Habits! Out with the old in with the new! Dec 10, 2012

Hello! I feel like I owe you a huge letter. We will see where this letter takes us. Hopefully somewhere. Anyway I have had a crazy few weeks with Hermana P leaving and getting her already to go home then to transfers and getting Hermana V all settled. I think things will be all settled down for a few weeks. We do have a busy month though. This week is our Christmas party for the ward. I was looking at the ward announcements and saw that the ward is having theirs on the 14th. I will be thinking of you this weekend! When we all have our Christmas parties. This week Hermana V and I got to help this family in our ward decorate their house for Christmas. It is feeling a little bit more like Christmas but at the same time there is no snow which is makes it a whole other experience. This week we get to go on exchanges. I am going to North Hollywood again. I am really excited. I will be with Hermana M. We have wanted to be companions for a while so we are happy to be having a day to have that. Hermana V is staying here and Hermana Z is coming to her for the day. I hope they are okay on bike. I am not allowed to say why but I will just say sometimes Hermana V scares me on bike. Do you remember what happend to Hermana Z? Remember she crashed into a car door? She might kill me for telling you all this. But I do love them both and... well I will be happy to know that they are okay at the end of the day. Haha jk. I told you we had a conference last Monday with Elder Clarke. I don't remember what was all said but I have thought about a few things lately. One was habits. Throughout the conference when he called on someone he asked them to say the words "yes sir" instead of just our "Yes", "Yep", "Yeah" etc. when he first started telling us to say "yes sir" he asked us why he thought he would be doing it. Some of the missionaries said "for respect", "to be more polite" etc. When we were all done guessing he said our reasons were good but what he really wanted to show us was that it is hard to break habits. It is so true! He compared it to what we are asking our investigators. We are asking to them to keep committments or in other words break old habits and start new and better ones. I had a little example. My dear companions have taught me some certain phrases throughout the mission that I catch myself saying all the time. I was talking to the Assistants to the President on the phone the other day and they remind me not to say the words "como like" when speaking spanish. I picked this up and even though I noticed my other companion saying it I still have it in my vocabulary. "Como like" is like saying "like like" in english. I shouldn't even being saying the word "like" as much as I do. I was watching myself yesterday and realized I really can't say a sentence without using it. I will definitely be working on my speech over the next time here. It was really interesting because a few trainings ago, someone said that at 8'o-clock we have an appointment with the Lord and we are the investigator. 8 is when our personal studies begin. I have thought a lot about this principle. When we are studying the scriptures we are listening to the Holy Ghost teaching us what we need to work on. I know I have been taught several things I can be better at and I learn them when I am studying. My committments as an investigator would be to act on the things I have learned. It is a very interesting concept to me. I am hoping I can continue to learn more about this comparison. Guess what?!!! I get to go to the temple this week and next week! I am really blessed! I will keep you posted and send you pictures! Hermana V and I have been working really hard. She is a great missionary. I have only been with her for a weekish and I have already learned so much. Last week we had the goal of teaching 8 lessons with members and we were so close we had 7. We were gone all day Saturday and all day Sunday! I am thinking I am going to get really tired this transfer but it is okay. I just passed my year mark last Friday and I only have 6 months left to work the hardest. It will be great. I think that is it for this week. I hope you all have a great Christmas! Don't forget what Christmas is really about. I would invite all of you to really think about what habits you can break and invite new ones to come into your life. I know it will help us grow closer to the Savior. Help us become more like him. Love you all!