December 7, 2015

Sisters Foderaro, Shirley and Coleman

We're getting really pumped for Christmas down here in good ol' 80 degree Florida. We found out that we can listen to Christmas music again this year! Normally we can only listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, so it's pretty exciting.

This week our stake had something called Festival of the Nativity. They gather nativities that different members have from all over the world and have lots of music, crafts, and cookies. I'm not sure how many people ended up coming, but I think it was over a thousand. We got to help out with it, it was really stressful but also really good. The first one they had was during the afternoon on Friday, and a bus full of elderly ladies from a retirement center for people who are losing their memory came. They were all so sweet and it was really fun to talk to them. One of them told us "I'll never forget you!" And we were like wow... that's really sad.... They sang "You Are My Sunshine" for us and it was really cute to see them get all excited about it.They didn't remember much, but they sure remembered "You are My Sunshine" :)

I found out that someone I found in Lake Wales got baptized on Saturday! Her name is S and she's amazing. We had to stop teaching her because her husband didn't want her to get baptized, but apparently the Lord provided a way! Funny how He always does that :)

This is from Lake Wales in the summer, back when I was tan.
This is the woman who got baptized.

Last Sunday Sister Foderaro and I sang "Lead Kindly Light" in sacrament meeting. Some members played the flute and the cello, it was a really pretty arrangement. I don't know if I can say the same for our singing...

We tracted into a lady this week who really loves our church. She wasn't interested at all but told us "Congratulations on being Mormon!" We also met a man who was really offended that we wanted to pray with him. But he told us that women are the superior sex and not to ever let anyone tell us otherwise. Ah, I love tracting, you never know who you're gonna find :)

Walkin

We had a really good zone conference this week. I got answers to a lot of questions that I had, especially how I can make the most out of this last transfer. I realized it was my last zone conference and that kind of freaked me out. But I'm so grateful for the time I have left to serve here. I LOVE being a missionary. It's the hardest thing I've ever done, but also the most rewarding. It's such a wonderful privilege to be able to represent the Savior and to teach people about Him. Especially at this time of year :)

This is from last week, before we got Sister Shirley.

Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men -1 Corinthians 7:23. 

I found that scripture this morning and I love it, it's very straightforward and to the point :) It was a good reminder to me of what a heavy price was paid for us. So why would we ever serve men instead of God? That's just stupid :) Of course it's more complicated than that, but remembering the price that Christ paid for us can help give us the courage we need to serve Him more fully.