How do I show my enemies I love them

It's now okay to talk about Christmas. The day after thanksgiving my companion and I went out and handed out Christmas cards all day haha. East buffalo is going well. 

We are teaching in a few families homes which is a nice change of pace from teaching one person at a time.

We met a woman named Marquita and her son Keith one day and they let us right into their home to share our message. They were a little under the weather for a while but we stopped by a few days ago and just as before they let us right in and she gathered all of her children around like we have been coming over for months. We met all her sons starting with Keith (14) Kejuan (10) Kayshawn (8), and her daughter Annyla (5) (sounds like annihila in annihilation) we taught them the Gospel and they said they would all be baptized if they come to know the restoration was true. We are meeting with them again this Friday.

Anaklet the Tanzanian boy met with us again. He has very broken English but teaching him is so fun. He asks the deepest questions and he literally said he wants to become just like us and be a missionary haha. He is 17. He really wanted to know how he can love his enemies and show them that he loves them. I can't wait to see how he learns and progresses.

I hope everyone finds more warmth in their lives this winter season.

The arborary world

The world is what we grow it to be. We have all been born into the vineyard where ever we started. Maybe you feel like the tree that you are watching over has had all the branches cut off and new ones grafted on. No matter what shape the tree is in right now, or how many times we are told to move to a different part of the garden and watch another tree, we always have a choice to help or to hurt the tree. 

Sometimes in our lives we see people going around swinging axes without a thought into other people's trees and maybe even their own tree. But as we tend to the branches that we have been given we can always bring about good fruit.

Sometimes we are the trees and sometimes we are the servants. Have faith in the Lord of the garden. He is not lead by ways that will lead to nothing.

We met a family from Tanzania that let us right in. We taught the 17 year old son named Anaklet and his older brother Ragabo. They don't speak much English but luckily we had some spare Swahili pamphlets that we gave them on Wednesday when we went back Anaklet is sooo cool. People from Africa are always super happy and smiley. Hopefully he is able to come to church this Sunday. We ordered several more books of Mormon in Swahili for him and his family but for now he got the app and is reading it. He read the first line of 1 Nefi 1 and told us he likes the book already :-O

I shared a poem in a talk in church so I figured I would share it with all you

GROWTH BEFORE CONSTRUCTION

What would a seed mean to you

If you had never seen a tree
What if you knew
That a small little rock
Could sprout into so much green

Many people carry bricks of sin
Looking to build a house
But home is something
that you find within
Not something you drag about

Along my way
I've picked up bricks
And carried them on my back
Thinking that I
would build a house
And thus gain what I have lacked

I did not know
I had the answer
It was just hidden within
A home doesn't come
From all the weight
Of doubt, of sorrow and sin

I've learned that home takes time
To not only plant but grow
We have to care
And nurture our seeds
Before you can reap you must sow

Then you can build your own cabin
With the bonds your seeds have made
And lay down the logs
Of the faith you have grown
On the foundation that your bricks have made

I hope everyone has a great thanksgiving

The Bluffs of Buffalo

I got my new companion Elder Harvey. We are having a good time in east buffalo. He is a pretty quiet guy. I am trying to sift the wheat of our area book. We have had to drop quite a few people, but we have found several really sincere people. Our new district leader is Elder Hershey. 4 out of the 6 missionaries of our district came out together. Sister Anderson and I. 

We were knocking doors in one of the nicer areas in our area and we had a guy come out and say he wanted us back next week on Thursday and gave us a time. He said his wife just recently died. His name is Zell. We will see how that goes.

On Friday the high was 27 degrees or something... We walked around a lot and got anti-ed twice by Muslim guys. In the evening we went back to the apartment to get coats because my skin was turning purple haha. We went walking to the edge of our area to find a potential. While we were walking there I knocked on a door with the intention of asking them where a address was. Before I could say anything a woman answered and said it was cold out and told us to come in. She offered us hot chocolate and we shared the message of the restoration. The spirit was really strong and we described how we can know this is true. She said that she has never just invited anyone into her home but we had a "warmth about us". Maybe that's why I haven't died from the cold yet. Lol

Her name is Lari (pronounced laurie). She works at the school and coaches track so she is pretty busy but she said we could come back. The potential that we went to go see didn't exist. I know that we were sent over there to find Lari.

I gave a talk in sacrament on visions and revelations and compared it to rock climbing. Prophets are the lead climbers and visions are the anchors that God has given us to use as we climb. 

I hope everyone is well and let me know if I can do anything for you.

 Here is a stupid picture of us about to go biking in the dark freezing night. [He forgot to attach a picture]

Alterations

Transfers are tomorrow morning. Elder Vizcaino is going home to Chihuahua and I will be with Elder Harvey in east buffalo. It's been a good transfer. We haven't been finding any new people for the past few weeks but we are looking. 

The downtown Elders sent us all their Spanish speaking people so we went and talked to all of them and taught one of them. Since I am not getting a Spanish speaker we will have to send them back to downtown because they are in their area. 

We got fed every night this whole week because Elder V was leaving so we got to know a few families a little better. We met with the Cotto family Sunday night and set a date that their daughter Gabriella can be baptized. We will have to teach her all the lessons before December 16th. They have 4 little girls and a son. They are always fighting for my attention the second we walk in the door. Last night I was stuck coloring in coloring books and getting stickers all over my shirt while Elder V talked with brother and sister Cotto... It's going to be a good experience helping them come to know their God more.

I'm pretty terrible at emailing in a way that I can actually help any of you guys get a glimpse into how my days go, or what my thoughts about it all are. To be concise, I hope for a better world. I see so much sadness and hurt all around all the time and nothing's going to change unless we change. That is what I'm here to teach and I will never hesitate to ask someone to change. I love everyone and I hope we all have the meekness to follow where the Spirit takes us.