Hope You Had an Epic Christmas :)

What an incredible week it was to celebrate the birth of our older brother, the Savior.

For our district activity, Sister Thomas and I volunteered to make sugar cookies that we could decorate. We got kits so you could make ugly sweater cookies and ninja bread cookies. They were so cute! We thought it would be so simple to just roll out the dough and use the cookie cutter and make the cookies... yeah that was a joke haha. We realized we didn’t have a rolling pin... or flour. The dough was so sticky! Goodness! It took us a good 5 hours to make the cookies haha but in the end it ended up good. Needless to say though, I am never making sugar cookies again! Bleh. The activity was really fun! I made my ugly sweater cookie and Ohio State sweater of course :) Forever a Buckeye fan!:)

On Christmas Eve we decided to make some goodie plates to take to less-actives. Yes… we made cookies again. But this time it was no bakes! I still butchered them... I burnt the first batch. Don’t ask me how you burn no bakes okay! It just happened. Of course it happened to me haha. So it took a little longer to make them… and to package them because they have to look cute of course! I honestly am cookied out. But it was fun taking the cookies to people, and spreading some Christmas joy!:) We went to the Flanders for dinner. We walked in and it was so festive! Oh my goodness I loved it :) Of course the Flanders invited their neighbors over so we could talk to them. They are the best missionaries! They are a family from Japan and they do not speak much English but we still had good conversation :) We had soup and bread bowls! They bread bowls were legit the size of my head. We were laughing at how big they were haha. We just ate and enjoyed each others company and then talked about the true meaning of Christmas of course :) Brother Donovan was live texting my parents and Sister Thomas’s they were loving it!:) We came home after dinner put on our jammies and had a little party :) In reality we were really tired so... we went to bed at like 10. But overall, it was a FANTASTIC Christmas Eve :) Plus we got a potential investigator! Thanks Flanders :)

          CHRISTMAS!!! Sister Thomas and I woke up and went and opened presents :) We would switch off opening. It reminded me of Christmas morning at home! I first opened my stocking... cutest stocking ever! It is a Sister Missionary stocking :) I opened some more presents and I opened a little blue box... what is Christmas without Tiffany?:) Haha I love my family! They got me the cutest little jewelry box :) And Savannah got me the cutest pillow that has Nebraska and Ohio with little connecting hearts. Because truly, that’s where our hearts will be. I love my Sister so much! Ah! It was such a good Christmas morning :) After we made hot chocolate, and scones for breakfast! Sister Thomas’s mom sent some scone mix so we used that. They were delicious!:) We spent our time getting ready... (we wanted to look nice for our families) then we studied for a bit in Luke about Christ’s birth. My favorite verse is when it says for with God nothing is impossible. And it is so true! If we truly have faith in God, nothing is impossible. Man, the story of the Savior’s birth just never gets old. We headed over to the Kohn’s after that and FaceTimed our families. It was so amazing. I loved seeing their faces :) I cried a few times... how could I not? I miss them soo much! But I am so happy here in Ohio. You are very torn as a missionary haha I wish my family could just be here with me in Ohio! But, I am happy I got to talk with them :) It was good! It honestly was a good motivation for me! I will get to talk to them again in 5 months :) woo! After that we went to see some less-actives and members to share a little Christmas message :) We showed the nativity, and every time I watched it my testimony just grew stronger. This truly happened, it is such a significant part of history and our lives! We had dinner at the Kohn’s. She mad authentic Italian food :) Mmmm it was delicious! She is Italian so she wanted to show off :) Their non-member friends were there so we talked to them too! It was a great Christmas dinner :) Brother Kohn told us some hilarious stories about his brother who is a cop. Haha It was so fun!:) After dinner we saw some more less-actives then went home. We were exhausted but overall, Christmas was a fantastic day! I am so grateful for the gift of the Savior. It is just truly amazing to be here on a mission representing Him. A lot of the time I do not feel worthy of that... but I am grateful He trusts me enough to stand in his place. To say and do what he himself would say and do if he were personally ministering among the very people to whom he has sent me to! I strive everyday to be a good representative of Him.

