December 15th

So the house is moving forward which is really important and I am glad that Mom knows exactly what to put into my kitchen. Frankly, I don´t mind that I will come home to a different ward because, in all honesty, the other ward really wasn´t "my ward" anyway (just don´t let them read that line). Also thanks for the Top Chef updates, I will definitely have to catch up on it when I get home. 

. One thing I have learned as a missionary is that everyone has thier agency and no matter how much you want them to make the right choice, you can´t make them do anything they aren´t willing to do.

Also about the packages in the mail for me... I LOVE PACKAGES!!!! They are the heroine or crack cocaine for missionaries. I am very excited to get them but like every sort of drug, so please send in moderation (please keep sending but... oh you know what I mean). Also, let me know when my packages gets to yall. Like I said, I sent it from here in San Clemente last week and because of the size of the post office and the fact that that package may have been the first internation package sent from there in a number of years; confirmation that you recieved it would be greatly appreciated. 

So to answer Mom´s question about people just leaving town during the summer. Yes, San Clemente suffers this problem. Although San Clemente is actually a fairly decent size (about the size of 19000 people, maybe a little smaller. it is hard to tell because the population count includes all the pueblitos all the way to Argentina which are all still a part of my area and under the jurisdiction of San Clemente) the population plumets this time of year. It will be even worse after Christmas but, already, there is a significant portion of the population knows me quite well. The work has been going really well here. We are hoping to have 3 baptisms the day after Christmas which would rock. We also had a mission conference this week were we had a Christmas activity and we all got presents from President and Sister Humphrey. Other than that, I have no new news to report. 

Love y´all and I pray that all goes well for you.

Elder McNeil