute

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