Happy holidays everyone, as we are still in them and have new years coming up, but we don't really celebrate new years as missionaries.  All we can really think to do is to get up at 12 and call every one in our zone!  probably won't cause its kinda mean and I like my sleep.      Christmas was nice, we got to hang out at the church with all the zone and play games, we played some scum, darts, risk, and basketball.  it was really nice to get to skype my family, so that was all nice.  
   the work is slowly picking back up again, since all the people we knew had been dropping off the face of the map with the holidays, they can finally meet again with us.
   A less active we have been working with didn't come to church cause he said he didn't have money for the bus, and when we visited him later we found out he had still been smoking and he spent the bus money on cigarettes.  we chastised him for that, and I hope he overcomes the smoking soon, he has been doing better since we met him.  
    We had an absolutely awesome p-day this morning.  we got up at 4:45 and went to go on a hike with our branch president to this bush trail up the 2nd highest mountain on Trinidad.  it was a hike we had to take with a local as a tourgide as the trail was faint at times and overgrown, as well as had forks for different things.  we all hopped in his pickup to get to the trail head from the parking lot and then the hike started.  it was a solid 2 hours of super steep and slick jungle expeditioning!  It was such a fun time.  The peak was in clouds, so we didn't get to see the cool view at the top, but it was still a neat experience.  coming down the hike we were sliding all over and we started to recklessly start trying to slide on purpose.  it was a good time, especially when I was filming E. Christ sliding down the hill, President Franzique came running past with his machete in his teeth, and then E. Smith behind me slipped and took me out and we both slid down.  at another part I started sliding and went down for about 30 feet and stopped straddling some root.    It really was a cool view, cool experience, and one of my favorite p-days so far.  I am also going to be very sore tommorow... 

The holiday season has arrived, and its not snowy, or cold which is super weird!  I really miss the snow and cold, I always found it fun.  I know there are many people out there who would love to trade shoes to be in the warm Caribbean right now, but still, its too hot for Christmas.       We have had a slower time here, there is this tradition in Trinidad to paint and make over your home during the holidays, which makes people more busy than they would have been, and that is pretty busy during the holidays anyways.  Most of our appointments have fallen through consistently and told us after the holidays to meet.  so that has been a little rough but that's no big scene.  I thought I would have missed home more but keeping myself busy has helped a lot.  also, without all the usual stuff, I have gotten to focus more clearly on the true meaning of Christmas, which is to be selfless and give a lot.  As a result I have been able to feel more of the holiday spirit, which ALMOST makes up for the snow.  ;\   
    We had our p-day moved to Tuesday so that we would not have 3 days of less effective activities, oh well.  Sorry you all missed my email yesterday.  today we are going to run over to the mission home at 1 for some activities and a Christmas dinner, and then we are coming back and watching a movie for Christmas.  for the one movie we get to watch we have decided on Monsters University, which I have hear great things about.  it should be a fun time!  4 other elders are staying the night in our apartment and then Christmas day we are all going to head over to the church for games and skyping home to our families!  (really looking forward to that)  We will also go caroling over to some peoples homes and then we are going to all be having a pot luck dinner.  This is going to be a fun couple days, but its going to be weird trying to get back to normal missionary hang of things after.  and then its a new year, 2014 and I will be spending all of that on my mission, serving the Lord, so that should be a great year.  
    I love you all and I wish you all a good holiday season!   Please be safe and keep the true meaning of Christmas in mind as you go about your holidays!  

So good news!  3 people from my last area got baptized over here in Arima on Sunday.  So it is a white christmas cause its so close to christmas.  its the closest I will get out here in the carribean at least.  I was especially excited for the Kent Burke getting baptized as he was one I worked with heavily and he had so much faith and made so many changes, its incredible!  That was a massive highlight, then that same sunday we had our christmas concert, it was good.      I went to an area called Sangre Grande for a tradeoff for 2 days while my companion was at a leadership training conference and I got to ride bikes for the first time in 10 months, which is sick.  It was really fun, good exercise and the day just flew by, if I was in a bike area I would get really tan too, especially on my arms.  The missionary I was with was Alex Little, who is also from Sandy Utah.  Graduated from Alta in 2013.  It was weird talking to someone who knew everything in my middle school and high school all the way out here.  We of course did some tie trading.  I also got a package, and in it there was some delicious chocolates from Utah and ties from family, all are appreciated!  Thanks and a shout out to Grandma Kathy and Grandpa and Grandma Jensen!
    Looking forward to skyping in 9 days, and I wish you all a merry Christmas and some happy holidays!

  High light of this week is we got 92 people in attendance at church, the 6 missionaries here including me are doing wonders and we all have a goal of making this branch a ward.  Me and Elder Christ have still been working with Bro. Abraham, the less active.  we did some service at his house and helped him clean it, we are doing more this week as it will take a lot of work to get nice.  It is wonderful to see the change in his countenace and home and the feel of it all as we work with him.  This week was packed with lessons were we felt the spirit strongly, which is a huge thing.  Very satisfying.  when we feel the spirit, it matters not whats going on, for it all becomes enjoyable and satisfying.  one thing I felt strongly this week was i got a shocking experience at bro. Abrahams house.  I was helping screw some covers back on his power outlets and got a little bit electrocuted.  it was really just a strong jolt, don't worry, not even my fault really, but still fun. thats about all the interesting stuff thats happened this week.  today for p-day we are going to go play some basketball and ping pong at the church with other missionaries.  whisch reminds me that we are going to have a conference for the zone leaders and I will be going to a next area for 2 days to be with anext missisonary as my companion goes to the conference.  I will get to expereince bikes!  exciting.  anyways, happy holidays y'all and be safe.  sorry for the typos, no time to fix them today.

Not too much happened this week, just a lot of working.  We are doing the best we can to get this branch to go back to a ward by strengthening it anyway we can.  We had a good success with 2 investigators at church and we got an inactive Melchizedek Priesthood Holder to come back to church, I hope he keeps coming, we are working a lot with him.  he is a little crazy, but it still counts!     We actually had a very good meeting at a less actives house and It was cool because there was an interesting experience that showed how much the spirit was there.  After the end of the lesson, he mention his stereo not working anymore and we went over to try to figure it out for him and to figure out the inputs, the TV got turned on and it was a very bad program that was playing and we got it turned off the second it was on, but the spirit left that second.  It was weird, I honestly felt that the spirit was grieved and I wanted to leave, I was no longer comfortable there.  Thats cool because I was able to recognize it.  Tells you that there really is something to all this.  Real proof of it!  I know its true what I felt, and I know that what I am doing is what the Lord wants.  This work is true.
    I hope you all have a good month, be safe, and I love you all.