Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas especially since it was on Sunday! What a special way to celebrate the birth of Christ by going to church and partaking of the sacrament. I hope you all took the opportunity to #LightTheWorld this past month and that you continue to #LightTheWorld even after the season is over.

This week was pretty great! We had our zone Christmas thing and it was way fun. We had a talent show and lunch and some training and we got to get our Christmas packages. But we also got to watch It's a Wonderful Life. Let me tell you that is a fantastic movie with a great message but there is one, a lot of drinking and smoking (Word of Wisdom) and two, a lot of kissing. It was honestly so funny when people started kissing in the movie because my companion was like "this is so uncomforatable with all the elders in the room" And then President Randall got up at the end and made some comment like "wow it's a lot different watching this movie with you elders and sisters". Anyway, it was a great day haha.

On Tuesday Sister Cragun was supposed to sing for this thing so we went over to practice and I got roped into singing too! Ugh I was mad but it was a really pretty song but I told Sister Cragun never again but we will see how long that will last.

On Wednesday we went and visited this recent convert named Arline. Now Arline is like in her 70s or 80s and she is super hard of hearing and she lives alone and she really shouldn't live alone but she's a stubborn old lady that won't listen to us. Anyway, on Wednesday we were talking to her about the importance of daily scripture study because we read Job with her but she never reads on her own. So we are talking about her schedule and where she could fit in scripture study because apparently she is very "busy" all day. So I mentioned that my mom reads her scriptures during lunch because that's when she has time. Arline looked at me for a second and said no I can't do that, I have to make phone calls during lunch. So we try and talk to her about another time in the day and then she starts getting angry with us! She's telling us that we are trying to hurt her and we were like no Arline we aren't trying to hurt you, how are we hurting you. And she goes, "you are trying to make me read the scriptures!" 

Yesterday was a fun day! Sister Cragun and I opened presents right when we woke up because we are still children. Then we had church and then a member invites like the whole branch over for waffles after church on Christmas Sunday (like the Sunday nearest to Christmas if it doesn't actually fall on Christmas) So that was fun. We visited Arline again and she wasn't mad at us anymore so that's good. We visited other branch members and then we had Christmas dinner. Oh! I also finished the Book of Mormon on Christmas which I thought was cool! President Randall also challenged us to read the Book of Mormon between Christmas and Easter (you all should try and do it too) and so I finished right on time! Then I got to Skype my family! That was the highlight of my day of course. Best present ever!

Well I hope you all have a fantastic week! I love this work and I know it's hard but it's totally worth it to bring others unto Christ. I know He is my Savior and that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Him. 

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk