A Tennessee Christmas

First Christmas away from home.  We got to talk to her on Thursday and it was great!  She is happy and working hard and learning that loving the people is more important than anything else you can do on a mission.  She inspires us every time we hear from her, and she looks radiant!  Even though we miss her at the holidays of course, we're so happy she is enjoying her mission and serving the Lord who's life we celebrate each year. Here are some excerpts from her last email:

We had our Christmas Zone Conference this past week which was AWESOME! Those trainings are the best! The spirit is always so strong and I am re-motivated and recommitted to the work when I leave. Also..... we got to watch Frozen!!! It was hilarious to watch it with missionaries who had never seen it before. 

Can I just say that Oak Ridge is soooooo musical!!! We had several youth in the High School Orchestra concert so we went to that and then we were invited to go to the Methodist Christmas Noel and then our own ward's Christmas program was spectacular! Music has the ability to quickly bring the spirit into a setting, and Christmas music all about Jesus Christ has such a powerful effect. 

One of our investigators, Leslie, was in the hospital this week, so we went and visited her She is an older lady who has a great knowledge of the Bible, but is very confused on how to interpret it. She is being "carried to and fro with every wind of doctrine." We stopped by to share a brief thought with her and she really loved the idea of "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." It was something that she really wanted to apply in her life, and her prayer was so genuine as she asked Heavenly Father to help her to do and see the small and simple things. It was an example to me that when we learn something new, we should strive to act on it and involve Heavenly Father in the process. He can make our weaknesses become strengths.

We had our Ward Christmas Brunch with a pancake bar! yum :) The primary kids did a short reenactment of the nativity. Can I just say I love little kids! They are so fun, innocent, and smart!

We also had a great lesson with Connie. She hasn't come to church yet, so we took her to the church for a lesson and gave her a tour. She stopped at the picture of the first presidency and said, "Wow.... what a powerful picture." Our last lesson with her was about prophets and so it was perfect that she connected with that picture and we were able to remind her what we taught her and testify of a living prophet.

Have a great week!! and FELIZ NAVIDAD!!