Elder M.Tanner Charlesworth : Christmas with Cockroaches

This Definitely was an interesting week. We had the attack of the cockroaches. They are everywhere and I hate them. Other than that Christmas week was great. It was sad being transferred I didn't feel like I really knew anyone here and Christmas was going to be less warm than i planned on. But I am grateful to the members here. They made me feel right at home. The week leading up to Christmas was interesting. It was hard to teach people due to the rapidly coming Christmas. In Hispanic culture they do things differently, they stay up all night on Christmas eve and open presents right at midnight and then party and eat until early in the morning, then they sleep all Christmas day, so we had no members in church on Sunday haha(well Spanish members)

There is this lady named Randi McGarity the funny thng is she kinda reminds me of Aunt Randi, so i just call her Aunt Randi. She is a convert, and has since converted her father and about 6 other people in the last two years since she has become a member. She loves the elders we were able to eat over there a couple times and get to know her before Christmas, she surprised with presents on Christmas! She got me a Super man pez because her Dad Gene calls me Clark Kent, she filled a stocking with candy and got me Georgia Bulldogs shirt, I had convinced myself that i would not become a Bulldogs fan, everyone is a bulldogs fan. I would rather root for Georgia Tech they are the underdogs. well I guess I don't have a choice now, she threatened me with my life that I would be a Georgia Bulldogs fan so I told her I would not hate them haha. It is a super cool shirt though.

The couple days leading up to Christmas we didn't really have anywhere to go to eat on Christmas day. Jaime and his mother allowed us to come over and use their phones which was so great and they fed us a huge meal. Christmas day we got about 7 invites from members making sure we had a place to go. They really care about missionaries here which is nice. There is such a difference being in an English ward though, there are things i love and things i really miss from a Spanish branch. I am staying positive and really liking it here. We have a couple really legit investigators. One of them reads the book of Mormon alot she asks questions like what happened to Lehis body when he died and questions about the nephites and lamenites, she is the first person i have met that really understands the book of Mormon the first time she reads something, and it is so nice teaching someone who actually reads and understands. What a break it is haha.

Thank you so much everyone for the Christmas cards and the packages it was so greatly appreciated!

I really do enjoy it here. Not where i had planned on being at Christmas but that's okay God always gives us what we need not what we want, i keep telling myself that. I am not surrounded by Spanish constantly now which is a little upsetting i love Spanish but i just have to study harder. I hope every ones Christmas went great, missed you all. Missed ice cream cake roll. So great talking to all of you.

Love Elder Charlesworth aka Principe