I was asked to give a talk this next week in church. If any of you could make it that would be great! Haha! I am just kidding.
Where do I start? Christmas was amazing! It was so great to be able to Skype with my family and catch up with them! They are so awesome! It seems like just yesterday that I Skyped with them for Mothers Day and here it is already Christmas and I get to see them again! It is so awesome to be able to talk with them twice a year! I love my family so much and am so grateful for the love and support they give me. Also, thanks so much to the Johnston family and the Sucher family for the wonderful boxes! I loved them so much! I can’t thank you enough!
This week was a pretty awesome week. Basically all of the people who had us over for dinner had fun activities that we did with them after dinner. The members here are so great! One of the nights we had the opportunity to go and drive through the Christmas lights. For breakfast on Christmas Eve we went to an awesome member’s house! We ate this super rare cod and eggs and bacon. After breakfast we hurried and went to lunch with Wayne and Belinda. We ate at a super cool restaurant then they gave us Christmas presents. It was awesome and we love them so much! Christmas Eve we had dinner and had the opportunity to help the members cook the food! We juiced like 150 oranges, tangerines, and persimmons. It was crazy fun and we made a super good drink! Christmas morning was great because we were able to go to church. Every seven years Christmas happens on Sunday, and I am so grateful to have been on my mission for it!
This week we had the opportunity to complete a service for one of our members. We helped her paint her house and we were able to share a message with her. It was lots of fun to share the #LIGHTtheWORLD message with her. She has committed to be baptized but hasn’t set a date. She is also moving next week down to LA, so we have to let the missionaries down there know! It is sad to see her leave but we know that the missionaries down there will be prepared for her. We are here to all help each other!
We have been working really hard contacting the prospective elders. Our investigators were all out of town this week so we had a hard time teaching lessons. Every time we would knock on a door they would tell us to either come back another time or they were out of town. We are hoping that it won’t be like that this week! You would think that they would want to hear a message about Jesus Christ more because of the time of the year but I guess it is alright!
Not a lot of other things happened this week. Manteca is pretty cool. We are having a great time! Elder Beus is super awesome and we always have a lot of fun!
The scripture for this week is all of Luke 2. I feel like this is an appropriate scripture for this week. I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas! It is so wonderful to celebrate our Savior and Redeemer’s birthday. I love Him and all that He has done for me and all that He continues to do for me. I love serving Him and helping other come closer to Him! I hope you all have a wonderful new year! Next time I email you it will be 2017! I love you all and pray for you every day!
Love,
Elder Pope
Elder Beus and I painting our investigator’s house.
We made gingerbread houses with some members this week. Mine was a camping scene. I came in second behind a member who took it really seriously.
My district this transfer. They are all super awesome!
The mission Christmas devotional. The California Modesto Mission is the best!
One of our members has a sweet Corvette Stingray! I wouldn’t mind this as my future car.
Helping with dinner on Christmas Eve! We made some M.U.D. (Most Unusual Drink).
Elder Beus’ parents hooked us up with ASU jackets so I guess I am supposed to go to ASU for college. It is alright because I got more BYU stuff than ASU stuff, thanks to the Suchers, so I think that is the real school for me!
#GOCOUGARS
I also heard they won the Bowl Game. Way to go BYU! Even though deep down I kinda like Wyoming, because of Wayne and Belinda, I am happy that BYU won! It was a great Christmas!