Sister Allie Slater: 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!!:)