Dia de Pavo!

Hola mi familia!

Wow! It was a fast week! There were times where I could literally feel the minutes just running away! But it was a great week! We had a super awesome Thanksgiving (the members were really nice and fed us well!) and at night we had a group of 12 missionaries together and got to sing Christmas hymns! It was great! As well, the oldest two girls in the family of 4 we're working with (the Jams family) Samantha (22) and Alicia (17) got baptized on Sunday! Everything went perfect and the Spirit was strong! Their younger brother Juan (14) and sister Maggie (17) got stranded in Mexico for the weekend with the Mom (Samantha has custody of all of her siblings though...the mom hasn't lived with them for years) but they'll be following soon! We have a lot of fun with them! They’re a very outspoken family but they have a lot of fun and they fit in great at church! Not much time today but I'll share a tender mercy or two from the week!

First, on Wednesday we were asked to go give a blessing for a man in the ICU. He was pretty badly injured and it was a little difficult to do so, but afterwards we talked with the Mom and his brother. They were so grateful and we could see the Spirit had touched them. After talking for a little bit longer we found out that I had met their nephew in the MTC (he was from the Valley and I asked him questions about South Texas!) it was a super cool miracle and a strong testimony to me that the Lord knows exactly where we need to be! I was pretty amazed that of all the missionaries in the Texas McAllen Mission...the Lord sent the ones who had even the slightest connection to that family!

Second (on a more humorous note), Saturday the Jams family invited us over for a second Thanksgiving since they were in Mexico on Thursday. They called us in the afternoon though as we were about to take our lunch and told us they needed the oven bags to cook the turkey! We stopped by Wal-Mart to get the bags and as we were in line to pay I looked up and saw Braxton Miller score the TD to tie the OSU Michigan game at 21-21. Haha Elder Barth and I had a good laugh about it. I had completely forgotten about The Game...but it was fun to see how Heavenly Father altered our plans just to tell me He loved me! He knows us perfectly! I'm grateful that my sacrifice for serving a mission has seemed to be so small and that even for those few things I give up and leave behind the Lord has blessed me bountifully! I know when we recognize those blessings we gain a greater ability to recognize our answered prayers! I'm grateful for all of you and your love and support and prayers! It is felt! I know that one day we will all appear before the Savior to be judged and that if we are faithful we can enter into His kingdom and oh what gratitude will fill our hearts at that day!

Have a great week!

Con Amor,

Elder Cook