Hugging Christmas #8

December 22, 2014

Hey mom (and those who read this letter) I am going to go through a quick week for what we did, Monday we helped a lady for a few hours setting up her Christmas decorations and she gave us a Christmas tree! (Its the one in the photo I am hugging)- its an awesome tree and the only decoration we have on it is a cheap plastic foam airplane.  After that was all done we went finding for a few hours and met this Afghani father named Aqa with his wife and 3 kids, he got a visa for him and his family to come to the us from a raffle and there were a bunch of neighbors that gave him free stuff and we offered him a TV that one of the members was getting rid of because they got a new one during black Friday.  We then went to the Hartons for dinner and we had some really good food .... I don't even remember what it was, but it was good.

After that we went “finding” some more. Tuesday we had interviews with our mission president President Wilson, he is a super nice and funny and sweet guy, we talked about the progress that we were having in the area and in individual interviews we talked about how I was developing, interesting conversations because I don't even know what has changed yet I know everything has. I feel like people don't know they have truly changed for themselves until they look back at a time that they weren't like that.

It seems that it is the case even with temptations we have that we are tempted to do bad things, its by small and simple things in which great things are brought to pass, the little things in life, like maybe raking someone’s yard or saying hello for being good, or in the instance of bad, lying about a little thing or maybe going a way that you shouldn't have or something like that sort. All that I know is that good things are always better, stronger, and outlast any bad thing that will happen. It reminds me of the quote by a dude named Iroh, "if you look for the light, you shall always be able to find it, but if you look for darkness that is all you will ever see".

view from the car in Virginia 

I’m constantly praying for so many people that they can be looking for and going to the goodness that life has to offer in no matter what situation one may be in We ran into a lady who had that where she was trapped in a very bad place for a long time, stuck in a rut. then she looked for positive things little by little and over a process of a year or two was able to be completely out of the dark places she had been in before, kind of like the growth thing mentioned earlier, you never know how much you have grown (or even progressed) in life until you look back at where you were, and when you take a look back and see the challenges that you have faced and the trials you have accomplished (whether they range from something big, to something very small) you can even look to the future with hope in all that you can accomplish and face in life. The dude we took a pic with is Mr. Christmas.  (oops did not get this photo!) 

Hope all is doing well and sorry I didn't get to talk much about my week but I can feel the thoughts and prayers for while I am out here and my thoughts and prayers go to you all as well.

Jeremy with Elder Hudson, Bryce Forbes cousin! 

Let everyone know I am doing well and feasting upon the words of The Bible, The Book of Mormon, those that I meet and also feasting upon Chinese takeout food and packets of chicken flavored ramen (plus a box of mac and cheese a day because I got 45 packs of them from my mom (really my uncle) which all expire in March, so we had a gathering of Missionaries to help finish off one box of 15 in 2 meals, all 6 of us)