Last day of 2007...!

Taylor Family and Friends,
So it´s the last day of the year...how cool is that?! I´m pretty excited. I expect you to all behave yourselves well tonight and watch the ball drop for me! I think this will be one of the first times where I won´t watch the ball drop...weird. But it´s all good. I think the four of us are just going to hang out at home tonight. We have permission to go and chill with a member until 12:30, but I think we´re just going to kick it at home. We´re going to make that banana cream pie and whatever else we can find to whip up. :o) For my birthday/Christmas present to me, I bought a blender; it was/is a very good investment. Fruit is really cheap, and a fruity milkshake or smoothie really helps to cool down during afternoon studies!Anyways, talked to the family on Tuesday; that was fun. Mary-Anne said I sounded WAY different, why is that? I don´t think that I sound that different, but I guess I can´t really notice the difference. Why do I sound so different? Mary-Anne asked if it was weird to talk to you all on Christmas. That´s a tough question. It´s not weird, it was just difficult to know what to talk about. My first call, in May, it was easy, because I just had to talk about the country, culture, people, work, etc. but now you guys know what it is I´m doing, how I´m doing, and all that jazz. It kind of felt just like my weekly email, but instead of typing, talking. Elder Maughan and I both felt the same way; Elder Maughan goes home the week after Mother´s Day, so he has one call left. But it was the first call for Elder Larsen and Elder Roxas, so it was fun to see how excited they were and to see how much they just talked and talked. So yeah, not weird, just different. It was a lot of fun to hear everyone´s voice, though. I´m glad to hear that you guys had a fun week. Christmas is just a lot different here in the ´Guay. They don´t put as much emphasis on it as we do in the States. New Year and El Día de Los Reyes, which is January 6th, are a lot bigger. The Day of the Kings(?) is basically like our Christmas, but instead of waiting for Santa Clause, they are waiting for the Three Wise Men. Kinda different, but fun anyways. Had a cool experience this last week. We received a reference from one of our investigators, Daniela. She told us to go and visit her daughter, Laura, and her boyfriend/husband, Juan. She knew the name of the streets that make the corner, but she didn´t know the number of the house. So we decided to go and try and find the house. As we turned on to one of the streets, we passed a younger guy, and the thought came to my head, "That´s Juan." But I didn´t stop him to ask or anything; instead, we just went to the neighbor and knocked. When the lady came out, I asked her if she knew a young couple named Juan and Laura; she said she had lived in that house for years, and she didn´t know them. She told us to go and ask at the neighborhood almacén, because they would probly know. We thanked her for her help and left. But instead of going to the almacén, we walked over to the house where I had seen the man go inside. I had previously made the comment to Elder Larsen that I thought it was him. We knocked, and the guy came to the door. We told him we were looking for Juan and Laura, and he asked why. I told him that Laura´s mother had told us to pass by and such. He told us to wait for just a second, went inside to ask his wife, and then let us in. They are a young couple with a daughter of about a 1 and a half. A while ago they were studying with the Jehovah´s Witnesses, but they stopped because...well, because. They asked us a bunch of questions about what it is that we believe and the Church in general. It was a sweet "charla." We shared a part of the proclamation of the family with them and they were very interested in learning more. We have a return appointment for later this week. When we at first don´t pay attention to the whisperings of the Spirit, don´t be scared to correct that decision and do it...NOW. Haha. That was a very good lesson for me. Anyways, I hope you all have a Happy New Year! I´m excited to set some sweet New Year´s resolutions and even more excited to put them in practice. I hope you all feel the same. :o) As they say here... "¡Que terminen el año bien y que lo empiecen mejor!" I would love to hear how all of you are doing, and your activities during this holiday season.
Take care!
Elder Taylor