         So we were out working one day and we got back in our car and it wouldn’t start! The key would not turn! Okay... so this happened to us once before. We were freaking out! We thought we broke the car or something because the key would legit not turn... so we prayed and I grabbed the key and I said that I had the faith that they key would turn, and it did! It was a miracle! So we thought that this time it would work too. I guess we were lacking in faith because it didn’t haha. We were stuck for like an hour just trying to figure out what to do! So we eventually called Elder Rowley. He is in charge of the cars, and he came and simply just turned the wheel a little and the key turned and the car started! What the heck? We felt so dumb… but we were grateful the car finally worked haha :) Lesson learned. We went to Sister Smith’s for dinner and her son Austin was there. His hair is so long and he has a legit beard, he looks like John the Baptist. He was so funny! He went to Brazil on his mission and we were quoting the Restoration together haha. Man you see that 20 min. movie so many times you just quote it so much. We were laughing so hard.

         Sunday was Sister Kohn’s birthday so we made plans to heart attack her door… we went to her house and was putting all the hearts on and she pulls up in her car!! What are the chances!! We quickly ran to our car and said “this is a surprise you never saw us.” And Sister Kohn says “saw who?” Haha we just love her!:) We had dinner with the Hammonds and Wes Sunday! Wes has been out of town so we haven’t gotten to see him in a while. I sure missed him! For his new member lessons we are having him teach us, we act like investigators and it is really fun :) He taught us about repentance and enduring to the end. It is so funny to see him act like a missionary and say the same things we would say haha. But in reality his lesson was amazing! I am just so proud of Wes. He has already grown so much. He was so prepared for this gospel it is crazy! I am so grateful I got to help bring him closer to Christ :) Missions are hard... but when you see the change in people as they come closer to Christ it makes it all worth it :)

         I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!:) Any holiday celebrating the Savior is great :) Hope you all didn’t eat too many sweets (I did). Hey! Everyone gains weight on the mission it is fine haha :) I love you all so much and thank you all for the Christmas cards, and gifts. I have the best family and friends ever!!:) 

My OSU cooke :)

Ok... we are a pretty cute matching companionship :)

This is where we had Christmas! Isn't it adorable? :) 

A Tiffany kind of Christmas :)

Scones + candle light = perfect Christmas morning :)

Cutest stocking ever. 

Thanks Morgan and Heidi for the jammies :) This is how I've been sleeping lately haha!

MERRY CHRISTMAS... and stuff.

It is hard to explain how weeks go on the mission… so I will share a visual. You know in Tangled when Rapunzel first leaves and she runs around saying “this is the best day ever!” then she gets all sad and says “I have to go back.” then she continues back and forth? That is EXACTLY how missions go. Haha. One day it will be like this is the best day! Then the next day you will want to go home because the day is rough… as Flynn Ryder would say us missionaries are very at war with ourselves :)

           Tuesday was Wes’s birthday! Happy Birthday Wes!:) It was also P-day so we made him a brownie cake :) He thought it was store bought! We were pretty proud of ourselves. It was so delicious! Wednesday was one of those I wanted to go home days haha it was REALLY long. We don’t have the car this week (bummer) so we are on foot, which stinks. It is also really cold, AND no one is home. Honestly. And if they are home this is what they say “come back after the new year.” Haha ok... yeah that happened all day! So we got nothing done! It was just long but Sister Thomas and I got to know each other better so that is always a plus!:)

           We went on exchanges this week, it was fun! We have new Sister Training Leaders, Sister Ure, and Sister Wagstaff. Sister Ure trained Sister Thomas so of course she wanted to come to Hayden Run and be with Sister Thomas so I got to go to Riverside with Sister Wagstaff. It was so fun!:) We knocked this guys door though... he was mean. I was not a fan. He opened the door and we shared an He is the Gift card and he goes “Oh… so you are Mormon?” And we were like ya! What do you know about Mormons? And he was like “I know a little.” We were like sweet! So we stared sharing the restoration and he goes “Actually… I know a lot about Mormons.” Then he started talking all this anti stuff! What the heck? He totally played us! He like went off about Joseph Smith and how we aren’t Christians... ok whatever haha. We got a little defensive but all ended well :) Exchanges were super fun though!:)

           We walked A LOT this week so Sister Thomas and I had really random conversations as we are walking. My favorite this week was a heated debate... Edward vs. Jacob. I have not had this debate since Jr. High haha. It was fantastic! She was all for Jacob... and I was like nooo what the heck? Edward all the way! We also had a Peeta vs. Gale debate... Peeta for life:) Haha it was really funny!

