For unto us a child is born!

Hello everyone! it was a good week of service! Holidays can be rough for finding but the Lord was merciful and filled our days with opportunities to light our little corner of Florida! I can't believe it's Christmas Eve. It just started to really feel like Christmas today. And tomorrow I get to talk to my FAMILY!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYA. I miss them bunches and bunches. It's going to be a good day.

Highlights!! (Gifts from Heavenly Father)

~We got to paint this ladies house. And let me tell you I love painting it's so relaxing and satisfying. So that was a nice little blessing. Plus we got to help this young mom out getting her house prepped for Christmas.

~We did a lot of sorting at the Education foundation. We organized and sorted through 17 huge boxes and it felt awesome.

~Alex had his baptismal interview so he'll be getting baptized Saturday!!! We're so excited! There is such a sweet spirit with him and we're so grateful we get to help their amazing family get one step closer to becoming eternal.

~Less of a highlight... We tried to baptisms with Marilyn... but we were 15 minutes late and the temple people didn't wait for us so we missed all of it... :( But we got to help her do family history and are going to get her some family names so we can go again!

~We went caroling as a district on Saturday night and it was the best!! We caroled to members and nonmembers alike and everyone was so excited to see us. We stopped by the Stake President and they were having a party so they let us in and gave us pie and hot chocolate. It was awesome! We made some people cry and gave everyone our cards. Our district is the best. Hands down.

~We had a Christmas Devotional with our half of the mission on Friday where they had lots of musical numbers and a big testimony meeting and it was amazing. We have some incredible missionaires in our mission. Their testimonies were powerful. And it dumbfounded me how there are missionaries all over the world with that much spirirual power. Wow this gospel is so true.

~We found a cool family to teach! We've been working through the members for a couple weeks. First they invited them to the Ward Christmas party and they enjoyed it. Then we had them invite the family to Dinner when we were also coming. Then they invited them to the Christmas Sacrament meeting today and we asked if we could come to their home sometimes and share a message with them and they said yes!! So we're really excited. They have 4 girls. They're going to fit in so nicely. 

~We did more caroling with some members and we stopped by another couple we are teaching and they came a long with us! So they also have a lot of potential.

~Our special sacrament meeting was.... special... lol. It was slightly unorganized so there were some road bumps and bishop got up to speak at the end but it wasn't the end yet. So he sat down. And then they forgot to choose a closing hymn so Bishop made an executive decision... But I got to Sing O Holy Night on request of the Stake Patriarch... and when he asks you to do something... you do it. And it was much better this time now that I wasn't sick. Shoutout to Sister Casey my page turner!! (She likes to get recognition too, couldn't do it without you boo!) 

~Also another non-highlight.. Our cute Ron who was supposed to be a temple worker one day totally got anti-ed and bashed us hardcore.. He wouldn't stop texting us... But oh well that's missionary work.

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you have the best day ever! I love you all! Remember to give a gift to our Savior this year. "The greatest gift we could give to the Lord at Christmas, or at any other time, is to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, worthy to attend His holy temple. And His gift to us will be the peace of knowing that we are prepared to meet Him, whenever that time comes." President Russell M. Nelson.

What will the agnostics do?...go make crafts!

My subject line today comes to you from our dear Marilyn. She previously identified as agnostic and also thinks the majority of the world is agnostic. She's a nut haha. We showed her the "Dare to be a Mormon" video where President Monson is in the Navy and all of the different religions get divided into different camps. And afterwards she goes, "all of the agnostics would've been standing there still and would've been like.. what do we do? Let's go make crafts!" But she said it in a British accent which made it funnier and we were just dying. Also earlier in the week she told us she only had 3 days left of being agnostic and we're like "Marilyn, you wouldn't have passed your interview if you were agnostic" Good times.

Highlights of the week!!

~Marilyn was baptized!! It was so special. She wanted to be baptized in a dress which we had because it was cuter... it was also pretty sheer... but all was well. In the lesson we had the day before we asked her to bear her testimony for us and all she said was "I know this is true because it makes me happy" Super simple, so powerful. I got the chills. Her parents came to support her and they really liked the service. She felt very welcomed and the spirit was so strong. 

~We had Zone Conference which I had to do the musical number and give a breakout session training while my voice sounded like a man. I got a sore throat a few days before and although it wasn't painful anymore it was pretty raspy. Plus I was congested and couldn't hear... But President Clark thought it was awesome so that's all that mattered. Our training was on bearing testimony in the first contact and it was awesome. I love the different dynamics of the groups of missionaries. I'm always so impressed watching them roleplay and listening to their testimonies.

~ We had the ward Christmas party which was a blast! I was the background pianist for when they read the Nativity. All of the little girls were in love with baby Jesus. I seriously love our ward so much. They feel just like family and they show us so much love. I honestly could stay here forever.

