It's been a crazy week and I love it!
First, favorite tradition/memory of the holidays! Another favorite tradition of mine that we would do was on Christmas Eve. Before going to bed and after doing the Nativity, we would all gather around our family room to open up our first gifts! We would each be given one gift and it was always new pajamas for that Christmas! It would be so wonderful to all sit in our spots and wait for our dad to hand out the presents to each of us while many of us were getting very anxious to open the gift as we had to wait until everyone got theirs. But once everyone had theirs, the wrapping paper was all off in seconds. Then we run to go change into our new pajamas and try them on. I'm happy to say that mine fit perfectly every year! Others weren't always so lucky. So they needed to be exchanged for a smaller or bigger size.
This week was fantastic!! We had changes this week and I am now with a new companion, Elder Mendez, in the area, Pantitlan! It was a pretty intense change because first, it came out of nowhere, I wasn't expecting it at all. Second, this new area is very far away from my older one, Tecamac. My area is the furthest south in the mission. Any farther and I would be in a different mission haha. And Tecamac is pretty far up north so it was over an hour and a half drive. But I'm now in Mexico City and closer to the temple! But here is how my Saturday night went, Elder Gonzales and I were waiting in our apartment for any changes (missionaries have to be home earlier when changes and calls are going on) and it was pretty expected that he was leaving to a new area since he had already been in Tecamac for a while, about 6 months. It seemed I was going to stay there for a while so we had planned around this. We talked about investigators and less active that my new companion and I needed to focus on and we had everything figured out. But time passed and eventually it got close to 10pm. If you don't have a call by then, that pretty much means you don't have changes. The whole time I was really nervous to find out if I was going to get a new companion but when it was getting late, we figured that we weren't getting anything new. Elder Gonzales was of course on edge as well and sending messages to our district leader to see what was going on. But nothing. I hadn't changed yet so I was still in my shirt and tie, I was just too nervous haha. But when it got closer to 10, we figured nothing was going to happen. So just as I began to go change, the phone rang in the other room! Elder Gonzales sat up in his bed quicker than ever and we both looked at each other. I motioned for him to answer it so we both go into the room and Elder Gonzales says the usual when answering. Our zone leaders ask how it's going and say they have the changes to deliver. So we break out our notepads to write the new info (new companion and new area if you have it). Both of us were thinking it was only for Elder Gonzales. He gets his change first and our zone leader says, Elder Gonzales, "The Lord has called you to be a district leader in a new area." But I forget the name of his new area. But I'm of course congratulating him and we were about ready to say goodbye to our zone leaders, but then, he says, "Elder Markham, I have your changes now". Then I'm like, oh. He says, "Elder Markham, the Lord has called you to a new area. The new area you will be serving in is Pantitlan." He then gives all the info we need and we say goodbye. But yeah, I wasn't expecting that. But now I'm here and I love the area. It was hard to say goodbye to all the members in Tecamac but I do also love this new area. It's pretty small actually so I'm no longer on bikes! I'll send more about the new area next week! Take care everyone!
-Elder Markham
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