Can I tell you all how much I just LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! Oh man... its just so much fun! Mormon.org/Christmas has a really nice nativity video that we have been talking to everyone about and giving them Mormon.org cards that have /Christmas written on them. It is our message we have been sharing with families for dinner as well as what we say on every doorstep. I just absolutely love talking about Christmas! Mostly I love my savior Jesus Christ, and mostly I love the atonement. Our vision this zone is What Would the Savior Do, and our district vision is, Remember What the Atonement means to you! I think they are both inspired visions as I have been thinking A TON about Jesus Christ all transfer! I just think Christmas is the greatest time of year, and I wish more people had the "spirit of Christmas" all year round like most Christian people should!
Ok... this week... what have I been up to? Sister Carver is doing an amazing job progressing towards baptism! I just love going to her house because it is always just so filled with love. We have been teaching her a lot of commandments, and it is so fun to see her just eat them all up! We taught about tithing and she just said, yup, I can do that... what else! She hasn't broken the word of wisdom since we invited her to be baptized. She is committed to keeping the Sabbath Day holy, even though she said it will be hard to start changing her mind set to not shopping on Sunday she will do it. She has the strongest testimony of the Book of Mormon of any investigator I have met, and that point right there is why teaching her everything else is so easy. She knows its true, and just wants to know what she needs to do to live it more fully! Oh man I just love it!!! On Sunday we thought we would have Bryan (the one who was baptized in October) and his girlfriend sit by the Carvers in church to kind of "ween" them off the missionaries. We were thinking just sacrament meeting but they hit it off pretty well and they stayed together all of church. We saw her afterwards and gave her hugs and we apologized we didn't get to sit with her and she said that she understands that soon she will have to be on her own and not attached to the sisters. She honestly is the most golden person ever, I want to be just like her when I grow up! I just love her so much!!!
Another AMAZING thing yesterday in church... Bryan passed the sacrament! We met with him on Friday and he told us he got the priesthood, and then we saw him use that amazing power of God to pass the sacrament! Oh my gosh I felt like a proud mother. I was so filled with joy it was insane. I thought the best thing of missionary work was finding new people to teach, then I thought it was bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon, then I thought it was seeing people get baptized, but seeing him pass the sacrament was probably the most happy I have been out here! Just all around a very neat experience.
Speaking of neat experiences... we went to a JW church yesterday at their Kingdom Hall here in Lafayette. We tracted into a J-Dub earlier this week and she was very nice. We talked about similarities in our service and then we talked about similarities in our church. We invited her to come to our church and she said she probably won't just like we wouldn't ever go to hers, and we wanted to show her that, like the article of faith #11 says, we respect other peoples religion, and that we would go to hers. So we stayed for the first part, and it was all about the creation. Did you know that Jesus Christ didn't have the power to create the world, only God did... that was new to me, all this time I thought Christ had power... "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." -Matthew 28:18. Apparently not though... haha, JK. They were really nice people, and that was the only part of their doctrine (in the 40 minutes we were there) that was off. I just really feel bad because they are good people trying to do good things, but they just don't have the fullness of the truth! Please let me teach you!!! Also their bible is different than the King James one, they have taken out "thee" and "thou" to make it easier to understand. But in my opinion when you are speaking about your Father in Heaven, calling him "you" is just not respectful enough!
Guess what the weather has been like the past week! Your first guess was probably snow, but you would be wrong. It is in the 60's. I've been wearing a short sleeve shirt and my skirt with no leggings or scarves or anything the past 3 days. Its so beautiful. This is the best December I have had since 2008 when I lived in Gilbert. I kinda am loving it here!!! (And now that I said that the weather will drop and we will see nothing but snow for the next 3 months... luckily I am prepared for such an occasion!)
Parents, I got the Christmas package you sent me, and I love you both so much! But talk about torturing your daughter, sending a package with all of the gifts wrapped up and a note saying I can't open it until Christmas!!! AAAAHHHHH!!! My companion is making me be honest and won't let me open them yet. I'm trying to be good, its just really hard! lol... I have actually just put everything back in the box and put it in the back of my closet so I don't see it during the day. But I still know its there!
One last thing, I hope everyone was able to see the First Presidency Christmas Devotional last night. If you didn't get to see it I would recommend watching it. I just love that our church is led by a living prophet, and that he and his counselors love us all so much. The devo was amazing, and I just LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! But as much as I love it I really don't want it to come this year, because then the spirit leading up to it will leave, but most importantly my trainer will leave. She actually leaves 2 weeks from today to go home, and I'm super bummed about it. We have become best friends, and even though we will write each other, not having her here in Indiana is going to be a real bummer. I just don't even really want to think about it yet... sad day!
But anyway, I love Lafayette! I love Purdue (I actually think I have more Purdue T-shirts out here than BYU-I shirts... where is my loyalty?) I love the people I'm teaching. I love the Book of Mormon. I love my companion. I even love the Toyota Corolla I drive (not as much as my CRV, but I still love it!) I love everything about being a missionary!!! Oh, and I love all of you at home a ton too! Have a great week,
Sister Cordner
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