Thanksgiving and Birthday!

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did. It was a good

week overall. It was a little tough on lessons because almost

everybody went out of town, but it's okay! We still kept busy like we

always do.

So, for the entire week were helping out this family who have been

investigators to the church for years. They were moving out today and

they needed so much stuff done last week. We helped take down a $7000

playground set, moved out boxes and boxes in the garage, and took out

a lot of furniture. We were so grateful to help out the Kings, almost

every day last week for a few hours. But it finally got done and they

were so relieved and so happy about all the things we were able to

move out. It's always so great to give service like that, because

seeing people happy and glad stuff gets done is a blessing.

Tuesday, we were able to see the Bramhalls, a really great family in

the ward. Their kids gave us 10 or so bags of candy with turkey

drawings on them. They asked if we can give them to people we see and

we were like "of course!", because who's going to turn down candy from

kids right? We already have passed out a good number of bags already

and got great turnouts from it.

Wednesday, we had District Meeting because we usually have it on

Thursday. We had two new missionaries in the Zone. One of them is the

new District leader, named Elder Chapman,for the other district, and

I'm pretty excited to work with him. The other missionary is Sister

Eckman, which I was pretty glad about. She was a Restoration Site

sister when she came out on her mission. But with the winter, a lot of

the Restoration Site sisters go into the mission to proselyte because

they don't get many visitors at that time. So this is her first area

pretty much! It's cool because we flew on the plane to the mission

together so it was pretty great to have friends like that you serve

around. She asked me to give her a blessing right after District

Meeting which I was more than happy to. It was probably the most

powerful blessing that I have given. I will be honest, it is such a

blessing to hold the Priesthood because you feel so good after using

it to help others, to act in the way the Lord would act. After that we

were able to see a few less actives we never met before which was

pretty nice. We were able to set up a few appointments with them this

week so hopefully I'll be able to talk about it next week!

Thanksgiving!!!!! Wow, it was so much fun. We started off by getting

up at like 5:00 a.m. to drive to Cherry Hill to have a big breakfast

and play in the Turkey Bowl (football) with all the Elders in the

Zone. We were there for probably 4-5 hours just having a great time

playing football. Except one Elder had cleats and the field was really

wet, so all of us were slipping except him. I'll be honest, it's been

a long while since I played any football, but I did pretty decent a

few TD's and a pick! But it was so fun having that quality time with

the other Elders. When we got home, we cleaned up and went right to

visiting as many people as we could. We visited Bishop Poaletti and

his wife, the Walches (two of my favorite people in the ward), David

Garduno, and so many more! It was so fun being able to just go and

visit so many different families and we ended the night having a huge

meal with the Davis Family! Oh my gosh, there was so much food

everywhere we went and the Davis' had the most. What was a downer was

I didn't feel all that well after we left the Davis' at 8. We had a

few more people to visit but my stomach had other plans.... So that

was pretty sad we didn't see 1 or 2 more families. But I was really

glad with all the visits we were able to make.

Friday we helped out with service with the Kings then we went to

Cherry Hill again at the end of the night because I needed to do a

baptismal interview for an investigator who was getting baptized the

next day. His name is Tunde and he is from Ethiopia! He is a

professional soccer player who plays in Europe Leagues. But it's great

to interview these brothers and sisters who are ready to make that

sacred covenant of baptism. They just have a special countenance about

them and you can just tell this is something they truly want. By the

time we were done with the interview, it was too late to drive back

home so we stayed the night with the the Zone Leaders.

The next day we decided to come to Tunde's baptism and it went so

well! Of course it's always so neat to see someone get baptized and to

see the difference in them. After that, we got back and did some more

service and went to Spencer and Rebecca's place for dinner! It was

great to sit down with them because they have all these different

goals they plan on reaching like being sealed in the temple, getting

temple recommends, getting patriarchal blessings, and so much other

stuff! They both already got callings, which I thought was pretty

great. They really are doing well for themselves and I'm going to have

such a party when they get sealed next year wherever I am in the

mission.

Sunday was really great! It happened to be my birthday which I thought

was pretty cool. We also had testimony meeting this week because of

Stake Conference next week. It was the first time having that on my

birthday, a lot of good testimonies were given and the chapel is all

set for the holidays. I also got a pretty nice tie from the Davis',

it's solid teal. Everyone loved it! Sara was so happy when she saw me

in it, it was such a great day. Nothing super different, we just went

out knocking on doors and visited people, but I was glad to see tender

mercies on my birthday.

Well, I just got done taking my first full trip into Philly. The Zone

Leaders showed us around for my birthday! There's really so much you

can do over there, I really do hope I get to serve there at one point.

But now we are getting ready for Christmas! There's a new video on

LDS.org called A Savior is Born. We are planning on showing that to as

many people as we can. But I want you all to know I am grateful for

you and I'm grateful for this mission. I have learned so much about my

Savior Jesus Christ, and I continue to do so. It is my hope and prayer

you all have that chance this holiday season. Have a great week! Oh,

it's below 30 degrees now, no snow yet, but it'll come!

Sincerely,

Elder Cortes

               (Leo with Sara Davis & her husband)