Week of December 21st - Merry Christmas Ya'll

At the Ward Christmas Party!

This week was one of the best ones I have had in the mission field. Everyone is so nice around the holidays! We were able to meet a couple individuals that are truly prepared to receive the restored gospel. Me and Sister Widdison were at the library and a guy asks "is there a temple here in Lafayette?" (that definitely caught us off guard!). We then continued speaking with him and he told us that he just moved from Texas and used to meet missionaries there! It was a beautiful tender mercy. His name is Innocence Aku and he is originally from Nigeria! He went to our ward Christmas party and even helped put the tables away! He is GOLDEN. I am just so grateful that we were at the right place at the right time to run into him :) 

Stephanie's family Christmas party

Another amazing thing that happened this week was Josh Jay. On Monday, I got a referral from Elder Gunnell! (a friend of mine serving in the Florida mission). He told me about Josh Jay and said that he was super prepared. He just moved from the area that Elder Gunnell used to be in and came to Lafayette! So it was crazy cool. We were able to set an appointment up with him for Saturday morning. When we went to his apartment there was no answer. We were super bummed and started to walk away...but something kept telling me to turn around. I ignored it and then it came back to my mind "turn around". So I turned to Sister Widdison and said that we should go see if he opened the door since we walked away. When we went to his door it was still closed. After that we just continued back to our car (going the other way). On our way, we ran into Josh! It was so awesome because we wouldn't have ran into him if we kept going the other way. So then, we had a lesson with him on his porch and it turns out he met with missionaries for years! The only thing that was holding him back was his family, but he just moved away from them. We committed him to baptism :) I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost. I am grateful that we were able to have the opportunity to meet this amazing guy who is crazy-prepared to be baptized. That was a miracle!!!

We also met this really sweet lady who was deaf this week! We had a conversation with her through her daughter, and it turns out we have a interpreter for sign language in our ward! We hope to start teaching her :) 

Another crazy thing that happened is kind of embarrassing..I sort of ran the car into a ditch. Louisiana roads are the worst! I turned the wheel slightly too soon and..we were stuck. It was so scary! Luckily southern hospitality is a real thing. This guy helped us get the car out and there wasn't much damage to the car. Plus we got to share the christmas.mormon.org website with him, so that was cool :) 

For ZTM we had a white elephant gift exchange and our mission president read us The Cajun Night Before Christmas. It was pretty funny :)

I read a talk by Elder Holland explaining the difference between enjoying Christmas and understanding Christmas. It is not a bad thing to enjoy the holidays with cheerful music and fun Christmas activities, but are we letting this over shadow our celebration of Christ's birth? Do we truly understand Christmas and keep that as our focus during the holidays? Being on a mission around Christmas time is definitely a different experience. I am truly learning how to understand Christmas more rather than just enjoying it 24/7. I remember the Savior at all times and get to share it with others. A mission experience is the best gift I have yet to receive and I feel it is the best I will ever receive. The spirit of Christmas is much more than just wrapping and unwrapping presents; it's more than decorating houses. The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of Christ, and we can carry this with us even after Christmas.

I truly hope that ya'll have a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for your emails and letters this Christmas season.

#ASaviorIsBorn

Love,

Sister Amanda Cornia