Transfer News!!!
Oh my gosh. I just found out I'm getting transferred and am white washing an area (Blaine) with Sister Ching! CRAZY.
Beautiful Downtown Minneapolis
Christmas with Pat and Sister B
Christmas morning with the Burtons :)
MERRY
Christmas everyone!!! Wow this week was crazy busy so im just gonna get right
into it. Monday night we went caroling with our bishop and a couple of others
that he invited over. It was awesome we had one of our investigators whose
really promising come and sing. Although Monday was a tough night for me
because I thought I was going to explode from eating too much. I could not fit
anymore food in my body it was so gross. I think something I ate made me sick
too cause I woke up in the middle of the night on Tuesday and was SO nauseous
in surprised I didn't throw up. I just laid on the floor outside the bathroom
for the rest of the night. Tuesday was just not super fun medically. On the
same day I got sick I had to get an MRI for some pain I've been having in my
hip and I learned that I have a torn ligament in my hip. Fun stuff. And that
was just the beginning of the Week.
On Wednesday we were volunteering at the food shelf we volunteer at every
week and first off it was crazy busy. We set a record for the most number of
people it has ever helped in one day. Near the end of the time this lady comes
limping in and as she's signing in she tells us that she's bleeding a little
because she caught her leg in the car door. I think ok maybe she needs a band
aid, so I glance around the deck and this ladies' bleeding profusely! Her pant
leg is completely soaked in blood and it's going all over the floor. Luckily
one of our older volunteers, sue, came to the rescue. She is a retired nurse so
she brought her into a different room and helped her as best she could until
they could go to the hospital. That was crazy we were running back and forth
grabbing all the medical supplies we could get our hands on while dodging the
masses of people all over the place trying to get food. It was insane. Also on Wednesday though we met Vera. Vera is our
investigator Vicki's adult daughter who is living with her right now. She was
super nice to us and opened up about all of the awful things she gone through
in her life. I felt a strong prompting to testify of god's love for her and as
I did so she started crying and said she hasn't been to church in a long time
but really misses it. That was so cool, she said she wanted to talk to
her husband about maybe coming to church with us and we have an appointment for
this next week with her.
Zone Blitz
On Friday we had a Zone blitz. So all the missionaries in our zone met at
the crystal chapel and then split up into different companionships and we all
caravanned to downtown Minneapolis. It was fun being back in my old area :) Our
goal was to talk with everyone and share the Christmas video #lighttheworld
with as many people as possible. It was awesome. It was snowing like crazy and
yet there was still people everywhere! That's one of the best things about
downtown. You can still contact even in the middle of winter! I was with Sister
Anderson who is serving in medicine lake and we talked to several really cool
people. The last couple we talked to was an African couple from Liberia. We
showed them the Christmas video and then started talking to them and sharing
our testimonies of Christ. We gave them a Book of Mormon and invited them to
church and as we were talking we found out they lived in Sister Andersons area
so she quickly reached in her bag and grabbed a Mormon.org card
with their information on it. So cool! In total as a zone we taught and shared
the video 62 times! In 1 & 1/2 hours! God is so good! After the zone blitz
we went and stopped by the salamis and got to see them!! We heard all about
Nicole's trip to Kenya and we were able to share the light the world video with
them all and ended up reteaching the entire plan of salvation which was cool.
Nicole said she's going to talk to her husband about coming to church too which
is exciting! Apparently he's practically never home, but we're hoping to meet
him soon.
That
brings us to Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve was such a busy day. We started off
by having an early Christmas with pat and Sister B in the morning, then we ran
over to Muriels.
Movie with Muriel
That was so fun. We wore comfy clothes and had gotten
permission to watch the movie white Christmas. She made us hamburgers and fries
and man was it good. It was so fun hanging out with her. Her daughter left her
alone for Christmas Eve so she would've just been by herself if we hadn't come
and she kept saying I'm so glad you guys came over. I just love her. Then we
ran over to mercy hospital and met our investigator Sierra there and went
caroling to the residents on the cardiac floor. I was a little nervous cause
I've never done something like that before but it was amazing. The people
working on the floor led us around to sing to different people and asked to
visit certain patients of theirs. One room we walked into was so sweet. There
was a young man on the bed with two family members and he had just had open
heart surgery. It looked like he was in a lot of pain. When we asked if we
could sing to him he softly said please, and then closed his eyes and hugged the
pillow he had to his chest until we finished. That was so sweet, the spirit was
very strong in that room. Then after that we went and had dinner with the
moss's and Andersons. Sister moss and Sister Anderson are best friends and have
had Christmas together for years. It was so fun to be around their cute family.
My favorite part of the evening though was after dinner they always have...the
best word I guess is a music concert. Very low key anyone who wants to sing
can. Sister Cope played the piano and a quartet of me, Sister M, her daughter,
Sister A's daughter, and I sang about 4 songs and we sounded so good! It was so
fun and afterwards a bunch of the other families got up and sang. After the
music concert we ran over to the smith family because we promised their kids we
come track santa with them. We got to meet and get to know their neighbor who
was over so that was a plus missionary wise. It was so fun to be surrounded by
kids on Christmas Eve because they are so excited they almost can't stand it.
They bring a little more magic into the Christmas season. Then last but not
least we went over, had a lesson, and visited with Tina. Yeah it was a crazy
day.
On
Christmas we went over to the Burtons for early in the morning and was apart of
their Christ as morning. They are so cute, they made each of us stockings and
got us some presents as well. Then we went to church which was great. BROTHER
NORTON WAS THERE! WOOO! Then we came home had our Christmas pizza for lunch and
slowly opened presents. I don't think my feet will ever be cold again for the
amount of socks I got hahaha. We Skyped which was both really fun and a little
sad and then got picked up for dinner by Sister copes cousins. They live in
medicine lake and drove us down there to have dinner with their family. So fun.
Sister Cope LOVED it, and there family was so kind and sweet. It was a good
ending to the day. Well that's it for this week. Love you all! Thank you for
all the thoughts and prayers you send my way I really appreciate them!!
Spiritual
Thought of the Week:
I
was reading in the Book of Mormon this morning, in Mosiah chapter two. That
chapter is the beggining of king benjamins sermon to his people and I noticed
that almost the entire chapter is about keeping the commandments. I loved how in
verses 20-21 king B. talks about how much we owe to god and how he could ask us
to praise him with our whole souls and that would never be enough. Then he says
in verse 22... "And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his
commandments...". God has given us every thing we have and are and the
only thing he asks us for in return is to keep his commandments. That seems
like so little of a price for what we've been given and yet so many fail to do
just that. How important it is then to keep the commandments, when in return
for so much we've been asked to do so little.
️Sister Richardson