Elder William Cannon Hogan: A great suggestion on making goals this year, from Willy

Ciao!

I hope everyone had the best Christmas ever!

I made chocolate chip cookies

Anziano Beaulac and I had a super good Christmas. We woke up and opened the presents we had gotten each other and then we blasted Christmas music and made doughnuts. I don't think I have ever listened to more Christmas music in my life but I loved it.

Christmas Morning

We then went over to the Aliberti's house from Christmas lunch which was seriously amazing. I got to skype HOME!! and then we went to our Branch President's house to eat some pasta and watch FROZEN!! It truly was a successful Christmas as a missionary. The weeks leading up to Christmas have been full of teaching as many people as possible about the true meaning of Christmas which made this one of the most special Christmases I've ever experienced. There are lots of nativity scenes and things about Christ here which made me super happy to see. Being a missionary is awesome!
Church on Sunday was crazy because I had to translate all 3 hours so I was crazy stressed but it was pretty fun and great practice.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Tuesday was another day of miracles! When we were finding people to teach in the park near our house, we met a man named Alessandro! I totally felt inspired to ask him a question and he immediately denied us and said no, not to mention his huge German Shepard staring at us. My initial reaction was to keep walking and say buon giornata ( have a good day), But Anziano Beaulac and I felt like we should continue to talk to him. As we were persistent in talking to him he completely opened up to us and had us sit down next to him. I was seriously amazed! As we continued to speak to him, the annoyed look on his faced turned into a smile. In the end of it all he asked us when we can meet again! We are planning to see him this Sunday!

This bike has my name on it! ha ha!

From this single experience I learned that many people need the gospel in their lives, they just don't know it yet until they hear it and feel the spirit. This is why I can't judge people and say "Oh they are smoking and have a 1 foot long beard and tattoos everywhere so he probably won't be interested" but sure enough, that guy is actually the guy that is willing to listen ( this really happened to me). So I've learned to talk to literally anyone no matter how scary or annoyed they look.

Right after this experience, one of our referrals emailed us and asked us when we can come over and teach them! We were seriously so excited because all the online referrals we have been getting haven't really been successful at all.

Yesterday, Anziano Beaulac and I also took a bus out into this city we have never been to find this man because we knew the man who contacted us his lost phone. Well, we had no idea where to go but we truly were led by the spirit because we got there and never were we lost. A man named Godwin from Nigeria walked with us and we were able to find the man's brother! Godwin wants us to bring him to church and also wanted us to drive a bus to the camp(where most Nigerians live) and pick up a bunch of them and bring them to church this Sunday. So that's in our list of things to do ha ha.

I can't believe the new year is already here! In district meeting we talked about how we shouldn't make some big new years goal (unless its good and realistic), instead we should make effective goals each day, week, and month and get ourselves actively involved in good things!

Well, many great things have been happening for us. We are having a baptism next weekend Jan 9th for our investigator Vihceslav!!! Seriously so happy. And we have another one for our French investigator Gerard the week after!

I had a super cool experience with Garard last week. I was able to bear my testimony to him in French which was one of the coolest things ever! It's always Anz. Beaulac who teaches him because he speaks French. I was pretty scared because I haven't spoken very much French since High School but I said what I wanted and it felt so good and the spirit was so strong.

Well things are great! Of course there are hard days but I know the good outweighs the bad by a lot. We are having tons of fun. The language for me is getting better and better each week! I am definitely learning how to make some gooood foods which I'm so happy about. I am so happy to be here!