Thriving With A -6° Christmas W74

Our Christmas week was going well until.... it was -6° when we woke up Friday morning. But it said it felt like -28°. Last year on Christmas it was 70°. We had to stay in all day until we got permission to go to Sifa's house. Which was the highlight of my mission. We played games with the kids, ate dinner, and opened presents. Sifa got us the nicest gifts!! I'm so blessed to know this family! Look for the pics below they are adorable. 

Ethan passed the sacrament on Sunday and brought his sister! It was her first time and Ethan said, "hey sisters, guess what! She hasn't been baptized yet!" We are going to the temple with him on Thursday for his first time!

This Christmas has got to be one of my favorites, if not my favorite. I'll tell you why! Because Jesus Christ has been on my mind every single day. I've taught about Him, testified of Him, tried to be like Him, and deepened my relationship with Him during this Christmas season. It truly has been a spiritually transformative Christmas. We had steak for Christmas dinner and went to some awesome members' house for Christmas Eve! 

I had one of my favorite exchanges! It was in Danville Kentucky with Sister Whitaker. She's been out for 5 months, and we found out she lived in PG and trained me at my job at Dough Co. What are the odds? She's hard of hearing and knows ASL. She taught me how to pray in sign language. We had a lesson completely in ASL with someone named Robert. I was actually on exchanges in Danville 5 months ago when he first started being taught! He said he remembered me. But GET THIS. Robert lived in Crestwood for 15 years. After asking where he lived.... we found out we lived in the same apartment complex on Cherry Ln. Not only that, but he lived in the same apartment and bedroom I did when I served there for 6 months! H-3!! We were all shook. He grew up there then moved to Danville. And now we just happened to be on a call talking about the Word of Wisdom. God's pretty cool and Robert is getting baptized on January 14th! I also had a prompting to visit a lady named Judy that I met on exchanges there last time. We started teaching her and she's so excited to meet with missionaries. She's coming to church on Sunday! Maybe I should get transferred to Danville! 

Kelsey! Do y'all remember Kelsey? She's the member that left the church a year ago but wants to start coming back. We had the best lesson with her! We were going to do a Christmas thing but right before I felt like we should read 3 Nephi 11. When we got in she said, "for some reason I've really been wanting to study 3 Nephi." We said, "Well perfect!" And it was perfect. We had the best discussion. 

Highlights: caroling with my district!! Corbin (my little bro) wrote me the sweetest letter I think I've ever received. We got to give presents to all the friends we are teaching. It was a lot of moments of pure joy as we watched them open their gifts.