Well, we had a wonderful Christmas and are now ending the year. Wow, 2010 went by really fast! Christmas was great. Thursday night we went to the mission home with a few other zones and had a dinner and show. The part that was most fun, aside from the mashed potatoes and turkey, was that they sent us to the subway station to sing for about half an hour. A lot of people stopped to listen and a few people recorded with their cell phones. It was fun. Also, I got to see a lot of missionaries that I haven´t seen for a while. And I had my picture taken with both assistants because one was my comp in the MTC and the other was my DL in Dorsal 2.

Friday we went to the Stake President´s house from 5:00 until 12:00. There´s a family from Utah, the Smith family, that are visiting them. So there were a lot of people in the house. It was way fun. Weird speaking in English, but oh well. For dinner we had twice baked potatoes, turkey, salad, and for dessert a type of melon with vanilla ice cream and grapes and sugar cookies. It was really good. Then the stake president took the kids to a park to see Santa while we put presents under the tree and in stockings, etc. Then we recorded as they walked in. It was a lot of fun. We also got a couple of presents: chocolate and socks--the first time I´m happy to get socks for Christmas. :) It was great.

My sector is great. Like I said last week, it´s a lot of country. Even more so than Grace. It´s great, but it´s really hot. One day last week it was 105 degrees, and we walked a lot. We carry around big water bottles, and I easily drink 4-5 liters every day. And everyone gives us fruit. There are a lot of orchards here: peach, apricot, orange, plums, etc. Needless to say, with so much fruit, water, and walking, I´m going to come home in good shape. I´ve already been losing weight. I´m down to 198 now, and I hope to get home at 190 or less.

Last week we found some new investigators--a woman named Isabel and her grandson, Valentin. They accepted a baptismal date for January 16th. They and another grandson, Benjamin, were going to go to church yesterday but didn´t. Tonight we´re going to see what happened. One problem in this sector for investigators is that to go to church they have to travel by bus, and it can cost a bit. It´s a sacrifice, but we have to help them do it.

Well, that´s all I have time for this week. It was a great one and hopefully it keeps up. I love my sector and my companion is great. Next week I´ll send pictures. Talk to you next week!

Elder Murdoch