The Grinch Stole Christmas, and brought summer.

Hola familia!

It´s Christmas. I oh-so-hope that you´re all enjoying your Christmas and families.

Here... It´s different.

It´s kind of like the Grinch Stole Christmas. There´s little decorations. There´s not much Christmas Cheer. 

It´s hot. Really hot. Hot and sweaty, even at night, and we´ve been without a fan since winter.

And, (I´m sad to say, mom) that my package didn´t arrive, so there will be no presents under our paper tree--at least from my family.

BUT, I would remind you, in midst of all these seemingly non-christmasy things, what happened with the Who´s when the Grinch stole their christmas: 

it came anyway. 

It came without presents. 

It came without Christmas Cheer. 

I´m sure it could´ve even come if it was 40º C (104º F) outside, like it is here.

It came without all of those seemingly ¨Christmasy¨ things.

It came, just the same, because those things aren´t what Christmas is about. 

It´s about Christ. 

It´s about the gift he is to the world. 

It´s about the cheer he brings to people and families worldwide. 

It´s about celebrating what´s really important with those who are really important.

And so I´ll pass Christmas here. And I´m not sad one bit. Because this Christmas I´m going to spend thinking about ¨Christ¨-¨más¨. :)

This year I hope you, too, can spend more time thinking about Christ and giving the best gifts. 

Watch these most-excellent videos right now, and maybe you can share it with your family in FHE, or with friends later.

The Reason Behind Christmas http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2874125972001

The Christmas Spirit http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=911161814001

Mucho amor,

Elder Turek

Dec. 8th

Family and Friends,

How are you!? All of you in the USA, are you still with us? I hope you haven´t been frostbitten or snowed into your houses too hard, but I´m sure you´re all enjoying the weather and thanking God for the ¨moisture¨as usual.

This week we were able to give lots of service, even as it does get hotter and hotter, people need more and need help. One of the families in our ward, sadly also one of the best famililes, moved out of their nice rented house out to the middle of nowhere and consequently to the other ward. The city actually gave them the land that we are now building their house on. They don´t build houses the same here as they do in the US. Here they use lots of cement. Cement, and Bricks. The walls, the floor, even the ceiling, all either cement or bricks.

In order to pour their ceiling we needed to make a lot of cement. Luckily, we had an actual mixing machine, 6 missionaries and a few other people to help, unlike the time we poured their floor and we mixed it by hand, or shovel rather. Anyway, with the mixing machine and help, we worked like one big machine. 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket of water, 2 cement buckets of cement, 10 of gravel. That was the pattern. We filled the buckets with all haste, chucked ´em in the mixer, and repeated. From the mixer, poured on a old car hood and then shoveled into buckets and then standing on a plastic patio chair, hefted it to the ceiling. It was good hard work and I had the blisters and sunburn to prove it.

Missionary work is still hard. But I´m still working at it. Any tips (maybe from the internet) how to roll your R´s? My accent is okay, but I still can´t roll them R´s.

Something I thought about this week is how important families are. God made families because they work. I see it more and more. When a loving family isn´t there, so much bad happens. It creates sadness and broken people. Please be grateful for your family. That you have a Mom and Dad who are committed to your family and their well-being. Love your family. Take care of your family. You only get one.

I´m grateful that I have a family who loves me, and that we can be together forever and that we all have that same goal--being an eternal, happy, family. I´m really far away, but I still feel your love, and hope that you can feel mine too, because I love you, even more than when I left. :)

I´m excited to get to talk to you all Christmas week. In this mission they told us to do it some day during the week during christmas, not specifically christmas, so let me know a day and time that works best for you all, and we´ll work it out.

Pictures. I still would love pictures. It´s very helpful in knowing what you´re doing, and it´s efficient, too. I actually just bought a photo album, too, from the photo shop in town.  MOM: Use your camera. Thanks. :) I even like pictures of people studying or doing boring things (pulling a funny face helps, too).

Also, this week, I received a letter from my good friend Elder Lippert in Ukraine! That thing looked beat up when it got to me, but I got it, none the less.

The Christmas devotional was this week. We weren´t able to go because of some adverse circumstances, but did you like it? How was it?

Well, I love you all and I´m grateful for your prayers and thoughts for me. Keep up the good work.

Love,

Elder Bradley Turek