I hope that everyone had a safe and great holiday week !! I know I did. With the Christmas week and the cold virus going around, we did not do as much proselyting as we hoped, but I still saw a lot of miracles happen during the week!
Christmas Eve was a blast :) We spent the afternoon with some of our recent converts and got to do some much needed cleaning up around the apartment. Then, it was time to start going to members homes and eat dinner with them. We stayed at one family's house for 5 hours because they had their annual Swedish Christmas Eve Extravaganza! It was a fairly large party. I have never spent Christmas Eve with 24 other people eating and singing carols for 5 hours, so that was new and exciting! We ate a TON of food ! I am glad that I own a stretchy skirt. LOL. The family had us try all of the Swedish delicacies (Lutfisk, pickled herring, beef tongue, rye bread with lingonberries, Swedish meatballs and potato sausage etc) It wasn't actually that bad... except for the beef tongue... that was gross. Afterwards, we practiced caroling and then caroled to all of the neighbors which is part of their tradition. It was amazing to see the tears well up in the neighbor's eyes as we sang to them. Everyone needs a little cheer on Christmas Eve.
Christmas Day came the next morning and as a special present, we got to sleep an extra 30 minutes... which ended up just making me more tired. Funny how living the Mission Rules changes you. We opened our presents and ate chocolate for breakfast :) We relaxed and enjoyed our time to take care of ourselves and prepared for the rest of the day.
I got to call my family!! That was so much fun! I am glad to hear that they are all doing good. It was very interesting to hear their voices. These last 3 weeks have gone by so much faster than the 3 weeks at the MTC!
Next, we got to spend time at a hospital in Corning and we sang to those who needed it most. Even though I am not the best singer, we continued to spread the Holiday Cheer. I did lose my voice for about 2 hours after all of the singing though! We then went to 2 other member's homes and ate and ate. I loved getting to know them better and we even listened to a few conversion stories! Those stories are the BEST! I was full, happy and very tired when we got back to our apartment late that day.
But, no time to waste... after a day or two of relaxing it was back to work! We had companion exchanges, and I took over the area with a Sister in the southern Ward below us. I had to set up lessons, contacts, teach, lead the discussions, make travel plans and extend invitations to those we taught. We even had time to street contact and tract. By the end of the day, I was exhausted! But, I gained so much more confidence in myself and the Lord. After a short period of learning, I had to quickly start using things tools and principles that I have learned over the last month to teach and bring the Spirit into peoples' homes.
I have seen miracles EVERY TIME that we ask either members, less actives and non-members to pray after we teach an inspired lesson! As long as we do everything in our power to have the Spirit with us, people feel it and the Spirit teaches them and makes them feel so good and peaceful. I have even had a few members start crying during the lessons this last week as they have prayed for specific things and God answered their prayers as we sat in their homes or at other gathering areas.
I have learned this week that the gift of Agency is one of the most important aspects of the gospel. As we ACT, as we make choices and do things, we experience changes and feel power in our life to change anything we desire. But, we also need to focus on the small and simple things first to experience the greatest changes: prayer, scripture study, church attendance etc. Just as the story of Aaron and King Lamoni's Father in Alma 22, God answers our prayers as we turn our hearts to Him and forsake our sins and humble ourselves.
Well, I got to go! Love you all!
The Church is True!
Sister Williams
