A White Christmas!! 12/26/2016

This past week was a blast and too fast!! It is so crazy to think that this is my last Christmas on the mission! I have definitely loved Christmas out here and it has become my favorite day out here! This Christmas we saw a ton of miracles!! We also got our transfer calls this past Saturday: Elder Lund and I are going to be staying here in Gig Harbor together and our boys got their visas and are headed down to Trinidad and Tobago tomorrow at like 2 in the morning!? It is going to definitely be weird just having two of us in the companionship now, but I am super excited that both Elder Lund and I are staying in the area.

Christmas Miracles-

First, this past week we got a call from a member saying that her friend, A, wanted to meet with us. So we called A and set up a time to meet with her that day. It was one of the most Spirit-filled lessons that I have been in. Anyway long story short, A has been friends with the Hamilton family for years and has always seen the support that the church has given her and loved how close that we are as members. After talking for a minute, A asked us how she could be a part of this and that at age 70 she is looking for something more in life and wants to be a part of something bigger than her. We explained that the way to become a part of the church is through baptism, and she readily accepted! A is excited for her baptism this week on the 30th. While we were talking, A told us how she had gone to God in prayer one night asking what she needed to do and why she is still here. She told us that she got her answer that she needed to call up her old friend and ask to talk to the missionaries. --Wow! As you can assume I was so impressed! Keep her in your prayers and hope all goes well this week for the baptism!

Second, last night after eating dinner we went to the Van Duker's Christmas party. They are a member of our ward and had invited us to come over for some dessert. At the party they had invited their friends from Ukraine to join. They are not members of our church but are very interested in it and even came to church earlier that day. Of course, with missionaries present, we got to talking about the church and shared the message of the Restoration. Keep in mind that they spoke very little English and we would translate through the Van Duker's son who went to Ukraine on his mission. It was definitely one of my most memorable lessons because even though we had a language barrier between us we could feel the Spirit very strongly! We are planning on meeting with them throughout this next week and hope to help them learn more about the gospel. My favorite part of the lesson was when we invited V, the father, to say the closing prayer for us and he accepted! We knelt down and he offered the prayer for us and many whom he had just met that night. That takes some courage!

Here are some pics for ya!