           It is just so cool being able to share the He is the Gift with everyone!:) It is such an amazing video and people outside of the church really appreciate it! I feel like people remember that Christ truly should be the center of Christmas but people just forget with all the craziness around them, it is nice to be out here in the mission and be able to take a breather and truly devote myself to the true meaning of Christmas :)

           OH MY GOODNESS! So my mom is doing a 12 days of Christmas thing and one of the days I get this huge box and I am like hmmm what is in this? I open it and in it is my FAVORITE SOUP!! Heidi Brittain’s famous creamy chicken noodle! Yum :) It was all nice and frozen when it got to me! WHAT IS LIFE? I was just in shock for the longest time. Especially when I sat down to eat it. I was sitting here in Ohio eating my favorite soup from Utah… I was mind blown. Best surprise ever :) Thank you mom and Heidi! We went caroling this week which was fun! I didn’t realize how much caroling truly means to people but it really does! I really like caroling :) It just adds so much Christmas spirit :)

           MONDAY WAS THE BEST! Again my P-day this week was Tuesday and we had our mission Christmas party/devotional. It was AMAZING! We did white elephant gifts, slide show of pics from the year, talent show, minute to win it games, and just a bunch of fun stuff :) The best part though was the actual devotional. It was filled with beautiful songs about Christ, and of course it was filled with the Spirit

:) President Daines shared a sweet message which talked about how there were no rooms in the inn for the Savior to be born, and how we should always have room in our lives (the inn) for the Savior. Sometimes it seems we have so much time to do everything else that there is hardly time for the best gift we have ever received. As Christmas comes this week may we all make room in our “inns” for the Savior. I know that if we do that our lives will be filled with so much joy.

           I love you all so much. I know Jesus Christ lives, and He is our Savior and Redeemer. I have come to know this more and more everyday I have been here. He can truly heal us. I am grateful for Him, and grateful for His birth. Have a Merry Christmas :)

Wes' brownie!

Nose waxing. #tradition 

FROZEN SOUP! 

IT WAS DELICIOUS! I couldn't believe I was eating it! 

I stepped in dog poop... 

Companionships... I love Sister Thomas :)

MY MOM!! I love her :)

MTC besties :) We will be companions one day.

Change.

This is such a crazy week! AH! Transfer week is always a crazy week though. Monday Sister Horsley got a call that she is going to be a Sister Training Leader! So crazy! So that means we are for sure being separated :( How sad. It is ok though! A mission is all about change and change is good! So that means Tuesday she would be at training most of the day... and I had to find somewhere to be while she was there. I pretty much had to find another companionship to baby-sit me haha. So, we asked the Westland Sisters if I could hang with them for the day! I was really excited. Sister Horsley was really nervous for training. Well, she is nervous to be an STL but she’s got it :) I am not worried! She will be AMAZING!

         It was fun to go with the Westland Sisters! I got to meet a lot of new people. Sister Fisher is one of the missionaries leaving this transfer so she was packing and what not. Crazy! She was a little trunky, but not too bad :) I came home and Sister Horsley told me all about her training! She said it was scary, but good :) Haha I don’t know why but it hasn’t really hit either of us that she is leaving, and we will be getting new companions.

         Wednesday was P-day so we went and did p-day stuff like shopping and what not. We went to Steak n Shake with Wes since it could be one of the last times Sister Horsley would see him! :( During lunch we got “the call” haha. It is the call to see who is staying, and who is leaving. We were told that Sister Horsley was leaving, and I was staying. SHOCKER! Not really haha :) We already knew it. We spent the rest of the day packing and cleaning... it was fun.., haha! But we had dinner with the Jolley’s, and they have one of those chair stair things. You know, like the one Carl has in UP! They let me ride on it! It is like a little roller coaster! I was super pumped :) It was the highlight of my day!

