Elder Taylor Hummel: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hey Everyone,

Christmas down here as you would imagine is different. They had a lot of fireworks and it was like the 4th of July, so I am wondering how big of a celebration it will be for New Years haha. Thank you everyone for writing me. I love having emails and seeing what is going on and also I love pictures so send more of those, even just random ones!

This Sunday was a little disappointing because we had invited 33 people to church and they had all promised to come but we only had 4 there. One of the investigators there though was a little boy who is only like 12 and he walked 20 minutes just to come to church! His name is Bryan and he is a stud! Also some of you asked about Elder Nix. He was probably my best friend I had out here. But it's okay, things will get better and I will just have to work harder to find his people too.

Thank you everyone for the gifts and all the fun stuff that was sent. I have almost eaten all the candy already. Some I am saving for a day when I feel like I need it! I am sorry it is so expensive to send boxes down here. Mom and Bree you both should talk and maybe send the packages together to save some money...I think it would save some but I don't know. Christmas was good! We got to call home, then we went and ate at some members houses. One house is a member named Geronimo and they fed us tamales. I am sending pictures of those. Then as soon as we got done there, we went and ate at the Stake President's house, President Perdido. They fed us soup with chicken and I, being the lucky guy I am, got the chicken foot. YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT...THE FOOT! ha It was an interesting experience.

Also a little annoying this week was we had set up 8 baptisms and the people needed to come to church because they have to come for 3 weeks before they can be baptized. Not a single one came so it kind of bugged and ruined the day. We didn't really have that great of a Sunday because of that, but we are starting over and trying to get people to come to church so they can be baptized. They said my area is hard because no one wants to come to church and now I know what they mean. But I will just have to work even harder to get them to come.

Yesterday marked my 2-month mark in the mission. It is kinda weird to think I have been gone that long. I still remember the day I left and all that. I feel like it was just yesterday. Now I know what they mean when they say time flies. I still feel like I am never going to be able to learn Spanish though, but I will just have to work harder and keep my head up. Oh yeah, and you all better be praying for me!

We have been eating at President Perdido's house a lot lately, and it is really good, so we haven't been having to eat only ramen haha. Also I found out it is good to make a PB&J on tortillas, just so you all know. Also I tried star fruit the other day. It was amazing! I loved it. Also I ate a yellow lime...no it was not a lemon. The yellow lime is really sweet and delicious, I actually loved it.

Another cool thing was we had a zone P-day together where all the zone got together and we played soccer and watched "The Testaments". It was so great! Also yesterday I got to give Elder Diaz a blessing of comfort and it was so cool to feel the Spirit as I gave it.

I want to thank everyone for the wonderful examples they have been in my life and for all the things that have been done for me. I honestly could not have made it out here without you all!

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Hummel

PS: the pictures are of the house, Christmas tree, the area in front of the house, how I clean my garments, the road we walk down to go to other towns and hitchhike on, a drawn out map of our towns in our area, our desk, my foot, the jammies Bree sent me, tamales, our shower and just a cool picture I saw haha. Love you all!