The Field is White...

Hey Fam! How is everyone? I'm doing well.

This week has gone well. It was our Christmas activity yesterday for the mission. We went to a buffet, then to the temple, then had a gift exchange and did a piñata. It was pretty awesome to get to go to the temple again finally. The last time I went was during the last Christmas activity. The Jardines Reforma ward was there at the same time as us. That was pretty awesome. I got to talk to quite a few people from my first area. It was nice to see them all again. I got to hit the piñata blindfolded too. I didn't break it open, but I scalped Santa. That was pretty cool.

David is doing well. He's read a ton in the Book of Mormon. He's still not super sure about his baptism, but he's growing in testimony, so it shouldn't be long until he makes up his mind. He invited us to come over today for some home made pizza. Practicing up his chef skills. It should be pretty good.

This week we were looking through the area book and we found a baptismal record for a little girl named Karla that was recently baptized. We went to her house to see if we could meet her and her family. Her Grandpa Pedro and her Aunt and Uncle are all members of the church as well. They all live in the same house with a bunch of her siblings and cousins. Anyway, we started visiting their family to help them reactivate. They're kind of animal lovers. They have a gigantic white rabbit at their house and they buy pounds of some special rabbit lettuce for it to eat. They have a super old dog, and like 50 pidgeons on their back porch 24/7. Pedro buys bags of bird feed and feeds them a few times a day. He's a super awesome man. Very sincere. He's full of good. He loves serving and taking care of others. His day is 100% focused in helping his family. His grandchildren are also very well fed. That's my favorite place to visit now, because I love being around all those little kids. They're super hyper and they love when we come to visit. It reminds me a little of home. The other day Lupita (Karla's little sister) had her birthday, so we took her a little stocking of candy. Then on Tuesday we went there and just before we got to their apartment we put on Santa hats that Bam sent me and passed out candy canes to all the little kids. They thought it was awesome. They came to church last Sunday and plan to come this week as well. It's kind of a struggle though, because Pedro is the only adult that brings them to church, and it can't be easy to get all those kids ready in the mornings and get them to church. They're doing great though.

While I was at the Temple yesterday I was thinking alot about the Scriptures and the basic Doctrines of the Gospel. I thought of how many times since primary I had been hearing the same stories and learning the same principles over and over and over again. There's just so much to learn from the plain and simple things in the Lord's Gospel Plan. None of it is really complicated, it's all plain and simple. But when we really seek after it, when we search the scriptures, live what we learn, all the little things like that, each time it just gets better and better. It's crazy. I've been teaching the same principles to every person I've met my entire mission, things I've been surrounded by my whole life, and at the same time, I learned a ton about those same principles yesterday in the Temple. Some times it's incomprehensible how much the Gospel is worth. There are so many great books and resources in all the world, but nothing even comes close to the great worth of the simple words in the Scriptures. I can't imagine what things will be understood after this life.

Nay- Awesome job on your musical classes! Haha. That's good that you're having success. It'll be nice to start Christmas break I'm sure. Catching up on sleep especially. Are your classes for next semester all the same or are there lots of changes? I still know basically zero about college life. Love ya! Have a great week!

Mom- I got the Christmas package. My tree's all set up with the presents under it and everything. The Khangs sent me a package too, and it's huge! I'm going to send you a separate e mail with a little note for them if you could e mail it to them or drop it off to them please? That's cool about the little girl that had a sweater like yours. Did you ask her where it was from? Ok, so as far as the Christmas call goes. Here in the offices we have web cams and a screen we could hook up to the computer, so that we could do a big screen skype with the families. I don't really know how skype works, but Elder Tibbitts knows how to get everything set up, so I'd like to do it on skype. Just let me know if we have a camera and microphone and everything back home to be able to do it. About the idea of driving nay back to Utah State, I think that'd be great. It'd be awesome to be able to chat for a while on the way up. I'm attaching pictures of the temple trip, Elder Zobell and me at Pedro's house with his grandkids, Elder Zobell and me with our Christmas trees, and one of me wearing Santa's hat that I chopped off of the piñata. Anyway, I'll have the specific info for the Christmas call next week. Just let me know about the skype thing! Love ya! Have a great week!

Shash- Sounds like you had a busy week Sloosh! That's awesome though. You're so talented. Good luck on your performances for the rest of the week. I'm sure you'll do great as usual. Love ya! Have a great week!

Dig- Interesting mutual activity with the missionaries. We would be in huge trouble if we spent an evening playing dodgeball with the young men instead of being out preaching and stuff. I would feel like a major slacker too. So you're tearing it up in the wrestling tourny eh? Awesome job on those pins! Sounds like you're starting a pretty successful season. Keep up the hard work Dig. Love ya! Have a great week!

Den- That elevator story was crazy! haha. I can't believe you were in there for two hours. That's funny what caleb said about the corners and stuff. Sweet adventure story. That's too bad you got sick and couldn't wrestle that day. Oh well that's life. Love ya! Have a great week!

Dad- Ok, about the money. The problem with the accident was that the insurance company had nothing registered to say that the van was covered. So I payed the money to the people who's car I hit, and we signed a document with the other insurance company saying that I'd get the money back as soon as our insurance got things figured out and fixed the other guy's car. So the first step was fixing our insurance stuff. So we've already got everything in order and have it proved that the van was insured at the time, and the church's insurance is already fixing everything for the other guy. Now I just had to fill out some papers for the other insurance company that they needed in order to make the transaction and write out the check. So that's filled out, scanned, and sent in to the church representative so that he can get it all worked out, and the check should be here soon. The downside is that the worth of the dollar has gone up a little since then, so the exchange rate isn't in our favor, haha. But it won't make that much of a difference. Thanks for letting me know about the Christmas money from Gram and Grandma Ellis. I'll write them a seperate e mail as well. Bam's package got here as well, so I'll write her one too. My flight itinerary has been here for a while now. I'll attach it to the other e mail I'm sending in a second. Anyway, thanks for everything dad! Love ya! Have a great week!

Love you all!
Elder Aguilar