Sunblock and the Spirit!

Dec. 26, 2016

Baptism Day

Well, this week last year I was finishing my first month and a half in Mexico. Because I was in the MTC I didn't really get a ton of exposure to the culture and all that was happening.  I do remember feeling very close to all the other people around me who were also spending Christmas away from home. Outside of the walls were tons of fireworks and even more people. 

This year was so cool to see how different cultures spend the holidays. Even though there are not huge differences between Chile and in the states, but there are enough to notice that they are definitely different. In some ways, it is not as commercialized here as in the states which is something that I really like. Instead of presents, more people are worried about the family dinner on the 24th. Just like New Years, everyone stays up until midnight and then right at 12:01 am everyone opens what they have in front of them. If you open up the presents before 12:01 am, they say it is really bad luck for the next year. Another thing that I think we should adopt is on the day of 25th drink hot chocolate and eat pastries all day!! But it would be better for us because it will actually be winter while here it is the middle of summer and just a hot as can be! All and all this Christmas was really fun for me! My favorite part was probably sharing the video called "Light the World"  with all of the people around town and also talking with the family on Christmas day! Oh and we also had a Christmas confirmation too!

quemar el mono

Now we are all getting ready for the New Year and everything that will come after that. A really fun New Year tradition is called quemar el mono, or burn the monkey. What it is, is you make a straw man twin of yourself with old clothes and then at midnight you burn it. It is supposed to represent the old you being left behind to make room for the new you and a better year to come. It is something that I saw a ton of whenever I got here but never really understood the reasoning behind it until a couple months later when I could speak better and understand more. This first week of January, we are going to see Ines and Nelson get married and baptized and hopefully,many more to follow!!

I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas!!

Love,

Elder Brayton