A Very Not White Christmas

Holy cow. I honestly don´t understand why so many people decide to live here. It is so dang hot and humid. Here´s a quick rundown of the day to help you all understand why. In the morning when the alarm clock rings, you wake up with sticky arms from the sweat you sweated during the night. You workout and that only worsens and intesifies the sweating. You get in the shower sweating. You get out of the shower still sweating. You eat breakfast and the food in your belly makes you sweat more. You study and the pages of the scriptures stick to your arms from the sweat. When you leave, you sweat even more from being outside and walking a ton. If you put your arms on the table during a lesson, you can´t take them off quickly cuz the sweat from your arms will have already stuck to the table a bit and it makes a loud noise. You get back to the pensh still sweating. You go to bed with the fan on full blast, but you have to be under a blanket cuz the mosquitos will eat you alive if you aren´t. I guess you get used to it after a while, but, I´m not sure why anyone would move here.

I really do love this place though, even though it may seem like it in the first paragraph. Christmas was great. It was such a party. People started drinking in the morning on the 24, and didn´t stop until the 26. In the afternoon, everyone started cooking asado. We ate lechón (pig asado) with the Branch Pres and his family. I wasn´t too impressed, especially since we had to pay like $100 for it ($100 in US dollars, like $1000 Argentine pesos). Everyone else liked it though, so I guess that´s what´s important. At like 7 pm on the 24, people started setting off fireworks, which didn´t stop until 3. On Christmas, I called my family in the morning, and, while I was calling, the other Elders in my district made asado. We bought like 10 pounds of meat for four Elders. It was gone in 15 minutes. The meat down here is way better than any meat I have ever tasted in the States (and we´re gonna eat asado again tonight cuz some members want to celebrate Elder Yaques´ birthday from two weeks ago). Then we had to go back to the pensh for the rest of the day for safety reasons (drunks don´t tend to stay in their homes, nor mind their own business).

Calling home made me realize a few things. 1. I miss my family, and it´s only been like 5 months since I´ve been with them. 2. I haven´t seen my Heavenly Father in almost 19 years. How much more should I miss him, and want to see him again? It made me think about things with a more eternal perspective. I asked myself two questions, that I invite all of you to ask yourselves also.

1. In this moment, am I living in a way such that, if it were my time, I had to die, would I be excited to see my Heavenly Father again, or scared?

2. What am I doing to make that reunion with him a joyous one, and not a moment of fear and regret?

Ponder those questions please, and if you would be scared and full of regret, ask yourself what is needed to be excited for that moment you see him again? Because you will see him again, we all will. If you would be excited, what are you going to do make that moment an even better one? I invite all of you, and will do so myself as well, to continually work to make that improvement.

A scripture came to my mind while thinking about all this on Christmas. It is in the New Testament. In 3 John. A little tiny book of one chapter.

3 John 1:4 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."

If that was written by a mortal man, although inspired by the Holy Ghost, how much more excited and joyFUL (with extra emphasis on FUL) would our Heavenly Father be to know that we, his children, walk in truth? Can you imagine the joy you would have if he, a God, our Heavenly Father, is excited and joyful to see us? Can you imagine a God rejoicing to be and live with you? He will rejoice if you make the choices to be worthy and ready to live with him. I invite and encourage each and everyone of you to prepare yourselves to be worthy to and ready to stand joyfully in his prescence. I promise you, as a representative of Jesus Christ, that Heavenly Father will help you to prepare yourself to come back into his prescence IF you are willing to put in the effort. Because he wants to live with you again. He wants to see you FULL of joy, and will help you. It won´t be easy at times, but, he will always give us the help we need. I testify of this, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Brown

3 John 1:4