Merry Christmas - December 19, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,Merry Christmas!I hope you are enjoying the dry cold and snow. It is humid...and freeeezing here; and there is no snow. :(

Last Monday, Sister W and I went to this restaurant in Kinston called the Peach House. A member from the Albertson ward works there and she told us to come sometime...so we did. They have soup, salad, and sandwiches. It kind of reminds me of Zupa's and it was so good! They had fresh fruit and panini wrap sandwiches. Mmmmm! It was so good. In the evening we met with a less active who was baptized about a year ago. Her name is Denise. She knows how important church is and she does a great job of sharing the gospel with her coworkers and family. She said she is just going through a rough spot right now, but wants to start coming back to church. We are excited for her! She is a really sweet lady.

Tuesday we went to Beullaville. We tried to find a part member family, but when we drove out there, we discovered that their address did not exist. That scenario seems to happen a lot. So, we figured Heavenly Father had led us out here for a reason. We parked at a Hotdog/ice cream/gas station and started walking. Houses are REALLY spaced out here. We walked a couple of miles and knocked on a few houses. Most people didn't answer the door, but we did meet a nice lady named Martha. She has a dog that is seriously the size of a lion. It almost knocked Sister Welch flat on the ground. Luckily, he was a nice dog and was just really excited to see new people. She said she was busy and was trying to clean because she had family who were coming to stay with her, but she said we could come back anytime and that she would like to listen to what we have to say. Afterwards, we went to the Turner family and had a really good lesson with their family. Sister Welch's mom sent us a gingerbread house. We decided to figure out someway to get rid of it so, we came up with a lesson plan using the gingerbread house by applying it to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So now I will liken the gingerbread house unto the Gospel of Jesus Christ for you: The plastic board that you build the house on was Jesus Christ. We read Heleman 5: 12 about how Christ should be our foundation. Then, we made the icing faith because sometimes you can't always see the icing. Which is like faith. Sometimes you can't always see it, but you know it is there. We also talked about how faith is like the glue that holds everything together. We read Ether 12:6. Then, we made the sides of the house like repentance because when we repent, it helps us get back on the path that we need to be on. We read Mosiah 4:10. The front and back of the house was baptism because baptism is the gate that we enter through (read 2 Nephi 31:17). The gift of the Holy Ghost was the roof because a house needs a roof to be complete and baptism without receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost is incomplete. (2 Nephi 32:5) Then, we decorated the house with candy and goodness which is like enduring to the end. When we endure, we receive blessings (like the candy!) that make our house more of a home. It was a fun lesson and the kids really enjoyed it. They explained it to us perfectly when we asked them to tell us what we learned. They are still planning on being baptized on the 7th and are super excited. We are also working with their parents and trying to help them kick their bad habits. They really want to change and know how important this is. Poor Brother Turner has been having some pretty serious withdrawal headaches. We keep praying that they will become less intense...

Wednesday we went to the library and did service.. Tasha, the less active was there and so was Carmen (the other girl that works there). We talked to them for a bit and then reorganized a bunch of reference books. I never thought that learning about the dewey decimal system in school would actually be applicable to real life. Ha! Tasha's husband met with the elders for the first time the night before and I guess it's going well so we are excited for them! Carman's aunt just passed away so we took the opportunity to ask her if she would be interested in learning more about the plan of Salvation. She declined our invitation, but said thank you. Her and her husband want to convert to Catholicism....Some day she will be a member of the church. I am sure of it. She is very sweet. I love her a lot. In the evening we went to the Albertson ward Christmas party. It was the weirdest church christmas party I have ever been to. They had tamales for dinner, but ran out before we got there so we had meatballs and pimento cheese sandwiches for dinner. Then, they did some skits. Some of them were pretty hilarious. The YSA's in the ward did a skit where they drew faces on their chins and lip synced songs upside down. The rest of them were a little questionable in my book...but whatever.

Thursday we weekly planned very thoroughly. It took a long time. Our dinner appointment forgot that they were going to feed us...which was okay. So, we went to Subway. When we got there is was like we walked into church or something. We saw the Turners there, Brother Smith, and President and Sister Whaley. Subway was the happening place! We met with the Turners that we saw at Subway afterwards to read scriptures with them. We are trying to make sure we teach our investigators and less actives how to go fishing in the scriptures. It was really awkward at first because no one would say much of anything, but the more we read on, the more involved they got. We read about Alma the Younger and the Sons of Mosiah. It was neat to see how much we could pull from that one chapter alone. You can always learn something from the scriptures.

Friday was Christmas Zone Conference! I played the piano. The Assistants failed with a capital F and didn't inform me of what songs they wanted me to play. So, I got some good sight reading practice in. We spent most of the morning doing role plays. We have a new sister! Her name is Sister McPherson. She is from Highland, UT and she is a nurse. She is really sweet. I hope we get to be compies at some point. Then, we had lunch...which was provided by the Greenville wards and it was so exciting because I got to see some of the G-ville members! I loved it there in Greenville. Afterwards we sang songs in our zones and had a good afternoon of much laughter when they had the missionaries come up and play songs with the chimes. I'm glad they were able to send those videos to you. We watched a couple of clips from the Bible videos that the church has made. You can watch them if you go to mormon.org/bible-videos. They are super good. Sister Welch and I took some time on Saturday at the library to watch them. They are incredible. My favorite was when the angel comes to the shepherds. Take a gander at them when you get a chance. :]

On Saturday we went to the church to practice music for the cantata. We went a tracted Piney Grove road...which we have decided the church should just buy and build a temple on. There are a lot of members that live on that road. We thought we had figured out where they all lived, but when we knocked on one door, we found the Elder's quorum president's wife....who was visiting her mother that lived there. We talked with them for a bit and got some info on a less active so it turned out to be really good. Slightly embarrassing, but mostly good. I was feeling a little under the weather that day so we took it easy for most of the afternoon. We met with Claire and her brother and sister and watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with them. Claire loooved it.

We went to church in Woodington. One of the elders from my district in the MTC is now serving here in Woodington. (Elder Brown). New missionaries get picked on a lot. He said a lot of prayers during church and got to bear his testimony. We had a really good lesson in sunday school about faith. Sister Stephanie gave us each a mustard seed. Sister Welch and I taped ours to the back of our name tags. We went to lunch with the Harpers afterwards. They are an older couple and they told us never to own a chicken farm because it will control your life. We told them we would remember that for future reference. Then, we went to Sarah and Amy's for a lesson. We watched the bible videos with them, had a scripture chase and it was just really good! Oh, and Amy actually stayed for all three hours this sunday! She went to primary with Sarah, but she is going to start coming for all 3 hours every sunday now. We are so excited and are hoping to be able to help her progress in the gospel as we keep meeting with her. I got a nasty cold that settled in pretty well by Sunday evening. I felt higher than a kite when we went to the cantata. I played my song. I don't remember how it went, but then we left after an hour or so of singing. I mostly just moved my mouth and pretended to sing because my voice was pretty much gone. Amy told me I looked sick. I told her I was sick and then we went home and I went to bed. I am feeling better today. I love this time of year though.

I hope yall have a wonderful christmas. "With God, nothing is impossible." (Luke 1:37)I am thankful for our Savior. It is such a blessing to have the knowledge that we have. God bless!

Love,
Sister J