Christmas

So I had an amazing Christmas. I felt like a kid again. We had a sleepover in the living room and then got up and opened presents. We also carolled at a place in west palm beach. Oh and I saw Air Force One at the airport here, which was cool. This was my best Christmas ever, not gonna lie. I got to talk to family Christmas night. 

I got a sweet Guatemalan shirt. The best part of my mission is we legit have people from every part of the world here. I talked to a guy from Uruguay the other day. It is so cool to get to know all the different cultures,  love them. It's awesome. Latinos are the best. 

I love y'all and have a great New Year and try to set a new goal this next year to grow closer to Christ and use his Atonement more. 

Love,

Elder Isom 

Just Photos, 'Cuz I'm Too Busy Partying

Love From Home

Hi Elder Benson,

I hope you are have a very merry Christmas time and the work is going good.  

You should be getting a package today, Monday - you need to open it and put the turnovers in the fridge.  Sorry about only apple, they were hard to find and after four stores, we were able to fine only apple and get the box in the mail to arrive in time for Christmas.  We did however find cherry the very next day in the pocatello Walmart that we had been to the day before.  weird.  

Well, it is late and I look forward to talking to you this week.  Not sure what day you are calling but any day works for us.  

Love you and miss you.  

Holidays are better with you around!

Mom

9 Days 'Till Christmas

Christmas is next week!!!  We are so excited here and are getting all ready for Christmas and sharing a lot about Jesus Christ during this time. It is the best time to be a missionary. 

This was the first whole week for the new transfer and with a new companion. It was great. We had a good week. We were knocking and ran into this guy named Micheal. He is a friend of the Sisters but I found him like 2 weeks ago. He is a young kid in high school and went to Church last week. The Sisters have been trying to get his address but he was in the hospital for a bit and they were super worried. We found him and we went in and talked to him for a few minutes and he said he is going to go to the Spanish Ward Sunday and the English Ward just so he can spend some time with the Elders. He's an amazing guy.

We meet some amazing people this week. We found an amazing Colombian family who was taking groceries into their apartment.  I asked if she needed help and they invited us up and we talked with them for a while.  The other Elders will be going back to show them the Christ Child video Tuesday, because they live in their area. 

We also talked to some semi-drunk Mexicans who were cool.  We are going to go back Tuesday to share about what happens after this life because he was like "Is there a Hell and what happens after this life?"

While we were knocking this week I was with Elder Clem and he knocked into this German guy. We asked him if he knew about the Church and he said "yes, from Scouting", then we both pull out our Eagle Scout Cards and he was like, "come on in,  I need to show you some stuff."  His house was full of everything Scouting. He had over 180 uniforms from around the world. Shelves of Scouting books, belt buckles, badges, and stuff. He is getting his Silver Beaver this week, so that's awesome. 

We went to a members mansion by the beach to watch the movie Coco and have a fun Zone Activity. It was huge his house and a lot of fun. We also grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. 

Have a great week y'all.

Hope you can get all prepared for Christmas and enjoy this time of year.

Christmas Season!!

I am so excited for Christmas. It is going to be amazing. We have a Christmas tree and lights and our District Leader is loco for Christmas. Next week we will have a Christmas party as a district which will be fun. Especially because we have so many new people in our District. Every companionship got a new person and we have a new area and a trio now, so it is awesome. 

My new companion is Elder Muse. He is from Highland, Utah near Provo. He's funny. I love him. I have learned so much from him and am going to learn so much from him. This transfer is going to be amazing and I am so excited. We have Christmas and New Years. We are going to party hard! 

We have a new person in the house, Elder Clem, who is from the MTC and is a Visa waiter for Bolivia.  He's chill. His Spanish is like my Spanish when I came out, so it is cool to go out with him sometimes to help him, give him advice, and to see how far I have come. It's awesome how the Lord will help us so much and He truly knows us perfectly and what we need. 

We meet this amazing family from Mexico this week and we gave them an amazing lesson on the Restoration. The Spirit was so strong and it was awesome. I can't wait to go back and visit them more. I am loving it here and hope everyone is going to have a great Christmas. 

Love,

Elder Isom

Transfer 3!!!

We had transfer calls last night and I am staying in Greenacres. I will be getting a new companion whose name is Elder Muse. The other Elders say he is great. I am super excited to meet him tomorrow. Elder Alvarado is going to a little town called Indiantown and helping to start a Branch. Elder Caines is going to Miami and Elder Alder is staying and going to train a new missionary. 

