The Field is White...

Hey Fam! Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving has already been way better than last Thanksgiving. A family in our ward invited us to a Thanksgiving dinner at five o clock, so that'll be awesome. And for lunch we had a Thanksgiving dinner as well! We used all the stuff that Bam sent me in my thanksgiving package. I baked the cornbread and the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, made the gravy (a can of gravy exploded on me while I was trying to get the lid off), and the stuffing! I was pretty proud of myself. Elder Tibbitts donated another two packs of potatoes, so we had double the potatoes. He also donated a pasta salad, and Elder Zobell donated some Christmas cookies. Oh by the way. Elder Zobell just arrived to the offices. He's Elder Olson's replacement, and will be my new companion. I'm pretty stoked, because Elder Zobell is pretty awesome. He's about a year into the mission, and he's energetic and desirous about the work. I'm looking forward to the upcoming change.

So Sunday was supposed to be the baptism of the Salas Ríos family. Saturday night, the dad arrived home at about midnight. He was drunk, and he and his friend began to consume ilegal drugs. Hortencia told him he had to leave, but he was too drunk to understand what was going on. She was furious, so she took the kids and left. They went and spent the night with her mother in law, then spent Sunday looking for a house, so they could start a new life. They're not going to officially move for a while still, but things are already in motion for the change. Anyway, they were pretty bummed out that they had missed their baptism. Andrea gave the prayer at the end of the lesson, and asked Heavenly Father for forgiveness for not having been baptized. Their baptismal service is now set up for this upcoming Sunday. It's also the littlest son, Axel's birthday. So we're trying to see what we can do, because they have family members coming over to celebrate, so they're stressed about getting back to the house too late. But I'm sure things will work out.

Carlos hasn't been progressing, so we had to drop him. We told him that when he's ready to make a change, we'll see him at church. I hope we do because his family really wants him to change. We'll see what happens.

There's a member named Raymundo that helps us alot. He's from a member family, but had been innactive for years, after beginning his own family with someone of another faith. He recently started coming back to church, and he's doing awesome. He's really an example for the whole ward now, because he fulfills all his responsibilities the best he can. Anyway, his mom is in town from Las Vegas, and she invited us over for lunch this week. We went to the lunch with Raymundo and his three kids (not members.) After the lunch we had a lesson with the whole family. It was a pretty good lesson, and at the end we invited his oldest daughter Liz to say the closing prayer. She accepted the invitation, and as she began to thank her Heavenly Father for the blessings in her life, she was overcome by the Spirit, and began to cry. She finished her prayers, and was pretty affected by what she felt. The other day Raymundo brought her to the church for the second lesson with her, it went well, and she talked about her desire to know if there's a Prophet of God on the Earth. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon, and she's reading and praying. We'll se them again this week to see how things are going.

This week I heard a talk from President Hinckley called 'How Lucky Can You Be!' I know Thanksgiving will probably be over by the time anyone reads that, but that is an awesome thanksgiving time talk, I highly recommend listening to it. I'm sure reading it would be good too, but there's alot of added emotion in his voice. President Hinckley's awesome.

That was pretty crazy to hear about the story of getting stuck on the way up to the cabin. That's awesome that your prayers were answered and everything turned out well. Who all was the trip to the cabin with? You'll have to let me know how it went.

I'm attaching pictures of the food preparation from today, one of Elder Olson and me with Carlos and two of his sons, one of Elder Olson, Elder Tibbitts, and me with the Briceño family by their Guadalajaran Christmas tree, and one of Elder Olson, Elder Tibbitts, Elder Woodhouse and me with the Salas Ríos family at their house.

Love you all!
Elder Aguilar