The Office - Week 16

Hello everybody. Glad to hear that you all had a good week.
Sorry that I`m writing later and that these letters are probably getting boring-er. With each and every week there seems to be less and less to say, and I also feel like we just talked the other day and that there is nothing much to say. Its probably just that I`m getting lazy. Must be a sign of my age in the mission. Crasy to think of how many letters I`ve already written by now. Anyways, hope they are still decently enjoyable...
Wow. Sounds like your week was fun. Sad that I couldn`t have been there. Those days are a blast. The sit at home, hang out with fam, just do whatever days. Good stuff. Glad you enjoyed it. Thankfully working hard is also quite rewarding, and I had a good week too. I thoroughly enjoyed the HP vid, as did the other oficinistas. Glad to hear that the music went well, that everyone got some fun presents and that you all got to spend some good quality time. Hope you liked the presents. If there was anything in particular that was cool, just let me know and I`ll find something similar for your birthdays. I basically end up going souvenir shopping every other week with all of the Elders that are finishing, oficinistas that leave the office etc. The skating, the skiing... I hope you don`t take it all for granted :) The cold sounds great. I`m excited to hear how the longboarding in the snow goes though... haha. You`ll have to teach me when I get home and we can roll togetha. How much time do you have left before school starts up again? Crasy to hear that Emmas going to have contacts. Fun trip to the play. And wedding reception. Crasy. Still can`t believe that one. Congrats!!! Everybody else should just wait till I get home to get married though, cuz it just going to weird to come home if not. lol.
Anyways. This week went pretty well for us too. We in the office have the opportunity to work extra hard every day with double responsibilities, but we`ve also got some great perks. Thankfully that meant that even though all of you guys at home were having a blast and a classic Christmas, we were able to actually have a descent one too. Usually Christmas is kinda depressing for the people that don`t get to do anything special, and have nobody to celebrate with. But we were super lucky and blessed. It all started with our phone calls. Really nice to be able to chat on a good phone and whenever we wanted. Then we went and worked for a bit, and then ran over to Presidents house for dinner. While things were getting ready, I got to play the piano and have fun as we sang carrols. Then we feasted. And did we feast. lol. I thought I was going to explode. Again. The second time in my time here that I`ve actually ever seen turkey and stuffing. Awesome. And if that wasnt good enough, we then went and read the Christmas story, stopping every verse or two to sing a Christmas hymn. I had to play the songs, but fortunately I did OK. Not great, but good enough to get us through. Then we had our secret santa gift exchange thing. I had had to buy for President, and fortunately I had been able to find some wood art picture thingy.... hope he liked it. lol. And then I got super lucky, and either Preisdent or the Hermana had my name. And they got me this cool soccer jersey. Not for any team in particular, but still super cool. So I`ve got to wear that every morning for soccer. So that was great. Then came the down side of the office - Elder Meryhew had to talk to his family late at night. Well we had to take him to the church. And then he talked and such. Didn`t get home till like 1 in the morning. UGH. Thankfully I was able to fall asleep on the couch. lol. Thankfully, Elder Meryhew, the new mail guy, fits in great with us. It`ll be weird when Elder Thornton leaves though.
Sunday was fun. We woke up and ran to the church. Elder Thomson is great and filled everybodies stocking with fun little things. I helped, but not as much as I could/should have. lol. Then we opened those and all of our packages together sitting by the Christmas tree. It was cute. haha. Good times. Also nice because mostly all of our packages were here because we get them first, and so we all had things to open. I especially love the nose flute, all of the candy, and I`m stoked to make my snow. haha. There was only minor loss of goods due to melted chocolate, but all in all it got here quite well. I had lots of fun. Now I`m just trying to do my best to not eat too much at once so I don`t get fat. haha.
We got a fun lunch visit Christmas day with an American family. Then we got a dinner with another super cool family. All in all, we ate a LOT of food. Awesome.
We got another new oficinista this week. Shes a super cool older lady in our ward. She comes in once a week to help with all of the house contracts. Its great. She gets to talk to all of the angry land lords for us. haha. Its also good for her because her husband has alsheimers and shes quite bored all the time. So thats nice to be able to work with Hna Riveros once and a while. Shakes things up a bit here in the office.
I also forgot to mention that last week was the ward party. That was exciting. Basically, it started an hour and a half late, but I`d say it was a success in the end. haha. Lots of not active members and a couple of investigators. It was fun to see a little life in the members for once. lol. We did a little song and I think it helped it finish really well. Brought the spirit home with our stirring rendition of Silent night. lol. But for reals. And it was great to just be able to talk and be happy with everyone. Some good skits from the primary and the Relief Society. Funny though because I had to play the music for everybody, and nobody told me about it until 5 minutes before. NICE.
President went on Holidays with the family this week. That makes things different in the office. We managed to hold down the fort without him though. Thankfully. I still haven[t been able to go the bank though because it turns out that the end of the year is a big deal for companies and banks and stuff. That made things a little more crasy for me, just because everybody was needing things from us, and I had to run around and finish up a bunch of stuff to send the records and files to the people in Paraguayan Church headquarters.
Got to go to lunch at Presidents AGAIN just for fun. AWESOME. It was funny though, because we arent allowed to play soccer with members, but when Presidents son in law asked if we wanted to play, I was sure he would give us permission. But I was really impressed when President DIDNT give in to peer pressure and told us that we couldnt. We were disappointed, but I actually like that even though it would have been easy, president didnt make any exceptions that would make things difficult in the future.  Fun to be able to learn from Presidents example all the time, being in the office.
As for the work this week, things were decently successful.  Taught a good number of lessons. We have a good pool of people we know right now, the trick is just getting them to progress. Thats what they lack right now. All are good people, but none of them are willing to make the next step into discipleship, going to church, doing what we invite them to do, and preparing to be baptized. But we[re trying and doing our best. Im sure something good will happen in not too long.
Today was kinda crasy. We played soccer, as always. Then I had to wait 2 hours to get my hair cut. It turned out... alright. The last while we've all been doing classy Christmas comb-overs, and its been going well. But now my hair was SUPER long. Had to be done. Unfortunately the guy that cut it thought that I wanted to keep it long, then I had to get it shorter. Just a mess. Oh well. Hopefully it turned out okay. Cant tell yet. Then we went out because people wanted to buy cool soccer jerseys... well i have my new one, and there was nothing I really saw that I like... so I just got something different. haha. I used some of that personal money and bought a cool ADDIDAS t-shirt... With a storm trooper on it... in multi colors... Something to wear after the mission. lol. But I think its cool.
Then we played a little softball in the gym of the church with a really soft ball that somebody got. We had a blast, but we could say that it could have ended on a slightly better note. No more comment on that one. haha.
Tonight - the BEST members in our ward (AKA President and the Hna) invited us over AGAIN for dinner. So we've been half fasting and are ready to enjoy what might be the last big meal of the year. Actually, THE last big meal of the year. On that note, HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYBODY! Crasy how fast that the year went by. I don't know about you guys, but for me, it just went crasy fast. In reality, one of the best years of my life too. Its been a good one. Can't really say it was the BEST of my life, just because I'd feel bad since I've been away from home and my family all year, but in reality, I can't think of more good times, or time better used. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here. I love being able to serve the Lord, and do nothing else day in and day out. Wouldn't trade it for anything. Hopefully the next year can be as good, spiritual, memorable, joy-filled, purposeful, fulfilling and great as this last one has been. Love you all. Hope that your New years parties and week go great. I'm excited to hear from you next week and see how its all been. Have a good one!

Love, Elder Humphreys 

HAPPY NEW YEARS!