December has arrived!

Hey everybody we are in December now!! Isn´t that crazy!!! Time is flying in the mission! It is near Christmas time and all around Gandía there are Christmas decorations (pictures coming soon).

But this past week has been a pretty average one. My companion Elder Stolk was really sick for a few days so we stayed at home and I just cleaned around a lot and made sure the piso (flat) was nice and fresh for when he got better. 

But near the end of the week, the ward (and the stake in general) was sent to be volunteers for Bancos de Alimentos (Food Bank) to ask people to donate food to the needy for Christmas. Elder Stolk and I went to “masymas”, a chain they have here, and sadly, there were not a lot of people. But we found the truth that you can never tell who is willing to help. We talked to everybody that walked in and there were people who wanted to donate a lot and some who could only donate a bag of rice, but anything can mean everything to somebody :) We were shocked because there were people who didn´t seem like they would donate anything but yet when they came up to us, they brought us some donations with a smile on their face. You can just never tell who has a good heart just by what is on the outside. 

Volunteering for the Food Bank

 And well, one funny story, we were eating at María Flores house, the first convert in Gandía in 1979 and still fully active. We were talking and she tells my companion. "Élder Stolk, tu eres muy simpático, pero feo, pero porque eres simpático, eres más guapo". So she called my companion ugly, but because he is nice, that makes him more handsome. I just died laughing in that moment as well as the other members that were at the table. 

Well, that is about it from Gandía this week. Christmas is coming up, it is a good time to remember out Savior and to know why he was born on this earth. I know that my Savior still lives. We will see you next week.

Elder Sadler 

The view from our balcony

 

Our apartment