Life is good! LIVE it and LOVE it!

HEY! Happy Thanksgivin! Loved to see all of the pictures, looks like you guys had a blast! Yes, we better keep up that tradition so I can experience it next year. Dad I'm loving the beard dude! Looks good.  I also loved the pics from Mitchel's court of honor, everyone looks so big and old! Stop growing!! Glad to hear that we are getting ready for Christmas.  We all are too! I put up a few decorations but I am going to find me a little tree and some lights today haha.  I'll take a picture for you mom. Dad its funny that you were talking about Nacho Libre. You'll die when you see the pictures I sent. "Save me a piece of that corn!" Yes, the Evangelicas are still jamming out, I almost have the songs memorized.  I am teaching english to a couple kids that live near by, but we are trying to get more people to come. Well, changes are here once again.  I feel like these last 6 months went by so fast.  I am staying with O for another 6 here in cold Apaneca, and they're going to go even faster, I know it.  I'm happy to spend Christmas here, should be fun with the cold. I have been able to use the sweaters you sent me and I love them!  I've been a bad writer this week.  Today is friday.  We had a wild week with changes and then I went on interchanges with Elder Smith again yesterday.  We have a couple new missionaries in the zone and 3 new ones are in my district.  They are great people and are going to work hard this change.  "But its Thanksgivin!" Hahah!  How was everyone's thanksgiving? Mine was as good as it could get being here haha.  I was with Elder Smith so I got to be with a gringo and we ate dinner with his neighbors who happen to have a lot of money and invited us over for turkey sandwiches. They were really good!   Hope you all ate a bunch of turkey for me! But I did do a lot of thinking yesterday about all of the things I am grateful for and there are so many.  In our zone meeting we all introduced ourselves and said one thing we were grateful for.   I said my family and the amazing support they have given me, and are still giving, out here on the mission.  I honestly am so blessed to have such amazing family members and I know that I would not still be out here on this mission if it weren't for all of the great advice and faithful prayers that you have given me.  Thank you all so much!  Hope it hasn't been too cold up there in Utah.  Here, the wind has been blowing for 3 days straight and it blows HARD here.  So hard that it's hard to walk.  The wind has brought some real cold so I have been putting those sweaters to use. I also got a package from the Mortensens with a bunch of good Halloween candy that I didn't get to eat this year. Thank you Clint, Natilee and boys! Bueno, today was saturday and the final day of the fiestas that they have been having here in Apaneca every weekend for this month. It was crazy, the entire town was out riding the carnival rides, even though it was freezing.  They did give a pretty good firework show though. I ate an Elote Loco, or in other words, the corn that they eat on Nacho Libre.  I'll have to send some pictures so you guys know that it really does exist haha.  I'm excited for church tomorrow.  We haven't had too much success lately with people coming to church but we have a lot that are committed to go so I have high hopes! There is a family that we are teaching, the missionaries have been teaching them forever, the woman is a member but the guy isn't. His name is J___.  He is 19 and they have to get married, but he hasn't wanted to.  But we have started to visit them a little more often and he has gotten more positive.  He is planning on going to church manana so we will have to see what happens, but I think he will be baptized this month if we can get all of the papers figured out.  I am currently enjoying a nice little fire I made all by myself.  I guess all of those years I put into scouts really paid off. ;=  We had a good sunday, but J___didn't come to church.  He was out dancing all night long.  But this weekend was the end of the fiestas so we should be having more success this month, I hope.  Not much happened today, and we had no one to visit at night because everyone was, and still are, at this big final dance they have going on.  It's supposed to go on until 3am.  It's right down the street from our house so our walls are vibrating because its so loud.  But I'm still gonna sleep, haha I'm so tired. I sure do love being a missionary though.  It is really hard sometimes but it is an incredible feeling when you get reminded of the amazing work you are a part of and how you are able to help so many people.  I am trying to hard to be as optimistic as I can in this area.  I found a quote that I really like.  "When an optimist finds a worm in his apple, he goes fishing." I thought that was pretty good.  I challenge all of you to be optimists! Always be thinking on the positive side of things. Life is good! LIVE it and LOVE it!      I love you all and hope that you get a good start on the Christmas season this week.  It is a wonderful time to think of the birth of our Savior! The Church is going Hard with that this year, have you all heard about it yet? That's like all we are doing as missionaries, talking about la Navidad!  Talk to you all next week! Hope you enjoy the pics.   Elder P.R.Thorpe Elder Smith and I ate Thanksgiving dinner with this family. Elote Locos! I'm a pretty good scout!