Christmas is here!!! I can hardly believe it. It seems like only yesterday I was dressing up for Halloween in my home MTC, and now look at me! Cradled by the hills of Tennessee.
Because of Christmas, President Weaver moved our P-Day to today, which meant I had two more days before getting to email you guys. Which were jam-packed with experiences and stories and basically everything under the sun. It was truly an extravaganza, but I’ll try to be as brief as possible.
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| We took a picture outside the temple right before zone conference. The sun was rising as we drove up to it, and the way the light shone was breathtaking. Sorry the picture isn’t better! |
First things first: On the 17th, we had a special Christmas zone conference which featured not one, but two musical guests, who were …
Wait for it …
I haven’t been out on the field for a transfer yet, and I’m already getting so spoiled. It’s ridiculous.
Now that we’ve got that huge deal out of the way, let’s move on to the rest of the bajillion things that happened that I’ll manage to remember mentioning.
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| Here we are with President Weaver after he spoke on Sunday! |
On Sunday, we had a special sacrament meeting because 1) it had a ton of musical numbers, and 2) President Weaver spoke! I love that man. I ended up doing a last-minute performance of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” with some members that featured Hermana Petersen on the violin. It was super fun!
This last week, Hermana Petersen and I actually found four new people to teach! We contact a lot, but even when people are polite and seem to have a lot of potential, it’s hard to progress them in wanting to learn more, but now we’re finally getting them to stay! It’s super exciting! But what’s crazy is when we started setting our goals for this week, we decided that we needed to set a goal to find seven people. We didn’t know how that was going to happen, since we had just barely managed four, but that was the goal we were prompted to set. And lo and behold, miracles have happened!
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| Columbia is called Muletown, so here I am with one of them! |
On Monday, we were praying before daily planning. It was my turn to offer the prayer, and as I did, I asked for help finding people (which we always do), but suddenly I heard myself asking for us to find a new person who spoke Spanish that day. The Spirit was definitely leading me when I asked for that. That day, Hermana Petersen felt prompted to go to the square, and while we were there we found someone who spoke Spanish! It was insane.
Tuesday, we were totally blessed by members. People kept coming over to bring us food and gifts, and when Hermana Petersen and I were driving back home, we joked about how they couldn’t possibly provide more. Well, we pulled in right next to some members who were dropping off homemade grape juice to us! Truly blessed.
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| The Columbia Hermanas posing with the best gingerbread house ever. |
On Wednesday, Hermana Petersen and I were trying to figure out what to do for contacting. We had been planning to go to the square with the STLs*, but they were actually out of town that day, and we were a little intimidated to do it alone. We decided to pray about what we should do, and after we did, we looked up at each other, and we both knew we had to go, even though we weren’t all that excited about it. But get this: We ended up contacting five Spanish speakers that day! We handed out three copies of the Book of Mormon. And we managed to get four new people. Over half our weekly goal! In one day! The power of prayer is so real.
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| Who is a missionary without a picture in front of a street sign? “I am Lord Voldemort,” anyone? |
There are so many other moments of joy, and countless hands of the Lord I’ve experienced these last few days. But I really want to make it clear how thankful I am for the Savior. This morning, in personal study, I read about Christ’s birth, and I just loved the account of Simeon meeting the baby Jesus in Luke 2:
25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus...
28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,
29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:
30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
The joy that Simeon experiences here gives me so much hope. What a gift to physically see the Son of God, to hold your Redeemer and to know who he is. But even if I haven’t physically seen Christ, he has been with me throughout this week of miracles, throughout my mission, and throughout my life. I hope your eyes can see your salvation, too.
— Merry Christmas,
Hermana Newton
* Sister Training Leaders
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