I am super excited for this transfer. It is Christmas season and just a good time to serve and talk to everyone about Jesus Christ. We are inviting everyone to do Light the World. It's awesome to have that as a backup if people aren't interested, which is a lot of people. 

One of the miracles this week was that we were walking down the street to go to a lesson. We stopped and talked to this lady at the bus stop for a second then kept on walking. We only got about 15 feet away when this guy flagged us down. He was like “who are you guys and what are you doing?”, because he saw our conversation with the lady. We told him who we are and he was super interested! He was wanting to go to church and so we gave him the Sisters information and invited him to church and we got his information for them. It was awesome to be at the right place at the right time. 

I am loving it here in Florido. It is super cold right now, like 60 degrees. I didn't bring a jacket so I am cold sometimes, especially in the mornings. I don’t know how I lived in Idaho for so long. It is so beautiful here also. I love this area. We went to a dinner last night that was for a RM who served here and he was visiting the mission with his family. I am for sure going to do that because this place is awesome. 

Have a great December and do the Light the World. I love ya’ll!

Thanksgiving!

Wow, I have so much to be thankful for. This past week and a half has been amazing. All of our dates dropped and we got yelled at by homeless people. But actually it was a great week.

One miracle this week was yesterday. We made a goal for the day to find 2 friends. We were looking for 3 hours and found nobody. We finished knocking this street and had only 30 minutes before we needed to go to a baptism. We looked at the area book and found a little road close by that we could knock really quick. As we were biking there, Elder Alvarado turned around in a parking lot and went down this road by the canal. I was like where are you going? We stopped and locked our bikes up and there were some houses on the road. In those 30 minutes we found our 2 new friends for the day and accomplished our goal! 

This morning at 6 we delivered sandwiches to the poor and homeless. We made bags of sandwiches last night then delivered them this morning. It was so cool to do that and sacrifice some sleep to be able to be more like Christ. 

Oh, about that homeless guy. Outside this guy on this bike was like “Are ya'll apart of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?”, we said “well, of course.”, then he started yelling at us that we have too many cars, too many wives, and too many cars. He was like “ya'll are helping the devil destroy the world.” He was nuts. Then he was like “ya'll should get bikes.”  I was just like “Um, that's a great idea.”, as I look at our bike rack on our car that we use like everyday. Like some days we bike 30 plus miles and this homeless guy is yelling at us. But ya know, whatever. 

This week I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting and that was so cool. I spoke in Spanish for 10 plus minutes and I barely even read anything but my quotes and scriptures. I was to be able to see my growth from my first Sunday, from my simple testimony to now. 

I am so excited for some Thanksgiving meals. Tonight we have 2 dinners, one at a Dominicans house and the other at a Mexicans. I am so excited but will be so full because they are at 6 and 7:30. I am going to die, but whatever. 

Love ya’ll and hope ya’ll are grateful for everything and especially Jesus Christ and Family. 

Greenacres and Dan

One of our miracles we had this week was on Sunday. We went and visited our friend. We knocked on the door and a woman answered. We asked if there was a man in the house and she said “no.”  We then explained we couldn't enter. She was like “oh ok.”  We were just going to talk to her at her door for a few seconds because it was cold. Then out of nowhere. Her cousin came and entered the house. We were like “oh, we can enter now.”  We taught her a sweet lesson about how the Atonement can help us. It was a miracle that her cousin came so we could have taught her. 

This Wednesday I was with Elder Caines all day on exchanges. He lost his voice so I had to talk all by myself. It was fun. I got to see how much my Spanish has improved. I remember like 6 weeks ago I was with a Haitian Creole speaking Elder and it was like the same thing. My Spanish fast is going good. It's so fun to talk in a different language all the time but it's hard sometimes. 

This Friday we did a Friendsgivings with all the Elders in the Zone while the Sisters had their own. It was super fun and we all brought food and shared stories. 

Today for P-Day we are watching Coco. It's funny. We also went to Dicks Sporting Goods and I got a sweet Miami Hurricanes hat. I also saw Sports Center, which was fun to see. 

One of our baptismal dates fell through, which was sad, but we still have one more for the 30th of November. He just needs to go to Church Sunday and he should be good to go. I am so excited for that. 

It's crazy how it’s almost Thanksgiving. It’s going to be weird to have the holidays without snow.

Here are lots of pictures to catch up on from my area!