Large Plates
Pday, "family reunions," and Christmas!
Started off the week with Pday at BDubs! Tried the spiciest wing & generally I just ate too much. I got a stomachache but to be honest I deserved it. I inflicted it upon myself.
Then we went to Goodwill. One of the Elders tried on quite the outfit & he looked like Alexander Hamilton but if he was a pirate haha. I love my district so much.
Wednesday we had our mission Christmas devotional! My musical number with Hermana Morris was not a train wreck like I had anticipated. Also we bore our testimonies after! When I got up to bear mine, I started off good, and then I saw a childhood friend sitting in the pews! I stopped my testimony mid sentence & just said "oh, hey Elder Kelly" in front of everyone. I then explained that we're from the same homeward etc. haha. Then I finished up my testimony (see small plates).
The mission devotional was seriously the best though. There was time for musical numbers and testimonies and that's it. It was such an uplifting and spiritual experience:)
The week was pretty slow as far as missionary work cause it was Christmas time and everyone is too busy to talk to us haha.
Christmas was good though! We woke up and didn't really know what to do, cause our families are in different time zones so they were still asleep. So we did a face mask at 6:35 in the morning haha. Then we called our families and talked and opened presents and all that good stuff. Then we had a meal at a senior couples house, with half our district and a super funny Brazilian convert. I love eating there cause they're so sweet and funny and she makes super yummy sourdough. Then we went to another senior couple's house. We couldn't eat much because we ate so much literally right before we got there. But we enjoyed their company, along with the company of a bunch of the Elders. Then we talked to our families for another little bit before going to meal number 4 of the day. We ate an embarrassing small amount of food. I felt so bad haha. And then we went to the church with our district with the intention of building gingerbread houses. But we didn't have anything sharp to cut open the frosting bags with, so we had a nerf war instead. Not gonna lie, I kinda finessed the nerf war. I was just light on my feet and ruthless with the gun lol. We're definitely buying more guns and having an epic war today for pday ;)
Thats pretty much it for Christmas though! It was a little tough being away from family at Christmas time, but I know this is where I'm supposed to be. And I'm so grateful for the missionaries I serve with. Transfers are today but none of us are moving! It's a Christmas miracle. We get to stay together for another transfer and I'm very happy about it.
Small Plates
Make this December one to remember. Come to know Jesus Christ.
President and Sister Ashcraft challenged us to make this December one to remember. When I first heard this, I thought to myself, "well, certainly this will be a December to remember for me, since its my first transfer here in the mission field."
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized simply being a missionary was not going to be enough. I wanted to make my first of 2 Christmases as a missionary count. So this month, I've been studying the names of Christ in my personal studies. It's been so awesome to learn so much about my Savior every day. I could try to share what I've learned in this email but I'm afraid if I tried I would accidentally write a book. It's just been so great to really learn who Jesus Christ is and what He means to the world.
But better yet, I've been able to learn who He is to me personally. I've come to know Him. Through study, sure. But also through applying His Atonement to my life in the form of daily repentance. You guys, His Atonement is so so powerful. And so so real. And so so personal.
I can't even begin to express how privileged I feel to be on a mission right now, especially here in the FOM.
Every day I'm able to literally bear the name of the man who literally bore our sins. There's nothing like it.
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