It's Christmastime!

December 20- sorry for the late post - Janet

Such a wonderful time of year to celebrate. We are definitely staying extra busy, and for this Christmas week we have other missionaries coming in from outlying areas. So we'll be having 2 extra sisters in our area, which means we can do twice the amount of work! Like I was saying last week, it's such an important time to celebrate the Christ in Christmas, but there's also so much more we can do! We live fairly close to the mission home, and it was our mission mom's birthday this week, so we decorated her door and brought a present, leaving it on her doorstep before she even woke up.

Everyone in Australia seems to love Christmas fruitcake. One of our investigators made this cake, it was probably only 9x9 inches, but it weighed at least 10 pounds, it was so packed with fruit. She gave us a little corner of it, and we're still working on finishing it.

A scripture from my studies this morning comes to mind to share with you today. It is found in Alma 41:14 (in the Book of Mormon). It reads "Therefore my son, see that you are merciful unto your; deal justly, judge righteously,  and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, we shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgement restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again." I know that during this Christmas time it's a little easier to do good to those around us. But as we strive to continue with that attitude all throughout the year, we will little by little become better, and become who God wants us to be. Then, at that day when we meet God again, the attributes and attitudes we have developed in this life will be returned to us again. And when we have done all we can to better our fellow man, we will stand with a clear conscience knowing we did all we could. That's my deep thought for Christmastime, I hope you all enjoy this time to spend with your families and friends, and to remember our Saviour Jesus Christ. I love you all!!

Fruitcake

Happy Birthday Sister Parker!

Angels We Have Heard On High

I love this Christmas season. It is such a beautiful time to be a missionary, talking about Jesus Christ all day long, when he happens to be on the minds of more and more people! It is so important to remember the true reason of why we have Christmas. Every day I get to share a video of how God loves us so much he sent his son, a savior, to be the Redeemer of the world.

We finally had our Christmas musical fireside, a presentation that we have been preparing for the past few weeks. It was the most beautiful spiritual experience for me to see all the hard work, practice and planning come together so well. This choir full of missionaries who didn't have much musical experience really did sound like angels singing together, and I loved it. What a blessing we had and have to sing and announce to the world that Jesus has been born, and will come again.

The Chinese lady we are teaching is named Giselle, and she said her first prayer this week! That by far is one of my most favorite parts of missionary work. Seeing people come closer to God and experience the love and comfort that it brings. She said her prayer in Chinese, and I literally had no idea what she was saying, but the Spirit was there, and she was so sincere, it was such a special lesson. I love this gospel, and I love my Heavenly Father and older brother Jesus Christ. I hope we can all try a little harder at this time to be the examples of Jesus Christ that He wants us to be, and let our lights shine.

I love you all!

The Last Door

It happened! I've actually been waiting for the experience of the last door, every missionary seems to have one. But it happened this week. We had planned to tract this whole street, and didn't get to finish it before we had to go to another appointment. Afterwards, we decided to go back and tract instead of visiting someone else. There were so many people who just didn't want to talk to us, closed the door in our faces. By now it was getting pretty late and we would have to go home soon. But we knocked on this one door and a Chinese lady answered and was talking to us for a while, then invited us in and introduced us to her husband and their boarder. They were super interested and we were able to teach them about prayer and say a prayer with them! We went back later this week and invited them to baptism. We didn't put a date on it, they were still a little hesitant, but it was great to see the Lord preparing people for us to meet, at just the right time in their lives. There are little miracles all around us. I love this work, and am so grateful to be a part of it. I'm stealing a thought from someone else, but there is so much to be grateful for, and it's important to recognize God's hand in our lives whenever we can. So basically, all day every day :)