December 31

Dear Family and Friends,

It was so good to talk to you all on Christmas! Christmas is defiantly
different here.  It is exciting though.  Every one is out in the
street and wishing you a Merry Christmas. It was a lot of fun.
Actually it was a really good time to contact people.  On Christmas
Eve, almost all of our appointments fell through so we were just
street contacting.  It was really cool actually-people are so much
more receptive around Christmas time.

One kind of Christmas miracle is what I would call it happened too.
There was a whole bunch of little kids calling my name (because all
the kids know my name).  We started talking to them and then we gave
then all a little pass a long card.  I didn't even think much of it
until later that night when we got home and we got a text message.  It
said in English Hello, my name is Cereal I want to join your church.
At first I was like it is probably one of the boys here that just love
the American Sisters, and I almost didn't text back, but the spirit
told me that maybe I should treat this seriously.  So I texted back
and asked when we could visit him.  It turns out he actually lives
really close to the church and was taught by the missionaries before,
but then went to manilla. He has a lot of desire and has always seen
the church and wanted to be part of it.  We invited him to the
Christmas party and he came and had a great time.  I am really excited
for him and hope that he will continue to progress.

We also started teaching some other new investigators this week that
we met on Christmas Eve.  Truly some great miracles this week.  That
is something that I am working on recognizing those miracles every
day.  There are tender mercies in this work every day.

Another HUGE blessing this week is brother Bunso as they call him.
Bunso means youngest in Tagalog.  And brother Bunso is the youngest
son of President Roman. He just returned back from his mission from
Quezon City mission and he has now been called as our Branch Mission
Leader.  It is such a great to have someone fresh from the mission and
is so excited to help us and encourage the members to help us.  We
actually had a real Branch coordination meeting yesterday.

On Friday we had a great Branch Christmas Party.  It was a lot of fun
and all the investigators really enjoyed it.  We had our roasted pig.
You can see my pictures on Sky drive!

So after Christmas is New Year and we have early curfews for the two
days again. But Happy New Year everyone! I love you all!

-Sister Richins