Missionary Newsletter #54 (Dec 29)

Merry Christmas this past week to all! We had a blast at Christmas here in Madison! We got a pleasant surpurise Christmas Eve and a family was so sweet and got us some Christmas Pajamas! They were matching Alabama PJs! How stellar is that?! Couldn't ask for a better gift! (It was so good to have the family Christmas tradition continue, even though I was far, far away!

Christmas in Madison

Also for Christmas, the Huntsville Zone had a fun Christmas Breakfast and we played a Christmas game of Minute to Win It! So cute and fun! I will include a few pics of it.

Oreo Cookie Race

A conveyor belt to get the ornaments to the tree

My Competition (I had to shake all the jingle bells out of the tissue box) Very entertaining. I was against Elder Deitrich. Tough competition. We had to rewatch the video of the race to determine the winner and it was an exact tie! Fun stuff. haha. 

It's 2015 this coming up week! Can y'all believe it?! I sure can't! Sister Brunner and I have gotten excited and jumped ahead and already made some goals as a companionship. She and I have both been out about the same amount of time and we are thrilled to work hard together and run to the finish! We will Thrive, not Survive! Run to the Finish! Be a Plow Horse!! We are in it to win it! And we will have the Lord by our side as we make sure we use our time PERFECTLY! We have started asking ourselves every comp study, as we make a final analysis of our day from the plans we had made the night before, "Is this the best way to use the Lord's time?" So this way we can have time to correct and tweak our day to be the best it can be. Since we have started doing this, it's been amazing to see some miracles come into play:

Marcia (pronounced Marsha) who we started teaching a few weeks back, CAME TO CHURCH! Her boyfriend dropped her off with their 2 year old son! Things are really looking up for her and she is soaking everything in! We want to set a baptismal date with her, however, there are a few complications due to potential legal issues and whether or not her and her boyfriend are going to marry. It's looking like it could go either way. He is atheist, however, he is warming up to us and starting to sit in a little more as we invite him to. We hope to help him also learn of God and that God cares and loves him.

Also, we received a referral for a man named Chris. As we approached the duplex the man said, "No, I'm not interested. No thanks," as he got in his vehicle. Bummer! It was such a disappointment since we had walked all the way there. Sister Brunner then suggested, "Well, maybe that was his neighbor. Let's check just in case." I have to admit, I wasn't the most faithful about this attempt, but everything is worth a shot, so we tried it! She was right! Chris was home and it was his neighbor! We almost missed him! We ended up teaching him about the Book of Mormon. However, with his many questions, it was more features based. I thought back to previous trainings and last MLC. I wanted him to feel the power and spirit that this book holds. He needed to get inside of it and have something that would relate to him or hit him someway. As I continued to listen to the conversation, a scripture would come, "No, that's not it" and another would come to mind, and another. They were just not what he was needing. Then Moroni's promise came into mind. I felt the peaceful confirmation that that was what God wanted him to hear. We shared that verse to him, and the Spirit did the teaching. Nothing needed to be said. He read the scripture and his eyes teared up. It softened his heart. It was really neat for me to see how the whole spirit and atmosphere could change in one moment as God takes over in the lesson. There is a great strength the Book of Mormon has. It's indescribable, so there's no point in trying to describe it. All we can do is provide them with the opportunity to discover it themselves.