Sister Olds the II: "I thought you were my angel."

Have I ever mentioned how much I love being a missionary? No? Well I absolutely LOVE IT!!!

There is so much that happened this week! Hiding Sister Looney's lighters so she won't smoke, Christmas, being hit on, abundance of blessings from the Lord. Where do I start??

Well on Christmas Eve we went to the Tonkinson's house for dinner. They had a bunch of people over from the ward and had lots of different soups and breads. It was delicious!! And Sister Perrenoud and Sister Beaudoin got to come as well so that was super fun!! Afterwards our whole district went caroling in Lorain. It was so great! Everyone was so grateful to have us come. Some people tried to pay us, but we just let them keep that and gave them a pass along card :) One house was my absolute favorite though. We rang the doorbell and started to sing, and then they opened the door and there was a huge family there and they all invited us in and sang with us. They all had out their iPad's and iPhone's and were video taping us as well. We sang a few songs with them and then gave them our card and told them who we were. Then they gave their church card to us! haha they were Pastor's at the nearby church and invited us to sing at their service! We invited them to church with us Sunday, but sadly none of them came. They all gave us huge hugs as we left though. They were all so great!!

Then for Christmas we went to the Teaman's house for breakfast/lunch. (We also woke up to a dead battery in our car and sweet Brother Buchanan jumped our car for us) They had all the missionaries over!! They were so hospitable to all of us!! Our ward here is seriously SO GREAT!! We had a huge breakfast with them, then some of the missionaries called home, and then we all played games for a while. Afterwards Sister Stringham and I went to the Taylor's to skype home!! Honestly it wasn't too hard since I feel like I just saw you all yesterday, but it was so much fun to talk to you!!!

So we had been having a lot of farming days, without seeing any success. Almost all of our stop by's were never home, appointments kept canceling, and one of our investigators dropped us. Needless to say it started out as a pretty rough week. But we didn't get discouraged and kept working hard! And we saw the blessings pour in because of it!! We were able to meet with a less active family and commited them to reading the Book of Mormon for the next 30 days together! Then we had a wonderful lesson with our investigator that has a baptismal date in January and he told us that he is already living all of the commandments! Then we were able to set up 3 more appointments that day for next week! We were so so so stoked! We went tracting later that day and met a lady who had just found out a few hours previously that someone very close to her had just passed away. She was so upset and kept thanking us profusely for stopping by at that time and gave us lots of hugs. We gave her a Proclomation to the Family and are meeting with her again this week. We love knowing that God trusts us to send us to certain people to be answers to their prayers.

The New Year is coming up!! What are all of your guys' new year's resolutions?

The number one thing I miss most being out here, is being able to go to the temple!! There is no greater place on Earth than the House of the Lord. As one of your new year's resolutions you should make it a goal to go to the temple as much as you can. At least once a month. I know that your life will be so blessed by serving in the temple and attending it regularly. At least go for me since I can't!

So on my first day tracting we met a man whose life would be SO BLESSED by the gospel. We taught him a short lesson and left a Book of Mormon with him. We went back to see him this week and were able to teach him again shortly on his front lawn, but he had said that he hadn't read any since we first met. He seemed interested in what we were teaching him and we made a return appointment and gave him our number. The next day he texted us and we were so excited!! We could tell that he was so ready for the gospel and knew it would make such a huge change in his life. As he was texting us, we quickly came to realize that it wasn't the gospel he was interested in... He didn't quite understand that missionaries do not date at all while on a mission. We were so bummed. Hopefully there will be Elders in this area soon that can teach him.

Thank you so so so much to everyone that has sent me letters this past week! You are all so wonderful! I feel so blessed to have so much love and support from such amazing friends and family. I love you all!!

Love,

Sister Olds the II