         Transfer morning was sad... it finally started to sink in that she was leaving... and I started to get a little bit of anxiety about getting a new comp. It is hard to change! And that is what missions are about, taking you out of your comfort zone so you can learn and grow. I was nervous of who my new comp would be but I knew the Lord will put me with someone I am supposed to be with. Sister Horsley and I celebrated in the morning with Martinelli’s and a pre-Christmas party haha. We got each other little stockings and put candy in them :) It was a fun morning! We rode with Sister Hammond to transfers and that’s when the anxiety really started to come. AHH! I didn’t want a new comp. But all is well :) Sister Horsley and I were sad to separate but we knew it was for the best!

         I was one of the first people to get a new companion, and I got Sister Thomas! She is so cool :) I just love her! We get along really well :) She is from northern California. We came back and ate lunch and went to see a lot of members and stuff, so that was fun.

         WE GOT TO GO TO BAPTISMS WITH WES! Oh my goodness it was so exciting and incredible :) We also got Brother D. to come so that was good too! He was baptized a year ago and never came to do baptisms before... we were happy we got him to come :) But Wes baptized his dad! The spirit was so strong, he said it was so amazing. I was so happy Sister Thomas and I could be there for him and this incredible experience. Wes has a count down on his phone to when he gets to be endowed. He is so excited :) He cannot wait to be able to do that for his dad as well! Such a blessing that we have temples!

         It is hard taking over the area not going to lie! I mean Sister Thomas has no idea what is going on in the area so I am on my own for the first week or so but no worries I got it :) It is crazy because I am not being trained anymore! I am a normal missionary! Makes me feel cool haha :) Saturday was the ward party, which was a lot of fun! We listened to Christmas music and had ham, haha. It was a good chance for Sister Thomas to meet the members! Transfers are just so inspired. Sister Thomas and I get along so well :) I love how the Lord truly does put you with who you are supposed to be with.

          So, this week P-day is Tuesday because Monday we had a specialized training with Elder Perkins of the seventy. Oh my goodness! It was amazing! He talked about in the beginning how when you have a really spiritual experience it wears you out, and you are tired after. This is what happened to me after Monday! It was incredible! The training lasted 8:30-4, and the spirit was so strong the whole time. We talked a lot about being obedient, and Preach my Gospel. Elder Packer said about Preach my Gospel, “It was written on the other side of the veil, and printed here.” Woah! How crazy is that? That just shows how amazing PMG is. I am so grateful I have it here on my mission. We also wrote a little psalm. Here is mine: “Praise ye to the Lord for He hath carried me, and strengthened me. The Lord, He is my older brother and Savior and I will always love Him.” I just love it! Its like my own scripture that I wrote :) So overall Monday was AWESOME! And we finished the night off with Chick-Fil-A because Sister Thomas hadn’t had it in a year and a half! She was in heaven :) Oh and my family is doing a 12 days of Christmas thing for me. Everyday I have a little present to open :) I just love them! It truly is making my Christmas more special!

         Sorry this week’s email is all over the place because honestly this week was all over the place. But, I love you all sooo much! I hope you all have an amazing Christmas season! It is upon us! :) Have a good week :)

Our celebration morning :)

YAY!

Goodbye to Sister Horsley :(

Sister Thomas! :) 

This was at the ward Christmas party! We took it when everything was almost cleaned up. Haha it was fun though :)

'Tis The Season

Hello family and friends!

So, Sister Horsley and I were at the grocery store Monday and this guy walks up to us and asks us if we hang out at the library a lot. We actually do because that is where the computers we use are!:) So we told him yes and he told us he sees us there all the time, but he never had enough courage to say hi to us! He said he could tell something was different about us. We told him how we are missionaries from our church! He said oh that is probably it cause you two are just so pretty and you have a light with you. He was super sweet! He told us he would like to talk with us more, and gave us his number! What?! It is just so crazy how the Lord prepares people! This man has seen us at the library for weeks and now he wanted to say hi, and he is interested in our message! Miracles do happen I tell ya! They do! It is just so cool how often you see them out in the mission field.

