Merry Christmas!! :)

Merry Christmas Ya'll!!

I can't believe Christmas is in 2 days...where did time go??  This last week, my first in Shreveport, has been great!  I'm still learning the area and getting to know who people are, but I do love it here.  I wanted to share a couple of fun things that I forgot to share in my last email.  First one is that there are 4 sets of missionaries in this ward....Wow!  That's amazing!  There are 2 sets of sisters and 2 sets of elders (8 total missionaries).  The other thing is that my district leaders name is Elder Jones.  Haha kind of funny and ironic.  It also makes it easier on the members to remember my name. :)  I'm not sure if we're related or not, but it's not closely.  I'll have to get more detail from him sometime to try to figure it out.  So that's kind of fun!

Right now Sister Benjamin and I are teaching [a man], and he is going to be baptized this Sunday.  He is such a sweet, simple, humble man.  Sister Benjamin and I had a sweet experience with him last night.  We went to visit him and he seemed not as perky as usual.  After a few minutes he said his tooth was bothering him.  I asked if we could then start with a prayer and he asked me to say it.  I felt so much love for him as I prayed.  I could feel the Holy Ghost working through me and guiding my words.  I asked that his pain would go away so that he could focus and learn what he needed to so he could prepare for his baptism.  After the prayer we started on our lesson.  A few minutes into it [this sweet man] started telling us all of the blessings he's received since the missionaries started meeting with him a few months ago.  He said after the prayer that his pain went away.  He got all excited and chipper!  He was so happy!  We talked about tithing and showed him how to figure out how to pay 10 percent and he was so excited that he knew how to pay tithing!  I've never seen anyone so excited!  I loved it!  Haha. :)

It was such a tender mercy and faith building experience for me.  Miracles do still happen, and they are often through small and simple things and people.  The Lord truly does bless us when we are obedient, when we are striving to be obedient, when obedience is our quest.  I know that the blessings do come.  The Lord has promised us that over and over again.

I want to share a quote from a fellow sister missionary.  I don't know who she is because the quote came in a story my mission president sent out.  He has started emailing us different stories from missionaries in the mission - real experiences that they are having right now in our mission.  He replaces the names with fake ones for privacy, so I'm not sure who said this, but I really liked it because it explains how I feel.  She said:

"Being a missionary doesn't mean giving away a year and half of your life to serve the Lord. What it really is, if taken the right way, is the Lord giving you a year and a half to learn and grown so much! It is truly a gift to us and not a service we render."

That is how I feel.  The past 6 months has been such a gift to me.  I have learned so much and grown so much.  I feel more prepared and I have met some more of my Heavenly Father's children and love them.  I've learned how to love, how to serve, how to be an example.  I've learned how to learn, how to act, how to talk.  I've learned what love is, what faith is, what hope is.  I've learned more about who my Savior is and what He did for me.  Words can't describe what I've learned because I haven't just gained knowledge.  Those things are in my heart.

My dear friends and family, I know that our Savior Jesus Christ lives.  I feel it.  He is the season, and we are the reason - the reason He came and bore the pains and afflictions that He did.  He loves you.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!  May it be filled with light and with Christ!  Love you all!