Again, Mom, thanks for all the Christmas packages. To answer your question--the packages, as far
as I could tell, got here unopened. There are no gifts opened or missing
(at least from the ones that you marked with the dates). I´ll send a
picture in a sec of how I put everything up today :)
In answer to your question about extra money--that would be
wonderful. Sorry I took out so much money last week, I had to pay a ton
of money in the transports of the changes, because they definitely did not send
us enough money last month, and neither of us was planning on being
changed. I definitely need new shoes. Really bad. One pair is
holding up fairly well still (meaning that the rips in the sole are much
smaller than the other pair), but the other pair is totally finished. I
think a nice pair of shoes here costs at very, very most 1000 pesos, or about
$85. And, I´m definitely going to buy some sweaters and more blankets,
because I have been freezing at night, and I´ve been wearing my suit
everywhere, but I don´t want to wear it out (thus the sweaters). So, with
my monthly money here and the money that you put in, that should
definitely be enough. Thank you so much!
I went with the leaders of the zone to a leadership conference in
Tuxtla (which was AWESOME; it was a super spiritual conference, and I saw
all the elders from my generation there! Elder Turner is a district
leader in Tuxtla, and the rest are all trainers, so it was awesome seeing
everybody, pictures in a sec).
My comp and I are just outside of what is actually Comitán, and we
have a lot of nothing in our area. We do a lot of walking. Elder
Mounteer and Elder Tadeo are in the Comitán ward with the zone leaders (the
ward has two companionships of Elders). My district is just my comp and I
and a companionship of sisters. Which is kind of weird because usually
they don´t do it like that. But that´s ok because the hermanas are
awesome.
Pictures of the house in a second. It is AWESOME.
Prettiest house that I´ve seen missionaries here live in to date. The
only thing that´s no fun is that it turns out that houses without heaters are
worse than houses without AC. AND that I was so psyched because I was
going to get to take a warm shower again (because I childishly thought that I
didn´t like taking cold showers where it´s hot; looking back, I love it).
Turns out that we´re out of gas, and I´ve been showering with ice cold water
all week, here, where it is NOT hot. That being said, Comitán is
beautiful. And, it is really nice to not be sweating every hour of every
day (although once it gets dark I tend to forget that I´m grateful for that).
The branch is tiny... even smaller than Huixtla. But there is a lot of
work to do here, and there are leaders that are willing and happy to support
us, so I´m excited and ready to work hard. My comp, Elder Vargas, is from
the state of Morelos (by the Distrito Federal), and just finished his period of
training. We´ve gotten along really, really well this week, and all and
all, I´m happy :) I do miss Elder Esparza a lot, he was an awesome comp, and I
do miss a lot of people in Huixtla (we found a ton of awesome investigators my
last week there), but I´m doing great here, and after I buy some sweaters and
blankets I will be doing all that much better.
I love you all so much! I know this work is the Lord´s, and
the blessing that I´ve seen in my own life and the lives of those around me
from participating in it are incredible. I see the Lord´s tender mercies
every day, so much in my own life, and also in the lives of those around
me. I have seen lives change and the Lord´s willingness to help each one
of His children come unto Him as long as they do so in humility. I love
this work so much, and every day I see the fulfillment of the promise in my
mission call "More happiness than you have before experienced awaits as
you serve the Lord in this labor of love among His children." I am
so happy. I miss you all so much, especially at this time of year when I
have always been with you as a family, but the opportunity to help people to
come closer to the Lord and recognize the real importance of this time of year
makes it all completely worth it. God lives. He loves His
children. He sent His Only Begotten Son to be born in the humility
of a manger and to die as our Savior so that we could all be happy, in this
life, and forever. And, in our day He has restored His Church, with His
authority of the Priesthood, so that we can receive the fullness of the
blessings that come from that eternal sacrifice.
I love you all so much. I hope that you enjoy this time together
this year, and as a family that we can all center ourselves in this holiday
season upon our Savior and Lord.
Con mucho amor,
Elder Andrew Nickerl
Here we are with our Christmas tree and our presents :) We're like niños excited for Christmas. And adopting the "every missionary in the world does thumbs up in pictures" pose. People in Mexico put up trees too--they celebrate Christmas very much the the same. I love my little tree. My "arbolito" :)
This is my Christmas corner :) I really really love the Christmas banner too.
Once again with the "missionaries always do thumbs up" pose.
The photo is a picture of our house. It´s a gorgous house for missionaries here.
The road not quite so much.
This is a vew from our patio. We have a huge patio which is reallllllly nice and
something that I haven´t had since living in the States. Comitán is really pretty.
Me in Tuxtla during the leadership conference.
It was the first time I got to see the temple in person here, and I loved it :)
The first time I had seen "Holiness to the Lord, The House of the Lord" in Spanish. Awesome.
Here are 4 of the 5 gringos from my generation. The other one was there too but we had to take the picture fast and we couldn´t find him in that very second. First time I had seen any of them in a longggg time. Fun little reunion.
Elder Cárdenas and I were both in Tapachula his first transfer and my second transfer in the same district. They sent him to the Tzotsil zone when they sent me to Huixtla. He´s a district leader now too, and it was the first time I had seen him since then. It was good seeing a lot of old mission friends.
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