Holiday Perfection

Hello Hello!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mine was pretty great, we spent it with the YSA branch president's family (the Wolfleys), 2 other sets of missionaries and a few YSA people! We had smoked turkey, and then normal kind and ham. But I mainly stuffed myself on the fresh pineapple and raspberries and the delicious salad. We played pool too! It was a pretty good day!

This week we had some things play out that I would definitely say were miraculous. We went to go meet a new less active couple that had moved in and they were very warm and we were able to show them the "He is the Gift" video (I'll get to that later). We left and we were in a hurry because we had an appointment across town but we saw a lady outside sweeping her porch so we stopped and talked to her. We found out that she is related to Sister Bridgette, a member of our branch! She had heard many good things about the Book of Mormon so it was a great opportunity for her to get one! She wasn't interested in having the lessons but maybe later on down the road. Anyways after we talked to her we were in even more of a hurry and we kept walking. We got to an intersection and we saw the Moores from the branch! They honked at us and we ran over and asked them if they could take us to our appointment! Perfect timing right? They dropped us off and it turned out our appointment wasn't there but we were able to talk to the neighbors and they said they were interested in learning more! We're going back on Thursday, hopefully that works out. Miracles on miracles on miracles!

Oh yes I forgot the big news, Sister Mackelprang is getting transferred on Wednesday and I am going to train a new missionary! Woohoo! I'm so excited! I hope she doesn't get scarred for life starting her mission up hurr in the ghetto!

So there is this restaurant here called the Yellow Deli and it is ran by some sort of religious group... I don't even know how to explain what they are because they call themselves a community. Anyways, we went there for lunch and when they found out we were Mormon they invited us to dinner on Friday night to celebrate ringing in their Sabbath. So we went and it was so much fun! They did folk dancing and they were all singing and we just watched but it was awesome. Then we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and everything was organic, home-made and DELICIOUS! We sat by this family and we basically taught them the restoration. I was sitting next to their 14 year old daughter, Shua and we got along really well. She was really cute! After dinner they taught us some of their dances. It was a fun time learning about other people's beliefs and sharing ours at the same time. I asked Shua if she would take a picture with me, she's the cutest.

 

 

We have started using pass-along cards featuring the "He is the Gift" video: http://www.mormon.org/christmas This Christmas season is already off to a good start on focusing on the importance of having a Christ focused Christmas. I really have been thinking about this personally. We can embrace the gift of Jesus Christ by letting the Atonement impact how we think, what we do, and what we say. I think a great example of this is the people of King Benjamin's reaction after he has taught them, " O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men."--Mosiah 4:2

I hope to for Christmas be a gentle reminder of the gift of Jesus Christ and that through him I can purify my heart and be a better person.

Love y'all!!

Sister Andrea Kate Merrell