MAYbe May is almost over

Yep.  I ran out of puns. 

Picture number one: We were doing service for a member, helping her build her chicken coop, and we found this poor guy... I guess he's pretty holy, right??  He seemed pretty dehydrated.  I don't think that it was pretty good for his health.  ;)

Picture number two: we were at an investigator's house on one of the Spanish land grants, where they have an open grazing rule/law/thingy.  That silver truck is ours, so I almost had a quick-draw with the cow. You know, the quick-draw from the old Wild West movies??  Yeah, I had mercy on the cow, though, so I didn't do it.  I would've won, though.  XD

As for the rest of the week, twas pretty fantastic.  We went on exchanges with Elder Snow and Elder Schraedel, and it was pretty fun! I got to help prepare for a baptism that they had on Tuesday, it was quite the adventure.

We also got to go on splits with our Branch Presidency in the Laguna/Acoma branch, which is really unusual to do, but it happened!  It was beneficial to help them see what we see with the people that we teach, and to see how they see those people! 

Then... we didn't have water for most of a day- no showers or anything!  Don't worry, we told our branch president about it, and he let us go to his house in the morning to get cleaned up and everything, two hours before we went on splits. 

It's been a lot of fun and a lot of amazingness has happened this week, including us getting permission and preparing for a Bible Study on a weekly basis!  And, when school starts up again, they're going to start a seminary class for the youth out here, with the missionaries as the teachers! I might be a seminary teacher!!! ;)  Now, back to the Bible Study, because we're doing things about that today.  We are teaching from the New Testament, specifically about Christ's life, following the Bible Videos.  Today is the first day of it, we teach the first one tonight.  Guess what that means today is???   Yep, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE.  XD  Which leads me to my spiritual thought for the day:

Lehi's dream of the tree of life contained in 1 Nephi 8.  But, I'll be going to when Nephi has the same vision (including the interpretation) as found in 1 Nephi 11.  When Nephi is shown the tree of life and is asked what he desires, he responds in verse 11 that he wants to know the interpretation.  That being said, if there are no coincidences (and there aren't!) why, in verses 12-21, would Nephi be shown the Christmas story??  Simple- what is the love of God the Father??  Go to John 3:16-17.  THAT is why Nephi was shown the Christmas Story, why we invite people to come to Christ. Because God sent His son for us because HE LOVES US. Don't ever forget it!

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!!

Elder Eli James Dial