Letter #17 12/29/14

Hello, hello! This Christmas week has been magical, and I am SO grateful. Let's get down to business, because I spent half the time of my life emailing my teacher from the ccm.. #stillcan'tspeakspanish

Welp, the first thing I remember about this week was the Mission Christmas Conference that we had on Tuesday.. WHOA. It was quite literally the most incredible thing I've ever experienced. As we all know, I've been struggling a bit as of late, but every time I would go to The Lord in prayer about it He would just remind me to look to the Christmas Devotional.. and I am SO GLAD I did. It was every answer I needed. There was a bunch of music (I accompanied the girls in my district singing a super beautiful song one of their mom's wrote..) and many a talk about the Savior. Each person focused on one of the Christlike attributes and it was remarkable. The reason we strive to be perfectly obedient in the mission is because Jesus Christ was perfectly obedient. All of the things we are asked to do in life are things that He has shown us. He really is our PERFECT example and I'm so grateful to have Him to look to. I just want to become like Him here on the mish.

So basically, I was just on this crazy super spiritual high of the world, and it was magical. And as we always do when we get together, we sang the efy medley as a mission. Talk about tears! We really ARE bringing the world His truth. I get so stoked just thinking about it. 

OH! And miracle of the week, on Monday we were emailing at the library when we met this girl named Nikkia. She's just recently graduated from high school and said we could come over and see her on Tuesday. We got home too late from the Christmas Meeting to be able to meet with her, so on Wednesday we decided to go to Hardee's (her place of work) and set up another appointment with her. She said we could come over and see her when she got off at 1:00, so we were like, "awesome!" and went on our merry way. When we go to her home, we are met with her mom at the door.. she wasn't too happy that we were there on Christmas Eve and Nikkia wasn't home and basically told us to get out. Haha, sooo.. we were wondering what we should do when Hermana Clark said that we should knock the next house in their little foresty neighborhood.. So, we did just that. A lady named Nancy opens the door, we tell her who we are and she stops us right there. Basically, long story short one of our cute investigators, Lisa Jones (she feeds us all the time and gives us presents and even if she didn't do that we'd still love her so much) was her daughters best friend all growing up. Her daughter actually died of cancer 10 years ago, while she was engaged to Lisa's current husband Brian. She was pregnant too, and after she died Brian married her best friend Lisa, and they had a daughter. Nancy babysits their daughter, Torrey, and she's just like her grandchild. ANYWAYS, she let us in and we already had a good relationship because Lisa has told her all about us. She has TONS of questions about the plan of salvation, and nothing she ever learned in any of the churches she attended made complete sense.. She didn't have much time, but we went back to teach her yesterday and she is golden! GOLDEN. Haha, she is super prepared and her questions are so on point with the doctorine found in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. She's never been baptized, and I just love her so much. We're really familiar to each other, which is neat. I'm excited to see her progress and learn more! But that was our Christmas Eve miracle. 

It was the best Christmas present ever getting to facetime with my girl! 

Also, on Christmas we specifically prayed to find a miracle human to teach.. as we were leaving the home of The Thompson family, I spotted this guy outside his house and felt like we should go back and sing to him. He basically cried as we sang  and immediately invited us to his family Christmas party later that day. It was a wonderful experience, and there we met his wife's mother. She is 95, blind and loves Jesus SO much. After we had held her hand and kept her company for quite some time, we told her that we were from Utah, and she answered with," oooohhh.. that's not a Christian country is it". We told her that it's actually a state within the US, and that it's really very Christian. She has read things her whole life about the church and was convinced that we were not Christian. We got to resolve her misunderstanding, and teach her something that she never would have learned in her lifetime without us. It was a beautiful experience to be able to help her understand more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and I would like to think that will eventually help her as she gets another opportunity to be taught in the next life. #plantingseedsforsowingintheSpiritWorld

We got to celebrate the holiday with a few really wonderful families in the branch, and I am so grateful to be here. Transfers are coming in a few weeks, and I am already getting severe anxiety, but if I've learned anything in my time in VA, it's that the Lord KNOWS what He's doing. He knows if I'm still needed here or elsewhere. I love this little crazy branch called Burkeville. I love eating deer and saying y'all. I love being able to talk to EVERYONE. I love The Lord and God's greatest gift in sending Him to earth. I love the atonement and the opportunity we have to follow him more closely and be better every single day.

And.. I LOVE YOU! <3 Que Dios les bendiga!

Odd's and End's

- I think I hit an emotional high watching "Mr Kruger's Christmas" on Christmas Eve.. WHO NEW THAT SUCH A MOVIE EVEN EXISTED. Now i'm constantly plagued with the worry that there's some sad old man in some random basement somewhere that needs our help and love. I don't wanna miss him! 

- I can't remember anything odd or end-y from this week.. YIKEZ. Have a good one, regardless!