MERRY CHRISTMAS YA FILTHY ANIMALS

i seriously cant think of anything that happened this week  it went by so fast. bueno i guess ill just start off by saying that im going to be having my first baptism this sunday! im pumped, this kid named matias is the son of a recent convert and hes been to church a couple times but never wanted to listen to the missionaries or nothing. but this week we were talking with his mom and we just asked him if we could share a scripture with him. well we ended up talking for like 40 min and by the end he had committed to be baptized! it was sweet. now we just gotta wake the dang kid up every sunday for church. he sleeps in till like 2 every day... but this sunday we pretty much just banged on his door until he woke up. ill break into his house if i have to next week.

danny didnt come to church, y eliana tampoco. and like 6 other investigators we had hoped for. we had mission conference for christmas this wednesday though, and they are changing a bunch of stuff. pretty much the only stat we are going to be keeping is how many people come to church. number of lessons and what not doesnt matter anymore.. just this. so there is giong to be a lot more enfasis on purely getting people to go to church. im excited for it though, its a good change. other than that the conference was super good, fun, and really spiritually uplifting. 

today we are in viña because in 2 hours my comp goes in to surgery to get the pellet removed from his back! im hoping that we can go this one restaurant called el guaton! theres a famous chilean burger in the restaurant thats apparently gonna blow my mind. im stoked. and starving.

i had my last interchange with elder armistead on friday. it was sad, but solid. president told him hes leaving the area for the last change. elder armitstead and alonzo were super good role models for me and im really happy i had the chance to learn all that i did from them! this is the last week of the change, and of my training woohoo! id be lying if i said i wasnt dying to end my training. its been good, but im getting a little tired of being the kid. we¨ll see what happens.. but i think im goi9ng to stay in my area. just an impression. 

in interchanges i really came to the realization of the lack of humility that ive displayed with elder ramirez. ive been so focused on being patient with him that i havent tried to genuinely see the good in him, all ive done is bear throught the afflictions and hope that its all going to be okay. elder armitstead helped me to think of some things that i can do to help us have more unity in our companionship regardless of our differences in our thinking. we are complete opposites, but that doesnt mean he doesnt do things well that i suck at. im praying for the ability to end this change well with my trainer and that i can learn more from him than i have recently. 

the mission is weird and time is weird. in some way i cant believe im coming up on four months, but then i think about how long its been since ive seen my family and it seems like forever. the only thing ive learned that i can do is stay busy. when im busy and working the day and the week flies by and thats really the key to it all. before i know it im going to want time to slow down. 

on sunday we werent planning on going to the christmas devotional in the stake center but at the last minute we decided to invite this one investigator the we found in interchanges with elder armitstead. she came and she loved it! it was a  super fun devotional with lots of christmas music. 

thats about all i can remember for now... i know that so much more happened... but cant think and its like 349323 degress in this gameroom. have a good week. feliz navidad. and choose the right. love you all. thanks for the letter, emails, packets, and prayers!

-Elder Allred - chilean street raptor