Mankind, my business

Mankind: human beings considered collectively, the human race.
Business: a person's regular occupation.

I'm so grateful for our Elders, the four other missionaries that work in our ward. We're all very different, we've had different challenges, we all are in different places in our missions but somehow,
miraculously, we've become a close-nit family. How strange to have a family not on first-name terms, but that is what we are. And what a blessing it has been to spend much of Christmas together.
We had a district Breakfast, a gift exchange (with funny things you find in piso), and had the best Christmas Adam ever. (Because Adam comes before Eve).

 One of the Elders (Élder Pixton) injured his ankle in the MTC...Several months of walking on it later... It's broken, surgery is needed, and he'll be going home.  But we didn't know when.  They pulled a prank on Christmas Eve and told us he had left that morning... (Never trust an Elder) we were sad, surprised, mad for the briefest moment, and then glad to spend Christmas Eve together at the home of a member.

The Elder's "Lock-your-heart" attack. Yes, they forgot the tape.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Hope it was a great one. Mine was. We spent it in and out of member's homes, attempting to carol, bringing Christmas to Anna's home with the delivery of hand-me-down baby clothes, video chatting with family, laughing, and playing games. I love my family.  They're great people. They're the reason that I'm here, and paradoxically, the reason why it's sometimes hard to be. And I love them, and I also love the people here. My heart in so many happy pieces and places.

We took this with a timer, it was set to do 2 pictures.  By a tender mercy Alayna is on the screen in this picture . . . 

 . . . and Aria and Spencer in Hawaii are on the screen in this one taken immediately after.

We sang in sacrament meeting, and had some lessons with some new people. I was so grateful for the help of a member we didn't really know very well before, but have been very blessed by her help, her
experience, and her understanding of the Gospel.

We spent the day today picnicking in the rare Lleida sun (the normal "bleak mid-winter" took a day off, and we were grateful). And I just got a call that Élder Pixton will be leaving, so we'll leave soonish to say goodbye and then get back to work.  It really is a marvelous work and a wonder, la obra misional. I've always loved Christmas stories, and one of my all-time favorites is "a Christmas Carol" not just because of Dickens or the many different versions there are to marathon, but because of how much there is to learn and take from it. Jacob Marley, an old man (ghost) filled with regret mankind makes the sad cry, "Mankind should have been my business!"  As a missionary, it is. It's God's business, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.(Moses 1:39) What a pleasure it is to share in this business.  Scrooge also wishes for the Spirit of Christmas to last all year long.
Is that possible? Yes. Easy, it's the spirit and light of Christ. And we can most definitely have that with us always, when we chose to, and do good things.

So let's do good things. Make goals this new year to come closer to Christ, to learn and improve. And review them weekly, daily as needed.  Really try to achieve them. He'll multiply your honest efforts. He always does.

Have an incredible week starting this new year.
Lots of love,
Hermana Een