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!