Christmas and Baptisms- What Could be Better?? -Dec. 30, 2013

  ¡Hola Familia!

     I hope that this week was incredible for everyone and that you all remembered the Savior and the true meaning of Christmas this year. This was definitely one of the best Christmases I have had yet!!! 

     Starting off with last Monday, we had a Family Home Evening in the church with the whole ward where we reenacted the birth of Jesus Christ. No worries family, still kept the tradition alive even here in Chile. I had to be the Angel Gabriel (Gabriela in my case :)) and Hna Baturitè was Maria. We had a great turnout and even had a whole family of investigators come that a member invited and then more came as well! 

     Everyone here in Chile celebrates Christmas on the night of the 24th and we had dinner with our bishop and I got to cut the turkey!! It was sooo good and was basically Thanksgiving and Christmas combined. Not bad at all. We even had quite a few members give us presents! Our ward is incredible. 

    Then on Wednesday I got to talk and see my family on Google Hangout!!! The best Christmas present by far. I am so glad I was able to talk to everyone and even got to see all of my nieces and nephews! Thank you siblings for making lots of weird faces through the camera - good to know you all are still the same. Haha. I have the best family ever. Also thank you for the package with all of the letters in it!! I finally got it today... a little bit after Christmas, but it`s all good :) Oh and thanks for sending me the old gummies that I bought in Jerusalem back in July.... hahah y`all would. On Wednesday we also taught Roxana and her family about the true meaning of Christmas and got everything ready for her baptism that weekend! Nothing better than teaching on Christmas day! 

      Then on Saturday was the best event of the week... the baptism of the Pino Peña family! Roxana, Mauricio, and Sebastian were finally baptized and confirmed on Sunday!! It was so beautiful and they were beaming with light the whole time. Also of course we always have trouble filing up the water in the baptismal font and this time when we got to the church about 45 min before, the water was boiling hot!! I literally could hardly put my hand in it for more than 3 seconds. We turned on the cold water automatically, but it wasn`t seaming to do anything... however when it was time to get in the water, they said it was the perfect temperature. Thank you Heavenly Father!! It was such a spiritual experience for everyone and especially for the Pino Peña family. Now their whole family is in the church together and they are excited to be able to get sealed as a family in one year as well!! (Mom and Dad, we also talked about the possibility of us going through the temple together and seeing them get sealed all together in February of 2015 when you come and pick me up!!!!!) Anyways, I love that family soooo much and Hna Lino and I are going to do everything we can while we are still here to help them progress towards the temple. They all gave their testimonies after their baptisms and all said that they were so happy to be in the gospel. When Roxana bore her testimony, she looked at me with tears in her eyes and thanked us for helping her and her family and of course I started to ball my eyes out! She told us afterwards that she felt something that she had never felt before and she knew it was the spirit telling her it was the right thing. Ahhhh I love this gospel sooo much and feel so blessed to be able to share the Truth everyday. 

     Well I`ve got to go, but I love you all so much more than I could ever express in words. Thank you for all of your support and enthusiasm that you give me. I know this is the Church of Jesus Christ restored today on the earth without a doubt. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and I owe everything to Him. I love Him and I know that He loves everyone of us so much. 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Romney