Made sister Maya let me curl her hair, she hadn't had it curled in like 5 years!
Totally forgot to mention our awesome team up Rachel! She is an RM, she served in Japan!
Our tree
Out tracting.
Beautiful sunset... So much for a white Christmas, feels and looks more like spring or fall.
Went to a fancy restaurant with some members, they make the Caesar salad
in front of you and the guy made me "help him". Mostly just let us take
a picture, but it was pretty awkward, way to close for comfort.. Haha.
District meeting :)
Cranberry and Beaver districts after White Elephant :)
Christmas Morning :)
Sister Maya all bundled up.. Good thing it was 60 degrees
This week we actually weren't able to teach a whole lot of people, they either were never home, "about to leave", busy, or just straight up didn't let us share a message, BUT we did get to bring Christmas spirit to a lot of people, doing service, plus Christmas, so is week was awesome!
Unfortunately, Tuesday night I could tell that I was about to get sick, and of course I did. Isn't the flu shot supposed to prevent you from getting the flu or something?! So that put a damper things, but Christmas Eve, which was probably the day I felt to worst, I got a Priesthood Blessing. Faith heals! I have been able to recover really quickly, and just have a little cough now!
So, We had a wonderful week of Christmas, the people who are in this ward are so amazing and made sure that we were well taken care of (probably too much with all the goodies they have sent us home with). we got to go Christmas caroling at a nursing home! It was just so sweet to see the joy that we were able to bring to these people. It touched my heart when Children of some of these residence would come up to us and say a very genuine "thank you", I know that our Heavenly Father loves them, and all of us, and I am grateful to feel a small portion of that love, and to serve these wonderful people! We also had district meeting combined with the Beaver district which was super great! Helped me to remember the importance of the basics, the Book of Mormon and studying out of Preach My Gospel, as well as being wise with our iPads! We also had a White Elephant exchange after! Missionaries can find the most random things in their apartments... I ended up with some batteries. That evening we went to the Fentons for a Christmas Eve dinner, there were like 5 families from the ward, super great Christmas Eve :) Christmas was a pretty chill day, which was nice, and I got to talk to my family! of course it was great to be able to skype home, as ALL 5 of my siblings, their spouses, and their children were able to be there on that call! I am so grateful for them. I know that this is A Christmas I will never, ever forget.
Sunday was of course great as well, there were 2 girls leaving on their missions from the ward, they will be great, but one of them sang Called to Serve and of course I start bawling... I don't know why I keep crying in the middle of sacrament meeting! I swear like besides my siblings picking on me when I was younger I don't cry! Anyways, we also go to teach Relief society which I thought went pretty well, Sister Maya had never taught relief society, and I only have once, but It went pretty well!
Anyways, hope you all have a wonderful week, and that you had a Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year!
️ Anyways,moral of the story, I'm pretty sure I am picking this up. This week especially I have realized that I just start talking and talking and don't even remember what I was trying to say but I got in about 5 other stories without even finishing the first. For example, this email, so long! Sorry! Gotta love the PA ramble. This week we have been making a lot of cards so we could get them done before Christmas. We started delivering a few of them on Sunday while caroling! So much fun and joy! So this week we did a lot of finding without actually finding too many people, BUT a few people actually let us in while tracting! On Thursday we were way ahead of schedule because we had planned to try a bunch of people but nobody was home so we decided to tract. We could have just not, because it was pouring rain, but we felt like we should.. So we heeded the prompting! While tracting on just one little road we were able to get into 2 houses to share the Christmas video! Funny thing was, neither of them actually believed in Jesus Christ! But it was cool to see how they were willing to learn more! One said "I thought the video would be scary... But it wasn't! It was really good!" Gotta love the Christmas spirit! This week the Pitt 4 ward had 5 people getting baptized, a woman and a family of 4. Since we share a church building we were able to go to the baptism! It was so amazing to feel the spirit and to witness these 5 people being baptized! It is such an important promise that we make to our Heavenly Father, in which he promises us that we can return to him, it is a necessary step towards salvation! So this week, I feel like I have been able to recognize a lot more the influence that the spirit truly does have on me every single day, in everything that I do. I know that the our Heavenly Father loves me and though we haven't been able to teach many people this week he has given me strength! I have had so much motivation to do good! To be a better missionary, to be a better person, to follow Christ, to follow the plan that has been set for me, and I am so grateful for the guidance of the spirit in all of that! And though they sound like the cliche answers, I know that this is all possible when I am doing the basic things like studying my scriptures and sincerely praying! So we had a dinner with a member of the bishopric and family. During our conversation Elder Glick (who is going home next week) was talking about how he was giving a talk next week, then Sister Maya chimes in and is talking about how she hasn't had to give a talk yet in this ward, so brother Fenton decides that it would be a good idea to get Sister Maya, me, and Elder Hoyt signed up to give talks because none of us have in this ward. I go on to tell him that February (the month that he is in charge of setting up) would be a good month for Sister Maya to talk if she's still in the area because that's when she will hit her 2 year mark of being a member of the church, well somehow that totally got turned around on me and he texted the member of the bishopric in charge of setting up January telling him that I want to talk... I love sharing the gospel, and I am totally ok with teaching every day, but the whole public speaking is still a rough one.. Yeah well.. More opportunities for me to learn and allow the Lord to give me strength! The spirit of Christmas is real. I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost and the love and comfort that I feel. Sunday at church there was a lot of music and I got to sing in the ward choir, and it was just a wonderful, spirit filled meeting. At the end, for the closing hymn we sang Silent Night. Now this wasn't just any singing of this song, they had a flute, and the organ, and the piano, and to top it all off they had the primary kids go up to sing the first verse, and the rest of us joined in for the rest. I don't think there was a dry eye in that room, including mine! I don't cry! The spirit, and just the pure love of Christ that those kids have is amazing. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to spend 2 Christmas's as a missionary, though it can be hard to be away from family and friends that I love, I wouldn't trade this opportunity for anything. It is such a blessing to always be surrounded by the true meaning of Christmas, our savior Jesus Christ, and to be able to share that with every single person that we see! To see hearts softened, and to be able to serve so many people, I am just so grateful! So... #ASaviorIsBorn CHECK IT OUT if you haven't already!!! It is on Christmas.mormon.org seriously, go watch! And then after, share the video, and the Christmas spirit with others, and help CHRIST be the center of this Christmas season. You could change someone's life! This is the last few days before Christmas, share your testimony of Christ with others! :) And have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!
