Monday: We had our Christmas Mission Conference, with half the mission. Our mission is so big now that we had to split it into two!! We have 280 missionaries, 130 of which are SISTER missionaries!
We also learned that this year, we had over 1,000 baptisms and reactivations combined. We had about 332 baptisms. Halleluyer! We focused on the Savior, His birth, His life, His ministry, and His atonement for the Conference. It really brought the Christmas Spirit.
That night, we went caroling with President Fosters family! My camera had died, though, so I didn't get any pictures... We went to a few neighbors houses, and they LOVED it. They thought we sounded very nice, and were excited to meet us. Now President Foster wants to invite his musical siblings over as well as some neighbors and us, so we can sing for them some more.
Tuesday: Our P-Day got moved to Tuesday so we could go to the Christmas Conference. We had a little Christmas miracle!! Walmart had a few real Christmas trees left over, and was GIVING THEM AWAY for FREE! So, naturally, we grabbed one. I was so beyond excited. I put lights on it, grabbed all the ornaments we had, put the small white tree on the top of the big one, put a Santa hat on it because we didn't have a star or an angel, and put a picture of Christ at the top too. All in all, it looks like a very... missionary Christmas tree!
 |
| This was decorating the tree outfit. Very Texas like! |
When we got home, I continued the tradition and constructed a fort for us to sleep in on Christmas Eve, with the help of my companions. I was thinking about it this year, and to me, the silly tradition I have of making a fort to sleep in on Christmas Eve reminds me of the Savior, and how he had to sleep somewhere different too. It makes me feel like I'm in the stable, or visiting Mary and Christ. Silly, I know, but its true.
Wednesday: CHRISTMAS!!!! Woke up and opened my presents, all of which I loved! I got some awesome clothes, cards, Harry Potter lego things, a puzzle, a curl thingy, cards, etc from relatives and friends. Thank you to all of you! It meant so much to me!
We went over to Jenn's house and had Christmas cinnamon rolls- that's right, folks, I ate a cinnamon roll for Jenn- and helped her kids figure out their new Karaoke machine.
Then, we went over to the Crawford's house to skype/call our families! That was probably the highlight of my day. We got to talk for a long time, and there was never a dull moment. Everybody looked so happy, and it was so much fun to joke around with my siblings again. It was also really fun to see y'all open the presents I sent. Hope you like them for reals, and weren't just faking it because you were on camera! ;)
After that, we went home for a minute because Sister Paddock had a bit of a headache and wasn't feeling too well. This enabled me to try the curler thing that Grammy sent. It works well, by the way.
Around 5:30 we went to Mary's house for Christmas dinner! I think it meant a lot to her that we could be there, since her son wasn't able to come up, and her sister already had plans. It was a wonderful evening, and we had a lot of fun.
Thursday: Sister Paddock woke up with a fever of 102.5. I got her some medicine from my supplies and she went back to bed. She was coughing up a lot of nasty phlegm and felt all around awful. Sister Rainsdon and I felt so bad for her. She basically slept the whole day. This left us to ourselves. So, I read a lot of scriptures, including the Nativity story again. I studied some Portuguese, wrote letters, studied more scriptures, cleaned the apartment, glitter-fied my Princess Puzzle, ate food, studied, played Connect4 with Sister Rainsdon who had NEVER played it before or even heard of it, and watched The Testaments with Sis Rainsdon. We also figured out how to make the sound on our dvd player higher pitched, so everyone sounded like a chipmunk. Which was pretty entertaining.
Sister Paddock also got a blessing, and Bro Jesse Mitchell and Pres Foster told us to call if she needed anything else.
Friday: Sister Paddock woke up with a fever of 100.4, and still felt awful, which consigned us to another day inside. Sister Rainsdon and I continued to play nurse throughout the day. Thank goodness for Sis Rainsdon because she actually WAS a nurse in her past life... We weren't able to go to District Meeting, so we called in and listened to announcements and gave our area report. They all said they'd pray for Sister Paddock, and to call if we needed anything.
