Feliz Navidad From Elder K

hey,
> so its not fair that you can make me cry at your whim. just wanted to get that out. =) so got a cool Christmas story that i want to share BUT got to explain something 1st. so at home Christmas is a time for families, movies, friends, and for a select few partying. here is the exact opposite....right down to the weather =) so here the people drink and party ALL DAY , and all night for that matter, and do everything and do everything that is associated with drinking. and when i say everyone i mean EVERYONE down to 4 yr olds drinking and grinding to the beat of the music. ok so even with out knowing all this the story is cool but with it-its nigh impossible to believe: so we have this 17yr old girl we have been teaching, has family in our ward so one would think it wouldn't be that bad. but she runs a small business where she does nails and her parents sell beer. of course she has a boyfriend and that which that implies. so we taught her about the Word of Wisdom a few days before the 25th and she understood, even asked the question " so its a process right?" we gave her 2 NE 28:8-9 to read , I think that's the right one, and she said she wouldn't drink. We went by on Christmas to try to teach (only taught 1 lesson that day, everyone wanted to feed us but not the best idea to eat the food...sad, very sad) her and her aunt. the aunt and uncle weren't there but she was. Check this, WITH A GATORADE IN HAND!! yeah!! she told us that she hadn't had anything to drink all day, and from the looks of the other people around i could tell she was being truthful. (they all looked at her like she was crazy for not drinking.) most of the day wasn't too great but talking with you guys and getting to see that made it all worth it.
OK,other funny thing, so our washer drains constantly if you forget to take the coins out of the pockets. so we took one out and put everything back or thought we did, and then we went and tried to wash some stuff. It started to leak. so i went and grabbed a piece of hose that was just laying around and siphened the water into a bucket-barrel-thingy.Then I hear in the words of Elder Greyson "DUDE Elder Ritter come here man, Elder K just did some magic trick with the water man!" i showed them ( the Zone Leaders) and they were like little kids for the rest of the day, using it to do everything. but on the plus side we now always have water pressure to wash dishes, never have to take true bucket showers anymore, and can rinse our clothes with out getting wet.
> ok other way awesome experience. so we have this one investigater, 25ish word of wisdom and chastity problems but has had good witnesses from the Spirit. She just doesn't want to do anything about it. (She doesn't want to make the committment to get baptized or to change her life ) We went to teach her about something i cant remember what because when Elder Cruz asked her if she had read she told us no, (3 weeks it took for her to read 1 chapter, and yes i know about the whole progression thing, but this girl was not even trying) she was at a members house when we went to check up on them because all of our appointments fell thru. It was the 26th and everyone was still hung over) so elder cruz my comp went and started to go off and tried to do it in a good way but, well he has had to deal with her for a while. So after about 5 mins he just turns to me and asks if i want to say anything. I have her open to D&C 122 and read it. i explained that Joseph smith went thru all of this for her, for me, for everyone because of what the book of mormon will do IF you will let it. I went thru and gave a super powerful testimony of it and what it has done in my life, Dad, Mom, how i know i will see kara and Michelle again because of it, and the love and peace she CAN have IF she chooses to take it. I LOVE THE SCRIPTUERS!!!! soooo awesomely amazingly perfect!
> but so yeah, the past couple of days were as crappy as the experiences were amazing.
> love you guys, a lot alot alot and know you love me, yes rene you know even you love me. =) and just so you know every time i read a letter or when i talked to you felt like you guys are SOO much more spiritual than me. but that's ok. hopefully i will grow a little, spiritually speaking but wouldn't mind physically too, hehehe.
>
> a mi Familia eterna (eso es todo de ustedes) ((to my eternal family and that means ALL of you))
> Elder Kekoolani.