~ We taught the coolest guy named Ron. The minute we met him we felt the spirit super strong. After talking to him for a little bit I thought to myself "this guy needs to be a temple worker" He taught at a Lutheran School for many years and has kinda drifted away from their teachings but still has a super strong testiomony. He was really excited about our message and the Book of Mormon. There are some doctrinal issues that he mentioned... but once he receives a confirmation from the spirit it won't be a problem.

~We've been so busy that we haven't been able to do hardly any finding this week... but the one time we did we had a cool experience. We had like 20 minutes and we decided to track down that guy that randomly showed up at the church a few weeks ago. He answered the door and told us his father had passed away yesterday. This week I'd been studying how the Atonement helps us overcome physical death and my daily goal was to testify of the Plan of Salvation every chance I got. So we asked if we could say a prayer with their family and the spirit was very strong. I felt like we were truly instruments in God's hands. 

~Today we got to entertain like 3 children during sacrament meeting. It's honestly my favorite thing to play with the kids. I keep toys in my bag for that purpose. And now all of the ward kids idolize us. After all of the meetings the kids will always come up to us and hug us and show us things and want to take us places. I love it. We feel kinda like super heroes.

~So our zone was recruited to sing a number for our stake Christmas music devotional and I was enlisted to direct it and lemme tell ya I have never been more stressed. We showed up at the church to practice and they guy they got to accompany us was Brazilian and mostly spoke Portuguese. He was super talented but wasn't playing the accompaniment. He was kinda doing some fancy improvising thing to O come O come Emmanuel. I just stood there and I was like "I have no idea how to direct this" but the spirit directed and we just went for it and it was half decent. And those that don't read music had no idea. I sang O Holy Night and it went well! I didn't cough so I'm proud of myself. And all of the cute Hispanic people kept coming up to me and saying "congratulations" ....for having a good voice I guess? It was cute.

So it was a great week!!! I love this Christmas season. How are you all going to light the community this week?!? We're going to be helping with a toy drive it's going to be great!

Desperate Investigators S1E3 Remington Apartments

Our subject line comes from the reality TV show that Sister Casey and I are creating for the kinda ratchet apartment complex that we're teaching people at. That's where Jan and Lisa live and we've met a couple other crazy friends and we just got a referral the other day and guess where he lives? Remington apartments. And he messaged us and was like we'll have to meet at the pavillion there's a lot of drama at this complex. And we're like "oh Ron we know all about Susan" in our heads. it's so funny. Anyways so we know exactly how the pilot episode is going to go and it's TOO GOOD PEOPLE. soo good.

Anywho.. it's been another amazing week at the creek! It's now officially December holy cow!! Some highlights for you!

~Alex Breton who is the husband of a member is now on date for December 29th! We had such a powerful lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and when his wife was praying to help us set a date with him she started crying and expressing gratitude for his decision. It was amazing. I love the gospel so much!! And he's going to be getting baptized the same day as his 8 year old nephew. When we asked him if that date was ok he was like "yeah well if that's easier for everyone to be there, and we can save on water and everything. If he wants it to be his day though we can move it the week earlier or later it doesn't matter." We were just beaming the whole time.

~We took Marilyn on a temple tour and she loved it! She kept telling everyone she was getting baptized but she does it in the cutest way. She keeps saying "I decided I want to stay" She is a completely different person now. It's amazing. She'll be baptized on Saturday!! Woowoo! 

~ Light the World is now a thing and it's my favorite!! It's so easy to talk to people about it and everyone is so friendly and accepting. We've only gone out a few times but we've met some really cool people from it.

~One of those occasions Sister Casey and I decided to pray and see where the spirit was guiding us and we looked at the map and we chose dots in the exact same neighborhood! It's taken me a second to figure out the whole finding by the spirit thing, but it's super cool and we met Janet who wants us to help her with her decorating. 

~For the day of Service we met up with this awesome lady Sister Fiengo and we made spagetti and meatballs for homeless people. Not at any shelter or anything we just drove the streets and gave it to anyone we saw. It was kinda fun going homeless people hunting? ahh... 

~I went on exchanges with my homegirl Sister Fehrenbacker from the MTC. it was her first exchange ever and it was a blast! We got to go visit Rosie who we both served around and Rosie was ecstatic to see us! She's so funny. It was a good day!

~So not a highlight.... but everytime I have to sing at an event or anything.. I always get sick before... So this week I'm singing at Zone Conference, Marilyn's Baptism, The ward Christmas party and the Stake music devotional and I get a sore throat! Ugh.... I think it's the Lord trying to remind me that it was him that gave me the voice and I need to be humble about it. So I'm just chugging water, repenting and taking my vitamins hoping that I'm better tomorrow. It's not too bad.. but it could be better. 

~Also our ward council is hilarious. Oh my it's good to be in there so I can know how to maybe like lead an auxillary one day... but yeah I just get a kick out of these adults just being so sassy. 

Everyone go check out Light the World!! It's amazing and when we can all unite together we can see miracles!!! Love you all and let me know how you're serving and any cool miracle stories. Matthew 5:25.