"In Ice & Snow, the Baptism must go on!" "I'm 20!" & "Service increases the Christmas Spirit!"

THE BLOGGGGGG...

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Oh my goodness where has the time gone? Its Christmas THIS WEEK. Can I say I'm pumped? Anyway, this week has been very eventful so get ready to hold on to your seats. Shall we begin?

The random facts:

1. ZTM. Aka Zone Training Meeting was good times. We made the long (10 minute) drive to Potsdam in the -15 degree weather. Good times. But we had a very uplifting meeting focused on the Christmas season... so no complaints.

2. Exchange with Sister Reid! Sister Reid is the greatest and our exchange was so fun! She got to come join me in the lovely town of Norwood. I had my first opportunity to take over the area and it went really well. A random family ended up letting us in and then pelted us with 1000 questions while one of the teenagers tried to get us to swear. Good times.

3. Caroling. That's right. We joined the Young men and women in a nice caroling extravaganza. it was fun, and cold, and very Christmas spirited.

4. So good news everyone. St Lawrence County was under a "state of emergency" due to a serious ice storm. So what does that mean? We weren't allowed to drive our car or really go anywhere for 2 days. It seriously put a damper on our missionary work. It was like this, imagine the entire town of Norwood covered in a 1/4 inch of ice. #icestorm. And then it was like this, frozen hair, canceled church, and slippery side walks. It made for a good weekend is all I'm saying. THANK GOODNESS they lifted this state of emergency so we could go out today! To quote one of the elders here, "In my time in the North Country they have over reacted about EVERY storm. So you are fine."

5. This morning we spent an hour digging our car out of the snow. So I'll let you decide what I think about the weather up here.

The work:

1. Oh my gosh FLOYD WAS BAPTIZED! It was such a blessing that it ended up going ok! A huge storm came in and EVERYONE was telling us to cancel it. But we said, "Nope. if Floyd can get here, the show goes on!" Well thank goodness he made it! There was such a sweet simple spirit as we watched Floyd enter the waters of baptism. I will be forever grateful I could be part of his journey.

2. Can I just say, the Lord truly blesses us when we are willing to do whats hard. On Sunday morning we were feeling really bummed. Church had been canceled so we had NO IDEA what to do all day... especially consideting the looming ice storm. Well, we finally concluded that we should just go out anyway and see who we could find in Norwood. THE FIRST potential we tried to see let us in. We had a super awesome lesson with her. She said she wanted to learn more and that she wanted to read the Book of Mormon. Here's praying we can help her and her family progress! She reminded me so much of Trish and I couldn't help but think of Trish's progression in the gospel and hope the same for this woman!

3. We picked up a new investigator! Her name is Brandi. She is 9. She is crazy yet endearing. Did she remind me of Emmalee? Maybe. Anyway, we met her through her grandma. Also, Brandi tends to think that sister missionaries are really, really, really, great.

December 22nd:

YOU GUYS I'M TWENTY.

Huge shout out to everyone who sent me birthday cards and gifts. You made the day good! Even though the day was spent trecking through the snow it ended up being a real good day! In the evening one of the members in our branch came and picked us up (since we still weren't allowed to drive) and we and a nice birthday dinner! They even made me a cupcake tower! It was very fun and made my birthday great! So grateful to have such awesome members here in Norwood!

The Christmas Spirit:

So here's a story. This week I had been praying for two things

1. Charity towards this one investigator of ours

2. To feel more of the Christmas spirit.

Well thank goodness Heavenly Father answered both of those prayers. We were in a lesson with said investigator and they were going off about how hard Christmas was going to be this year, how their paycheck had been cut and how they didn't know what to do. All of a sudden I had an overwhelming feeling of peace come over me and I thought, we need to help this family out. Some how, we need to help. As soon as we walked out of the lesson I told Sister Bezzant what we needed to do. Lucky for me she goes along with all of my crazy plans. So we contacted the local food pantry and got A TON of food. Then we went to some stores and bought a couple of little presents for them. Then we did a secret drop off. I don't want you to think I'm telling this story because I think what we did was cool or whatever. I know that this was an opportunity from Heavenly Father to become better. I know that he answered my prayers by giving me a chance to grow. That chance to serve helped me gain more charity towards this investigator, and invited the Christmas spirit into our missionary work. I know that if we ask, Heavenly Father will give us chances to be better. To learn and to grow. We need only act.

I am so grateful for this Christmas season where we can grow closer to Christ and remember his birth. To quote President Monson, "To better understand the Spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last

syllable and it becomes the Spirit of Christ." I know we can all have the spirit of Christ in our hearts all year long!

Thank you everyone and HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS

XOXO,