Week 63: Last Christmas on the mission...

Hope everyone had a good Christmas with food, gifts, family and the Savior! 

We were blessed with two new investigators last week: a mother and her son of a part member family! The dad has been coming back to church and trying to clear up some Word of Wisdom issues that him and his wife have, but that are solid! The dad even has them pray kneeling together as a family every night, as well as pray together over their meals. And they really want to get baptized, especially their son, who loves us missionaries. The mother enjoys attending church and loves the Relief Society, and she loves learning about the gospel. I am so ecstatic to teach them the restoration this week! They are a good family.

Towards the end of the week it rained SOOOOOO HARD, that the dirt roads became washed out, and there were puddles as big as outdoor pools! It got to the point that our back door in our house started leaking rainwater from outside, so I stayed up til about 2 trying putting together some makeshift object that would keep out the rain from seeping through the worn door seals around the door...and it worked! When we woke up in the morning we saw that it had snowed during the night, and I was super happy about that! The whole area looked beautiful in white, not to mention the San Gabriel mountains that had received snow a few days earlier. Buuuuut by the end of the day most of the snow in Pinon Hills and Phelan had melted. By the end of the week our truck was muddy from driving through all the big mud puddles, it was cool.

Proselyting was a little difficult due to the holidays and people being sick, appointments cancelling, or people being out of town with family, so we tried to show the #LIGHTtheWORLD Christmas video to the members and less-actives that we met with, whether over a dinner appointment or just to see how they are doing. I always feel good watching that video, it is so inspirational.

Saturday we went caroling as a district in Hesperia. Sister Wagstaff and Sister Brown even made cookies/treats to give to the less-active people that they are teaching or trying to contact. We specifically caroled to less-actives, potential investigators, and investigators, and everyone that we sang to appreciated our caroling. It was wonderful being able to share the Christmas spirit with others in that way, and I was happy to see our district united and coming closer together. We all had an enjoyable night. 

Sunday we went to church twice for each ward that we cover but they each only held sacrament meeting. There were a lot of musical numbers performed, it was wonderful. That night was enjoyable talking to family over Facetime. Thank you so much to everyone for the Christmas gifts that you sent my way, and for the cards and your words of encouragement, I appreciate them! May you enjoy the rest of 2016, and have a Happy New Year on Sunday!

Much love,

Elder Haven Ruiz

 Awesome sunset with the San Gabriel mountains after the first storm last week!

 SNOW!!!...and then it melted...(the wheelchair is just a "yard decoration", you can find really random stuff out here in the desert haha)

 Yeah, we like to keep the decorations small and simple haha