There's Nothing More Important Than Being Festive

Twas a great week in which I came to realize that white Christmases here are nonexistent. Bummer.
Anywho! Tuesday was good, though rather uneventful, and so was Wednesday (my half birthday!). One of the hermanos in the ward let me borrow his GUITAR to practice for the ward Christmas party and I had to give it back Wednesday night :( I very much did not want to. And now I really wanna get myself a guitar.... Oh whale. We also met a cool dude named Shadow (yes that's his real name) on Wednesday and he seems pretty interested in learning more!
Thursday was pretty slow and Friday was FREEZING. Holy cow. California isn't supposed to be this cold ;) however we had zone conference, which was neat :) the 2 Spanish zones on this side of the mission got together and we learned so many things. Twas good. And after that was dinner with Hna Landaverde, who's cooking is seriously so good <3

Then Saturday was the ward Christmas party and I got to wear my excessively Mexican dress!!! We got to help set it all up and such #yayservice. So we had a big dinner and then all the different...programs? Not sure the word for it. Like, the Relief Society, primary, the high priests, young men, young women, and then us missionaries all performed a thing! I played guitar for us and we sang the First Noel :) But all in different languages. So Elder Ricks sang a verse in Spanish, Elder Burrenatu in English, I sang in Italian, and Hna Hernandez sang in Korean! It was a lot of fun and everyone really liked it :) then I got to play from the high priests too for a couple of songs they sang.
Then yesterday Rafael came to church and Hna Hernandez spoke. It was good :) and last night we got to walk around in the most rain LA's seen since I got here. But a member gave us arroz con leche, which helped keep the cold at bay :)
Some things I learned this week: for one, in Alma 44 Moroni is preparing his armies to battle Zerahemnah and Zerahemnah says it's only the breastplates and shields they have that made Moroni's army stronger. But really, there are two things that made them successful. 1) being prepared. To win the battle of life we need to be prepared with our own "breastplates" and "shields" that will help us resist temptation. And 2) we also need the Lord's help. Moroni's army was righteous, so they had God on their side. If we're lacking either of those two things, we won't be able to stand against the temptations and crap the world/Satan throws at us.
I also learned this week that missionary work isn't something you can do and still be sad or frustrated or angry. The Gospel is all about love and when we do ALL that we can to do what is right, it's not possible to stay down for long. Because even in our hardest, darkest times, righteousness brings peace and happiness. :) the sadness we feel that brings us down doesn't come from Heavenly Father.

So yeah :) that was my week! I hope you're all doing well and remembering to read the Book of Mormon!

-Hermanita Johnson