Jenn came and brought over some more church movies for us to watch, like 17 Miracles, the Best Two Years, the RM, the Singles Ward, etc. Then she took me out to get my police letter form notarized. Splits are great! We went to City Hall, went to almost every room in the building trying to find a notary, went to two banks before we came back to City Hall and finally found the notary. Phew! Got that sent off and Mom got the stuff on Saturday! Halleluyer!
When I got back to the apartment, Sis Rainsdon and I watched a few of the church movies. A lot of them were on a USB and the sound refused to work. So we naturally made up the dialogue. Can I just say that I think the Best Two Years is even funnier without sound?? We also watched 17 Miracles, which was a dvd so the sound worked. That movie is so touching. Everyone should watch it! Did some more studying, ate some more food.
Saturday: Sister Paddock was well enough for us to do comp study! Halleluyer! But she still wasn't well enough to leave the apartment for too long. We continued to make up dialogue for the church movies on the flash drive. Studied, wrote some in my journal, ate food, studied. Sister Rainsdon planned her whole wedding out, so thats... good.... We did go a little stir crazy I'll admit.
Sunday: Sister Paddock felt TONS better! Halleluyer! We went to church, and it was great. I learned how to use the copier and made some copies for Sister Foster for primary. Whitney asked us to come over to talk with Felipe (aka Phillip, apparently thats how its spelled) because he's been having a rough time.
So, after church we ate lunch and studied some scriptures that might help Felipe. Then we went over. He explained to us whats been going on and we mostly just listened. After a while, I shared D&C 121:7-10. He liked the scripture, but then had to jet off to work. While he was getting ready to leave, I felt like I should write some things down on a sticky note and have Whitney put it somewhere for him to find. I wrote (and I'm paraphrasing because I can't remember exactly) "Some people see Christ and the gospel as the light at the end of the tunnel, but in truth, Christ and the gospel are the lights we hold to get us through the tunnel, step by step." I can't remember who said that, but I read it during our mormon.org time one day. Then I wrote that he should read His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox. We stuck it on his laptop in his bag that he was taking with him. I'm not sure if it will help him, but I think it was of the Spirit so it can't hurt him.
Then, we went and ate dinner with Rex and Diane Mitchell, which was hilarious! We heard some really funny jokes, and discussed some missionary stuff.
After that, we went home and waited for transfer calls.
OH! I almost forgot! At Whitney's while we were waiting for Felipe to come out, President Pingree called for me. GULP. Not that I was nervous, but I was curious what that would mean. I talked with him, and he told me that every transfer there are a few people the Lord tells him that he needs to call and check on, to help him finalize transfers. He asked me some questions about the area, about me and about my companionship, thanked me, told me that I'm a wonderful missionary and told me to tell my companions that they are wonderful missionaries as well.
Fast forward to transfer calls- we're all staying in Caldwell!! Phew. I'm gonna miss this place when I leave! However, Elder Anderson in Brenham is being transferred. Finally leaving his first area. He came out here in July, when I did. That kid is a really good missionary, and just a really good person. I'm gonna miss him. He kinda reminds me of Brayden. We also have two more missionaries being transferred away from our Zone, and then 3 more are finishing their missions. So we'll get a new Zone Leader and a new Sister Training Leader in the 6 new people in our zone! Eep! Lots of changes are happening. Its exciting :)
Well, thats basically my week. It was simple, but it was wonderful. Today I made some New Years Resolutions, and I now have a New Years Resolutions Theory- you cannot make more than 12 NYRs because then you will overwhelm yourself. There are only 12 months in the year, so to give yourself an easy task, make sure you only have one thing per month. Savvy? (please say that in a Captain Jack Sparrow voice)
Have a Happy New Year!! Eu amo voces muito!
love,
Sister Shell
No comments:
Post a Comment