Dec. 9

Hello! This week we had a lot going on. Some really great moments though. Let's see.. on Monday we went bowling for a Zone Activity. That was super fun. It was strange though because they were playing really loud hip hop music the whole time.. weird. But it was fun anyways. 

On Tuesday, we went on exchanges with the Newton Sisters. I went with a new Sister I have never gone before. She was doing good, but she's really shy and I tried to help her learn to talk with people. But it was really good for her to be in her own area for the day, to be "in charge" for a while. It helped her step up and she did wonderfully. After exchanges, we had dinner with the Elders and one of our favorite member families. And after that we were going to see someone, it fell through, and I felt like we should go street contacting in this apartment complex. Even though it was super dark and cold and nobody was out. BUT we met this lady named Amy who we had a great conversation with! She "has her church" ( I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard that. Seriously), but she just had a hard day and needed someone to talk to and we helped her out and now we are friends with her on Facebook and hopefully we'll be able to keep in contact with her! 

On Wednesday, we had district Meeting, took pictures by the Christmas tree at the church, and went to lunch at Wendy's. So fun. We did some more street contacting in the cold rain. After Coordination, we saw Bradley and his family. They are doing great! They are wonderful. Bradley is having mouth surgery this weekend, and so their family wasn't able to come to church, but they did set a date for his baptism on the 22nd! Yay! He is the funniest little kid. And his family is so sweet. We love them. 

Thursday we had our shift being hosts at the "Nativity Festival." It was so neat. All weekend, the church was filled with hundreds of nativities. it was an open house from 10am- 9 pm. Lots of people brought friends and neighbors, and it was the best.We were just helping being ushers and meeting people. We met this lady ( who unfortunately doesn't live in our boundaries..) who had 3 adopted kids from Uganda! So neat! So obviously we talked about Uganda with them. :) Then Paula picked us up and Gladys, we went up to the church for her Baptismal Interview. She did wonderfully. Then we took Gladys and her fellow-shipper, Paula to the festival. We went to the dress up corner (that was mostly for kids, but we went, obviously) and dressed up as the nativity. It was one of the funniest moments of my life. I was Joseph, Paula was an angel, and Gladys was Mary, and Sister Chandler was a cow. Ha we were laughing hysterically. We sang "silent night" and Paula and Gladys were singing seriously, and Sister Chandler and I were just dying laughing. Just imagine, funny old ladies and two Sister Missionaries dressed up as the nativity. I took a super funny video, I'll try to email it to you. I will remember that moment for a long time. :) Thursday Night we did our weekly planning, which we usually do Thursday morning, but we did it at night because our shift at the festival was in the morning. 

Friday we traveled to Charlotte for Missionary Leadership Council. It was fantastic. We learned so much from President and Sister Craven and the Assistants. We were also there all day, from 9-3. But it is always such a great meeting. Call me weird, but meetings are one of my favorite parts of the mission. Then we traveled to North Wilksboro, to go on exchanges with them. I was here in Huntersville with Sister Mena. She's amazing. Love her. We went to dinner with a Sister in our ward who made us home made Cafe Rio. It made my LIFE it was so good :) Then afterwards, we saw this cute less active (only because they have to work on Sundays) couple who moved into the Ward. They are from Burma, don't' speak much English, but they are the kindest people. They were actually in the Mountain Island ward when I was there, so I knew them before and they just moved here into our boundaries! Sweet! Saturday, we contacted a few referrals we got from a random guy, invited a few people to the festival, and then drove back to North Wilksboro (1.5 hours away, 1 way) and drove back and went straight to Gladys' baptism at 4:30! It was so sweet. Best baptismal service ever. She was so excited. She's the happiest person. The Ward loves her. When she came up out of the water, she was saying "Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!, Thank you Jesus!" But respectfully, and she really meant it. It made everyone smile :) Then we went to the Nativity Festival with our neighbor, Sandra. (remember the one we  spent Halloween with). She's a nice lady and she LOVES us. She is a "devout catholic", so not really interested in learning about the gospel, but she LOVES us and thinks we are the best neighbors ever, so we took her to the festival and she loved it. It was really neat to feel the spirit there. Then she took us to the best ice cream place in town after, and it was so good :) 

Yesterday was Gladys's confirmation. Another great experience. She was blessed that she would be an example to her family, who will someday be receptive to the gospel! We are hoping her daughter and granddaughter join the church someday!! Then we ate with another one of our favorite member families for dinner, it was so good. And we made gingerbread houses after. And then we went to our recent converts (remember Mary who got baptized back in June? the 75 year old lady?) We went to her house to watch the Devotional. We got curled up in blankets and had hot chocolate. :) It was fun :) Really got us into the Christmas spirit. 

Needless to say, we didn't get much time to find new investigators this week, so our "escalator" isn't as full as we'd like it. It was a crazy busy week, between 3 days at the nativity festival, 2 exchanges, Missionary Leadership Council, District meeting, a baptism, and the devotional. But I wouldn't trade it for anything :)  

We are OFFICIALLY OFFICIALLY getting Ipads on Tuesday. People from Salt Lake are coming to train us.