So happy that I got to see you on Christmas day, even for a short forty-five minutes. I feel especially grateful for each of you during this Christmas season and with the promise of being with you in the New Year (did we ever think 2016 was going to happen?). Since it hasn't been all that long since we last talked, a small run down of this past week that we had in the Yucatan:
— everyone thinks we are twins, and because of our American heritage people have taken to calling us queens and princesses. Someone also asked us if we were really from this earth (aka: ¿son terrenales?). We think he was trying to tell us that we were angels?
— we had two, almost 12 hour meetings this week during which I managed to eat an entire chicken for lunch one of those two days. I don't know when the whole meat thing happened, but I don't think it will be going away anytime soon.
— we got shots for the flu and I still got scared.
— we listened to a lot of Christmas music, avoided a lot of drunk people, and listened to a lot of pop music throughout the night (because listening to loud music all through the night is a normal thing here. The neighbors never complain).
— we ate a whole coconut (juice and all) which made me feel very native and also very healthy.
— we found a new family to teach and they became our best friends in under two seconds. We have been searching a lot for new people to teach, mostly because we have been having a hard time finding people that are really prepared to recieve the Gospel. Then one night a man on a bicycle stopped to ask us if we were Mormon and we had to hurry and talk to him and write down his address because it was late and we had to be home. We kind of forgot about him until this last Saturday when one of our appointments fell through and we passed by his house and decided to try. He ended up listening along with his son and his daughter-in-law. It was one of those moments and times when you remember why they came on the mission. It made me think that I would serve a three year mission if it meant finding only this family, if it meant finding only one person. I realized that Christ probably felt the same, because He always sought after the one. Elder Bednar had shared a story with us about how he had gone to a restaurant when he was here in May, and at the end of the meal he asked everyone that was there (the waiters and all) if they wanted to ask a question or if they had something to say. He said there was silence for quite some time until one of the waiters started crying and told him about his wife that was dying of cancer. Elder Bednar didn't say anything to him — he just hugged him, and then he told us that it was for that one man in the restaurant that he had come to Merida — he hadn't come for us or for the conferences or because he was on assignment. He came for the one.
I know that Christ did the same, that His birth and life and sacrifice was infinite and eternal, but also personal and kind. Wishing you a Christ-filled December and a joyful New year!
love love,
Hermana Rhondeau
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