Elder Brock DeLuca: MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Oh my goodness. I had the best week ever! When I said that this place was on fire, I was not kidding! We have been teaching a guy named Paul for the past week and a half and just this past week, we have met with 4 times since last Sunday. That is cray. I have never met with an investigator that frequently since I have been out here! Paul is seriously so solid. He truly wants to change his life around and he tells us that this is the time. His brother is actually in our ward so he is really familiar with the LDS church. He told us from the start that he knows that the Book of Mormon is true! He has read all of it and he still studies from it every day. We are seriously so blessed to be able to be working with him.

We also met with Bobby this week too and we had a really good lesson with him. We taught the Plan of Salvation and everything was making sense to all of us. The lesson flowed really well and we had a great discussion. Something really funny happened though. After the lesson I came to find out that Bobby and I have the same birthday! I was asking him if he still felt that January 10th was a good date for him to be preparing for and he was like "Yes, it is right after my birthday too." And I was like "Hold up, what is your birthday??" When he said, "January 8th." I seriously jumped up and was like "NO WAY!! That is my birthday!" I put my fist out for him to pound it and he was laughing so hard. I don't know why it was so funny, but he seriously could not stop laughing so then my companions started laughing too and all four of us could not stop. It was really funny and I was glad to have been the one being laughed at. Haha.....good thing it was after the lesson was over!

We also went by a less active members' house this week and he has a brother that is living with him who was present during our lesson and he started asking us a lot of questions. We ended up focusing the lesson of him and we asked if he wanted us to come back and start teaching him more and he said yes! He also accepted a Book of Mormon and a soft baptismal date! We went back the next day but we didn't actually get to teach anything so we are going to go again sometime this week.

We had a Christmas Conference last Friday and our entire mission met at the Cypress Stake Center. We had all 270 missionaries there! That was pretty crazy, but we had a lot of fun and we got to sing some Christmas songs which was really fun.

Okay, so remember how I said Jordan was being baptized on the 20th? Well, we were doing some street contacting that day and Elder Hegemann had to use the restroom so we went to Target and when we were there I saw Sister Burnett! (Jordan's Mom). She was there getting some stuff for the baptism and we talked for a little bit and then I told her to keep in contact with me to let me know how the baptism goes. So a few hours later the Magnolia Elders called me and said that they just talked to Sister Burnett and that Jordan really wanted me to come to her baptism. I guess Sister Burnett didn't know that I would have been able to leave Tomball so she didn't ask me. I ended up going to the baptism and on the way there I asked the Magnolia Elders who was baptizing her and they said the Bishop. I was like, "Why aren't either of you doing it?" And they said that it just worked out that way. Elder Edwards was like "Wait, do you want to baptize her?" to which I responded, "Well yeah that would be sweet, but Bishop is already planning on doing it!" So, they called Sister Burnett back and asked her to ask Jordan if she wanted me to baptize her and she said yes! Long story short I not only got to go to the baptism, but I was able to perform the ordinance. You guys I cannot explain how it feels to bring someone to the waters of baptism. When I was in the font with her, everything felt so right. I know that I had the spirit confirm to me that what I was doing was so real and so serious. I love it!

So Paul came to church this past Sunday and he was so pumped. He looked so natural there he and knows a lot of people in our ward because of his brother and also he is like a master tech on working with A/C units and he has done a lot of work on people's homes in the ward.

Well this is my first Christmas away from home, but this is where I need to be and I know that. I am so excited to skype my family! You all might have to wear sunglasses when we skype so the reflection off of my bald head doesn't hurt your eyes! Hahaha JK it isn't that bad yet, but it is always better to prepare ahead of time. I wish you all the Merriest Christmas ever and know that I love you, but more importantly that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do too. Thank you everyone for all of the packages and cards and treats....I have definitely been eating them, and it most certainly shows!

Love,

Elder DeLuca