Closer to Christmas

This week was a weird one. We went and sang as a district in every area. every night at 6 we went to a different area of our mission and sang Christmas hymns to different members or investigators in our area. I loved it, people felt the Spirit. When the district came to our area to sing we went to the house of a less- active member. After we sang to him he was in tears. I know that the Spirit can penetrate the hardest of hearts, that all we need to do is be patient. and if we have the Spirit with us, people will change for the better.
The closer we get to Christmas, the harder it is for me. Don´t you worry, i´m not to the point where i am making myself sad because i miss you so much. I will never be at that point because of what Elder Ortiz told me. If we are disheartened(not sure if that´s even a word. my English is getting worse) for more than two minutes than we allow Satan to get a hold of us, to affect us in ways that impede us from helping others. He told me that when something "bad"happens we can be sad for a few moments and then in those 2 minutes we need to start thinking of a solution. Basically for me that means i have to pray and pray hard. Here in the mission i pray with more sincerity than i ever have before. i can´t tell you many times my prayers have been answered.
I worry about you all sometimes. Every so often i will hear news from the states. people will tell me little parts of some horror story that happened in the states and i have to stop and pray to be comforted because in all reality i have no clue what is going on in the world. i´m glad to hear that you are all safe and sound and that you are preparing to celebrate the birth of the most important person ever to walk on the earth.
Just wanted to share some experiences. Yesterday Francisco came to church. he is a recent convert who because of his work can only attend sacrament every other week. the talks ran a little short yesterday so the bishopric had to scramble to make complete the time. Guess who they asked to bear their testimony. none other than Francisco! I have never felt so happy. His testimony was simple but powerful. it brought me so much joy to listen to what he had to say. Later that same day he received the priesthood. He is going to be a powerful member of the church.
In fact i have awesome news! I´m going to go to the temple! We don´t have a temple in our mission here in Leon but we got permission to go out of the mission to the temple with...(drum-roll)... Francisco and Antonio!!! Can you believe it? they are going to do baptisms for the dead. how awesome! It will be the first time i got through the temple in Spanish. It may be the only time just because leaving the mission for anything is rare. We leave the 5 of Enero...

More good news. We have Three new investigators(silvia, carmen, and diego) Silvia the cousin of the Lagunas, carmen, and Diego (one of the friends of our president of the elders quorum). And Geraldo finally has a baptismal date! the 30th of December! Thank you for your prayers. they are definitely being answered.
I love you and can´t wait to see you (on Skype)soon =)

Elder Ben Williams

PS Please pray for the youth of our ward. we are going to have an activity with them and we need it to turn out well.
Pray for Geraldo.
Pray for Hermano Rico that he will come to church.
Thank the Lord for your blessings.
Keep reading the scriptures.
Pray for all the missionaries in this mission and ask the lord to help them.
Pps. i will write you back soon sam steph sadie and josh
ppps i love the pictures you send me. please send more!