Tres Mil Papas (Three Thousand Potatoes): Week 16 "Wh-wh-wh-whaaaaatt???" December 21 - December 27

It was a wonderful Christmas for Elder Babbel and the Babbel family. What fun it was to have a Skype conversation with him. He told us about eating cuy (Guinea Pig - a Peruvian delicacy). If you follow the link you will see what you have been missing. He said it tastes like very soft chicken but just looks really gross. We were able to see a little bit of the neighborhood he lives in. We were also able to visit with his companion Elder Salinas. It was great to see how excited he is and also how happy he is. It was very hard to end that Skype session and there were a few tears... but we did get an email a few days later and here it is

Hey everybody! :) So this past week was super great! I got to see my mama :) And we also had the opportunity to teach a less-active family to the point that they aren't less-active anymore! Super awesome! They are all coming to church on their own now (apart from the father in the family), and they are just so fantastic :)

Soooo..as you may know.. Christmas happened. ¡Wut wut! And it was just an awesome time to experience it here in Cajamarca. Seriously, it was just crazy. So I don't know how it works with everyone back there in the states, but here, everyone stays up till like 5 in the morning on Christmas Eve into Christmas. It's locaso jaja. But yeah, they all eat dinner at 12am and then party it up afterwards....but being missionaries we had to be in our rooms by 9:30 jaja. But we had a big party with just the missionaries in our zone, and it was way cool :) We ate turkey and salad and mashed potatoes and it felt like home. Then we had a secret santa, and I got this way sweet tie! One tag says it's from Italy and the other says China. I'm going with Italy :) Oh yeah! I also tried cuy for the first time and it was way good! Look that up if you don't know what it is jaja. Super fun Christmas Eve. Then I got to skype the fam which was probably the most bitter sweet moment of my life.. Super hard to hang up after only an hour. But yeah, back to work :)

Also, more about the family. So this is the family that we promised the mother that if she came to church, she would find work, and then a week after she came to church, she found work :) They (everyone except the father) have come to church 5 weeks in a row now, and so now they're active members again! We are still working with the father, and he is so cool. He's seriously such a stellar guy, and wants to come back to church, but is just having some problems right now, but are definitely not losing hope. The thing that everything needs to do to be truly converted to Christ, is recognize the Spirit. Recognize that you're feeling something pure and heaven-sent, and then act on it. The gospel is so simple, and that's why it's so great. So that's my challenge..learn how to recognize the Spirit and then figure out what you need to do to feel it again. (Here's a helfpul hint Galatians 5:22-23 :)

I love you all! ¡Feliz Navidad! And a Happy New Year (Prospero Año en Felizidad jaja)