FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

Another busy week in the mission.  Lots of activities associated to the Christmas season.  Sounds like he is really enjoying the work, and his district is doing well.  We get to talk with him around 3:00pm on Christmas day!!

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FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

Hey I am hoping all is well and I hope that you guys will have a great Christmas! The carpet looks really good downstairs and I loved the gingerbread houses and I really like number 3! But I don’t know who’s that is? I am glad to hear everyone is on vacations and ready for Christmas. I really can’t believe that it is Christmas! Yes I am a district leader here in Concepcion and we are doing really good in my district!  

This week was very interesting and very different from a normal week. I had a lot of fun! We had a lot of activity's this last week for Christmas and it’s been a lot of fun with the activities. We had a Christmas Activity for the ward and it went pretty good. People where acting as certain people from the bible and then we showed "He Is the Gift." It was a good activity and we got investigators to come and it started to rain right when we had the activity, but we still had few people come. Then on Sunday we had another activity and but of all Concepcion and some of the south mission. There was a choir and they sang some Christmas songs and it was really good. We were called to be ushers at the activity! So we had to get there at 4 and it started at 7 and we ended up leaving the activity at 10. We had over 530 people come to it and it was very successful. It was a fun activity and I got to see a lot of members from Chiguayante and Hualpencillo. So I really was happy because I got to see a lot of friends and some of the members that I reactivated in Hualpen. I had a great time there, but we pretty much didn't get to work that day in our sector because we went to church and then to lunch. Than we head over to the church to be ushers until it was time to go home. It was crazy!   

Claudia now doesn't want to go to church anymore and she doesn't want to give up all the illegal drugs. So we aren't really going to teach her anymore. We are still working with Thomas, but he is really focused on his church and doesn't look like he is going to progress at all. So we are working with the investigators that we have but I hope that you guys can pray for us to find some more people to teach! That would be awesome! Thanks!

This week I ended up having a mini cambio with one of the traveling assistants. I worked with Elder Herrera, and it was really fun, I had a blast. He is from Washington and we were joking the whole time. Even though we didn't enter that many houses that day, we had a ton of fun. Elder Herrera is ending his mission next week, so I was one of his last mini cambios in his mission. I might see him after the mission. We had a good day and we learned a ton from each other. 

This week I have been a little sick and after the mini cambio with Elder Herrera, at about 2:30 in the morning I just woke up and started running to the bathroom. I ended up throwing up everywhere, but it wasn't too bad. One of the Elders that I live with woke up and helped me clean the part that I didn't get in the bathroom. We started joking around saying that the bathroom really needed to be cleaned. It was a bad, but pretty funny because it was 2:30 in the morning and we were both tired and it’s that moment when you’re so tired that everything is so funny for you. That´s what happened with us! 

This week is going to be crazy! Tomorrow we will be going to Chillan for the Christmas Conference and the whole mission will be going and it’s going to be awesome. Then we have a Christmas dinner planned and we will be eating something very good! I hope! Then we have another mission activity, and I get to Skype you guys! So it’s going to be a crazy week and then this is our last week for this transfer and we have cambios next Monday. 

This week I am hoping I can skype you guys at 7:00 Chilean time. I am hoping that works out for you guys but that is what we are looking at. I am hoping that the internet is a lot better where we are going. I really can’t wait to talk to you guys and its coming up so fast. I only have about 45 minutes to talk to you guys but I am sure it will be good. 

Thank you for everything and I can’t wait to talk to you guys. I love you guys a ton and thanks for everything that you do. Have a good week and thanks for your emails. Have a fantastic week and Feliz Navidad. I love you and miss you guys a ton!

Love you

Elder McAlister

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Spiritual thought time!! This week I shared a couple quotes on Christmas from President Thomas S. Monson with Sean:

    "Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values. It is peace because we have found peace in the Savior’s teachings. It is the time we realize most deeply that the more love is expended, the more there is of it for others."

    "To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the Spirit of Christ."

and finally out of the scriptures in John 3:16

    "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

It is so import for all of us to remember the reason for the season and truly celebrate our Saviors birth. Everyone have a Merry Christmas and enjoy your time with family and friends.