December 2

Wow! I can't believe it's December already! I LOVE the Christmas season and I am so excited. I love seeing all of the Christmas decorations going up. 

This week was wonderful. We had a really great lesson with a Less Active and her non-member husband on Monday night. Honestly, it was freezing cold and raining so we were glad she let us inside. She is not usually home. But we had a wonderful lesson with her, and her husband is a non-practicing jew. Really not religious much at all. So we taught him about the first principle, in the first lesson, about how God is our loving Heavenly Father. They are really great, but they are out of town a lot, and moving soon. :( To Tennessee. But I'm sure the missionaries there can continue teaching them :) 

For Thanksgiving.. we ate at the MacDonald Family's house (Not at MacDonalds, don't worry!) and they cooked a wonderful meal and had some families from another ward over. It was a great time. I felt fine, it just felt like another day to me! Get back to work! They ate in the afternoon and we went out street contacting some of the day, and then when it got dark we went to the black friday lines and handed out invitations to a nativity festival! It was so fun! We even asked the cops there if we could do it and they said "Are you selling anything?" We said.. "NO!". Seemed like they wanted to say no we couldn't do it, but they couldn't think of a reason why and our faces were just so cute and happy they said "Good luck." It was fun to go out to Target and other lines and invite people to the Nativity festival. It was COLD though, it's getting COLD at nights here! 

 

One day this week.. it was super cold and raining and we didn't have any appointments all day. So we were just.. walking around street contacting and tracting in the pouring rain and the rain soaked through my boots and my socks and shoes were wet. Ha ha. Sister Chandler was very nice to put up with my attitude that matched the rain. But she's so happy and she made me laugh. We work well together. 

On Saturday we had a wonderful meeting! We had a "Sisters Only!" training. All of the Sisters in the mission got together and President and Sister Craven and their Daughter (who is married with kids but in town visiting for a few weeks) gave us a training. Sister Craven trained on Modesty. President Craven trained on how the Priesthood and womanhood work together and should compliment one another, and I learned a lot. There is still a lot I need to learn about the Priesthood. Our mission President is very much a gospel scholar, he reminds me of Dad in that way :) I thought of how neat it'd be if I get to travel to visit Mom and Dad as mission presidents somewhere one day. It's going to happen, Dad. You would be an incredible mission president :) Mom, you would be a wonderful support! Their Daughter went to Australia on her mission a few years ago and shared some experiences and told us how the mission has blessed her life. She talked about the "Three painful moments" when you get on the plane, when you get released, and when you wake up the morning after you get home and can't put your nametag back on. She said when your done, you'll get down on your knees and review your mission with the Lord and he'll either say "Well done" or "You wasted my time". Pretty intense. She also talked about  the 3 C's, "Criticizing, Comparing, and Complaining" and how and why we have no right to do any of those. It was a wonderful meeting, and I learned a lot.

We were supposed to go on exchanges this week.. but the Sisters got sick, so we did an "exchange from a distance" and called them on the phone throughout the day. 

Gladys is doing great. So.. turns out she has diabetes, and she was too sweet to tell us last week at church that she needed to eat (Sorry Dave I should have known) but.. she stayed for 3 hours of church, and 1 hour of Choir afterwards. And.. on Mondayshe went to the Hospital because her sugars were off! Whoops!! She recovered though, and now she's fine. We just need to make sure she is going to eat at church. Ha! But she is doing great, came to church this week. She even bore her testimony at sacrament meeting this Sunday. She didn't use the microphone like everyone else though, she just stood up where she was at. She did great though, bore her testimony of how grateful she was to meet us and how she loves the Book of Mormon. The Elders in our ward also brought two investigators, and one of them bore their testimony. It was wonderful and the spirit was very strong! I also bore mine, because there is another transfer before next Fast Sunday and thanked the Ward for all I have learned from them. They have truly touched my life so much. 

One of the Elders in our ward I know pretty well, all 4 of us actually came out on the same transfer. One was my MTC District Leader. They are going through a hard time, one of their father's passed away of lung cancer this week. He is such an incredible example of me of faith and strength. Hardly any missionaries or members know, and he has decided to stay on his mission. It's really tough to see him struggle but he has a wonderful companion, and they help each other. They know the Plan of Salvation is real. 

P.S Sister Chandler and I have been working out extra (during our breakfast hour) in the mornings. We both decided we want to be fit when we get home, and we are going to start now! It's fun we get to go home together. She has a fiancee though, that's weird. . When she gets off the plane, he'll be there.