This week really was pretty un eventful... no cool baptisms like last week but I will still tell you about my week! We taught Meredith. She is this really nice older lady, and she always tells us about her “significant other”, her boyfriend haha. She is just hilarious! She is progressing alright... she is having a really hard time with Joseph Smith so we are helping her with that. Oh! So do you remember me talking about Sarah? Probably not. We met her my first day in the field. We saw her outside her home one night and she was like “you can walk with me to take my daughter to her friends house down the street.” We were like sweet! So we went. She opened up to us about issues going on in her family right now, and how she is just having a really hard time. Sister Horsley and I gave her a BOM and told her it could help her through these very hard times. She said she would read it. We love Sarah! We know this gospel can help her in her life. She is so awesome! You will for sure hear more about her.

So, our mission is really trying to get into family history. It is so fun! I am guilty, I have never really been on family search before until now... it is amazing! Oh my goodness! I could spend hours on there. I read a story that truly touched me. It is about my great, great grandma Pauline. Her faith is just so incredible. She had a hard time getting pregnant and she just wanted a baby so bad, but her body had complications that would not allow her to have a baby. She went to the temple one day and said she knew if she touched the prophets hand she would be healed, and be able to get pregnant. Well, as she was in the temple down walks President Joseph F. Smith down the stairs. He grabbed my grandma’s hands, and she knew immediately she was healed. She had my great grandma Ruth a year later. How amazing is that?! The faith she had. She said she thought of the story of the woman who touched Christ’s robe. It is just so amazing what faith can do. The Lord works off of faith. That story of my grandma Pauline really inspires me to have more faith in the Lord, and in myself. Ah! I just love that story.

Sister Horsley and I decided we really want to help less actives and focus on them. So, we spent legit like 3 hours coming up with ways to help them. It was really long, but it was so cool! All these ideas were just flowing! We were truly listening to the spirit! Saturday I was sick. I got a sore throat Friday and Saturday it was just so bad. I slept a lot of the day. It was crazy that my whole day was just gone! I went to sleep when it was light, and woke up when it was getting dark! (ok, it gets dark here at 5 but still!) That night we had a lesson planned with Wes that I did not want to miss. So we walked a pretty far distance to Panera Bread for our lesson. It is the new member lessons so we are teaching all the same lessons, but we made him teach them to us! Hehehehe. So, Wes taught us the Restoration. He did amazing! His testimony is so strong I am like woah Wes! When did you turn into such a spiritual giant! He is so amazing ahhh!

                Sunday I still wasn’t feeling well... I felt like I was floating on a cloud all day haha but Wes received the Priesthood! It was amazing! He was beaming. He felt so humbled that Heavenly Father would trust him with the power of God. He also got his temple recommend so he can go do baptisms! He wants to baptize his dad! I am just so excited for him! We love talking with Wes. It is just so convenient he is our neighbor, we just go over and talk with him any time we really want haha it is fantastic! Oh my goodness did you all enjoy the Christmas Devotional?! I loved it! We watched it with Wes and he really enjoyed it as well! I loved Elder Christofferson’s talk about the boy who celebrated all those Holiday’s in a week :) It was just the sweetest story! I felt the spirit so strong during that, I am so grateful for this gospel and for this time of year.

So yeah not a super exciting week, but still good :) Everyone is getting sick so it does not surprise me at all that I got sick… #tistheseason haha. Transfers are the 11^th. We are pretty sure Sister Horsley is leaving but, hey, you never know. We will get the call Wednesday. AH! I am nervous but, I will go where the Lord wants me to go, and be with who the Lord wants me to be with :) So you will get the details in the letter next week! I appreciate all the prayers! I love you soo much!  BYE!!

Merry Christmas! Love the Who's of Ohio :) 

Our "retro" picture... that's what the filter was called haha. 

Ok, so with these pics this was the plan... to flip our hair and then do a glamour shot face after... this is how it turned out. Scroll slowly :)

So you see my glamour face... and Sister Horsley's :) We were dying when we looked at these! Hahahaha man missions are great. 

How cool is this picture? I like how it brings out the red in Sister Horsley's hair :)