December 21, 2015

Sisters Shirley, Coleman and Foderaro
at Mission Christmas Beach Party

This has been a crazy week! Really, every week is crazy, but awesome at the same time. The weather has been super warm, as you can see by our beach pictures. But then a cold front finally came, so we had a few days that were really cold (at least by Florida standards. It felt really cold, okay? (: ) But now it's back to warm again.

Florida Tamp Mission
Christmas Beach Party

Love the painted toes and sandal tans

Zone Sand Castle Competitions 

It has also been an emotionally crazy week. For Sister Foderaro and I because we're going home in 2 weeks and for Sister Shirley because we are leaving her and she has to take over the area. And missions are just hard. Going home is hard. Life is hard. But thankfully we have a Savior for that :) And I am very excited to see all of your faces again :)

And J and D got baptized! That was one of the more stressful days of my life. Everything that could go wrong did. Of course. Satan is a meanie pants. First of all, we almost flooded the church. In our defense, the baptismal font in our building fills up SO FAST! We had been watching it carefully, but then the W got there and we were talking to them. And... we went to check the font and it was overflowing. Yikes. Thankfully it just got on the tile around the font and not on the carpet. We were laughing hysterically for a few minutes at our own stupidity. The W were like "what's so funny?" Then H helped us dump many trashcans full of water into the toilet. He saved the day, we wouldn't have been able to do that in time on our own. I am never filling a baptismal font again.

J and D Baptism

And THEN the person who made the programs (I'm not naming any names, just know that this one was not our fault) put the wrong name on the baptismal program. Poor J. And they didn't have time to fix it before the baptism. They announced the error, but the person conducting still said the name wrong several times... awkward.

W Family

But hey, they got baptized! Overall, it was a very bittersweet day. We wish that the parents could've gotten baptized with them, but I know that they'll get there eventually. 

I AM SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS THIS WEEK!!! Okay, I'm done.

I chose for my ponderize scripture this week Luke 2:10-11 (Original, I know): 

"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." 

I've been thinking today about how the angel told them to fear not and how we can apply that to all of us. Because Christ was born, we truly have no reason to fear. Anything. Ever. 

And I also love verse 19: 

"But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart."

I've been trying to ponder in my heart what this story really means to me. I wish I had the words to describe how I feel about it. We are just so, so blessed. And I am so grateful that I get to share these good tidings of great joy here in Florida.

I hope that you get to take time this week to ponder what the birth of the Savior means to you personally. And I hope every one of you have a most wonderful Christmas! :)