Life's rocking over here in the OSM.
This is Olivia, a girl in our ward and she looks so
much like Emma I think! We've had a few members in the ward tell us we look
like sisters. And I figure Emma looks like me and she looks like Emma so it all
makes sense.
Then there's the biggest Christmas tree I've ever seen in
someone's house. They live in this huge workshop type deal and have a massive
tree!
This is us with Sister C at the Christmas fireside at
the stake center
Last
p-day we decorated the C's Christmas tree. It was fun to do a bit
of fun Christmas-y stuff. We talk about Christmas about twelve times a
day, but never have time to do fun things (I mean, other than change
people's lives with the gospel of Jesus Christ). But ya know, like
baking cookies and whatnot. Oh, and we've gotten about 3 dozen
cookies/brownies/brittle/whatever this past week from members and less
actives. So. Much. Sugar. I feel bad regifting food, but I'd rather not
have "diabeetus" in my 20's.
We tracted in the snow this past week. It was pretty sweet because:
1- We found a few solid potential investigators
2- I know my husband gets exponentially hotter the longer I tract in poopy weather.
^ That's a fact, folks.
We
also helped put up Christmas lights for a less active! That was
sah-weet. I guess we do more fun things that I realize. I'm just in an
Oregon blah right now because the sky's always gray. Anywhoo. We helped
Sister R with her lights while it was raining and there was snow on
the ground. At one point Sister J was climbing a tree (not in a
skirt. don't worry), but I'm sure from a neighbor's perspective it
looked pretty funny. Sister R then proceeded to give us a plate piled
full of goodies. We've learned to stop protesting because she just
piles on more sweets.
Like
I said, there are about 400-500 less-actives in Sweet Home (I feel like
the number changes every time I talk to the Bishop). We've been seeing a
less-active and his mom is an investigator. His
stepdad just sits and listens. Oh and asks us to pray for him to win
the lottery. J has some sort of learning disability and still lives
with his parents. But they're all so great and I love them. We had the
privilege of teaching them all how to make hot chocolate last week, too.
(How they've managed to last this long without it blows my mind.) So we
went over for our lesson and come to find out that J's engaged.
Uhh... what??! He's been dating this girl he met at the mall and they've
been on 3 dates. She already has a dress and they have a date set. I'm
still a bit in shock and don't really know what to think. So we're
trying to be supportive there.
Another
interesting experience. There's a less active named C and his
non-member living partner R that's we've been visiting pretty
frequently. We never know what to expect when we walk in there. R
has some very interesting beliefs and is interesting to talk to. She
told us how Christ was beamed down to earth from a space station and all
about conversations that humans have had with humanoids. She says that
Christ has been reincarnated into other people because he had more to
do. Or something like that. Honestly it just makes my heart ache to hear
someone talk about the Savior like that. But we are respectful and
share our beliefs. We're helping C remember what he used to know and
we can tell he's progressing. I'm careful what I say around her because I
offended her in October by inviting her to our ward Trunk-or-Treat
twice. And she's brought it up every time since. So Sister J invited
them to the Christmas activities.
This week I've just felt kind of blah. Ya know? I
feel like I'm working harder every week and at the same time it seems
like we haven't gotten much accomplished these past three weeks. We're
really trying to work with the ward and help them understand that we're
here to help them with their missionary work. It's tough, but it's so
worth it. I hope the members feel our excitement and our energy for the
work, because we're doing all that we can. We're not perfect, but the
Lord is on our side and makes up for our imperfections. He gives us
weaknesses so through Him we can become strong. It's what He does. It's
awesome.
I also realized this week how important a solid
foundation of faith is. We have a less-active family that we're working
with. They're the ones that call us their
"missionettes". Love them. Anyways, Brother and Sister T have both
been members a long time and know a lot of church doctrine, but they
didn't have a solid grasp of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It helped me
understand that we must center our testimonies on Jesus Christ or the
world will knock us down like it says in Helaman 5:12.
Seeing people's lives change is amazing!
Random
story. We're teaching C, the woman that the Ts are
caregivers for. We taught her about the Word of Wisdom and gave her a
pamphlet. R was standing in the back and saw that she has a
pamphlet that he doesn't have. So he came over and jokingly chastised us
saying, "I might have to call the Bishop on you two...Hmm... I'll just
pray for you." Ha! Love it! I'll take all the prayers I can get!
Christmas is next week?!!? Ahh! We're singing the
song "Guard Him, Joseph" at our ward's Christmas devotional and it's
gonna rock everyone's socks off.
I love you all!
Keep on keeping on! Remember who you are and what you stand for! Have the day you have!
Sister Baker OUT
Another
thing I realized. People are always watching me. How creepy/flattering
is that? I did my hair in an upside down french braid in the back to a
bun (not gonna lie, it looked good) and at the stake Christmas fireside I
saw one of the young women in the ward with her hair like that. She
said she got the idea from me. I'm such a trendsetter! Jokes. That would
be Pinterest. Can't even try to take credit there. But people are
always watching.
Name that movie!
"Always watching, Mike Wazowski." (awh man that one's not even hard!)
Name the person speaking!
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