Happy Birthday 2 Me!! (December 13th)

Excerpts from her letter home:

We've had  a crazy/weird week this week. It was really good though!

Tuesday I hit my month mark of being a missionary, a month since I went into the MTC. I couldn't believe the time went by so fast! At district meeting this week we made the goal to find 12 new investigators in 2 weeks! We did service at a thrift store that a couple in the ward own. Besides having a headache, it was a good time. Service is always really fun to do. After that we met with some of my favorite people. I'm not sure if I've mentioned them before but there's a mom 3 kids, D (10), J (11?), (13?). D & J got baptized and are really enthusiastic about the gospel! S seems interested but wasn't ready to get baptized when they did. We think it's because her mom wasn't all for it and they have a really close relationship. We go over there every week and help D with her homework then have a little message. We're hoping S will want to take the discussions and be baptized. She was quite involved in the last lesson we had. We talked about baptism and why Christ was baptized and she said "He was an example to all of us". SO COOL. And she prays with us :) We mentioned "S knows she can get baptized if she wants too" and she nodded. Then we had dinner at the M's. They're such a cool family! We were at their house for 2.5 hours...hahaha whoops. 

Thursday we did some more service at Let It Be, which is a non-profit organization for cancer. We wrapped presents. It was so fun!

We had a lesson with our less-active, J. And had a lesson with L & her son A. Sister C tutors him and then we read from the book of Mormon with them. Then we had dinner at the H's. they had Samoa girl scout cookie ice cream!! It was the best thing ever. Then we were supposed to have an appointment with our investigator C, but he wasn't home, so we went over to another investigator, J's home. We got in and talked a bit about what we believe. We didn't get a whole lesson done (or even much of one) because he controlled most of the convo. he's pretty religious, grew up (another religion) and has studied with (another religion) and he despises Christmas/Easter/Halloween. He sees nothing but Satan in all those holidays. It's really really sad. So, in that way he has many fears, but the things that we did teach him he agreed with. Next time we see him we'll probably just have to address his concerns and get those out of the way before we can start the discussions. But he is earnestly seeking for truth and WE HAVE IT!

Friday was very strange. So, Thursday we noticed there was a screw in our tire, so we put the spare on. Friday we went to the car place to get a new tire & were there for almost 3 hours. Sister C and I decided to try to be productive so we memorized almost half of The Family: A Proclamation to the World! then we had lunch & studied, then went to Costco with Mama B for her party(which I'll explain later). then went out to dinner with Brother & sister T to a Thai restaurant! weird day, but good!

Saturday we had a relief society breakfast. We met with Bishop's friend, C. A little background on him: missionaries have been trying him for about 10 years. Sister C met him a few months ago and got his phone number(bishop was SO surprised, because it'd been 10 years and missionaries couldn't even get that). He met a few times with missionaries, but the missionaries weren't addressing his needs, so things didn't go much further. So we stopped by his home and got inside! CHECK IT. He was actually about to leave to go to the store, but we sat down with him and he told us about his religious background and that he NEEDS to come closer to Jesus Christ. We began telling him what we do as missionaries and how as we teach him, it is his CHOICE to make the step to get closer to Christ, then he said "yeah, but for me it's not a choice, I need to get closer" and we were like "AHH PERFECT!!" haha, so we had a good first meeting. at the end he said "well, I need to go to the store now, but why don't you come back next saturday around 2?" What?!! we didn't even ask if we could come back, he WANTS us to! He's a new investigator!!! the Lord has been preparing him for 10 years for this. Hopefully we can get him converted and baptized. Hopefully his wife and 2 kids(at home) will want to learn too!

So that night Mama B had party. Said party consisted of inviting E (who is 13)'s friends and their moms over for a *drumroll please*......jamberry party. yes, I know. side note: sometimes on a mission you do things you say you'll never do in your life, this being jamberry nails. it was actually pretty fun, and not as terrible as I thought it would be. but along with that Sister C and I shared He Is The Gift and talked about discovering Christ, embracing Christ, and sharing Christ. We directed our message toward the younger girls. It was really good.

Sunday was super busy with tons of meetings. Choir, Church, ward council, WML(ward mission leader- I'll use this abbreviation in later letters too, so I'll explain now: we go out with Brother H to presidents & presidencies of the bishopric & different auxilleries of the ward. beforehand, we missionaries pray and ponder the Be Attitudes in Matthew 5 and choose which trait we believe that person holds. Brother H does the same thing. Then we go to their home & tell them that trait and if they'd be willing to use that to help in the missionary efforts.

The Christmas devotional was so good. One thing that hit me was when President Eyring was talking about the Spirit of Christ. he said something along the lines of "you may feel that spirit here tonight. it is because these words are true" I love that. Truth is truth & the spirit will always testify of that. At ward coordination Brother H asked us the difference between being faithful and being full of faith. Being faithful is doing what is right by living the way God would have you live and being full of faith is someone who is consistently being faithful, which in turn evolves into conversion. Someone who is full of faith does the right thing because they love God. someone who is faithful receives blessings. someone who is full of faith witnesses miracles.

In my studies this week I read a lot in the December 2014 Ensign. There's an article titled: "Helping Others Find Faith in Christ" by Elder L. Tom Perry. He gives us 4 ways to bring others back to their Christian faith. The first step is to pray daily. President Monson is quoted, "To those within the sound of my voice who are struggling with challenges and difficulties large and small, prayer is the provider of spiritual strength...Prayer is the means by which we approach our Father in Heaven, who loves us. Speak to Him in prayer and then listen for the answer. Miracles are wrought through prayer...Remember to pray fervently." I love this quote. Prayer is really an amazing thing. Since being on my mission I've learned a lot about prayer because on average you say about 20 prayers per day. I've learned to pray for specific things. Be careful what you pray for. Listen when you pray to be more susceptible to the promptings of the spirit.