OH MAN!! :)
I am so stinkin' excited for Christmas in the field!!! My first and only Christmas as a full-time missionary :) I am going to enjoy every minute of it!! "Come what may and love it". This week was a really good one. I am convinced that after some of the hardest times is when the best of times come. It is a trial of our faith... After the rain comes the rainbow. The sun will always shine again :) Monday we got to go have a recent convert lesson. Hermana McDonald had a baptism with them. It was a little boy whose name is Eric. He is 9. It turns out the family got sealed I think it 2008 but after that they went in-active. So he was never baptized. They are such an incredible family! We watched Joy to the World with them and then we went around the room and every one of us told why we love our Savior Jesus Christ. By the end most of us were crying. One of the little girls said how happy she was that they had been sealed. It was honestly one of the times in my mission that I have felt the Spirit the strongest. It was truly incredible :) It's so fun as a missionary to go around and teach people about "the reason of the season" our Savior and His birth. Tuesday was so awesome!!! So anyone who knows me knows how much I love old people :) I don't know why but I really do love them SO much. We met the cutest little old grandpa named Santiago and then he told us we should go and talk to his neighbor. We are pretty sure his wife passed away and he is alone. He doesn't speak Spanish so we had to give him as a referral but not before I got a picture with him :) His name is Lother. He is seriously the sweetest/cutest little old grandpa in the world. When I saw what hat he was wearing I couldn't help but ask him if I could take a picture with him :) Take a look! I'll attach the picture :) Wednesday was INCREDIBLE!!! We had a specialized training for our mission and it was seriously a blast and I learned so much! I'm convinced my mission president, President Durrant, is the best one out there. Not to mention a former BYU basketball legend ;) GO COUGARS! :D We got there early so that we could play sports. President will always let us come an hour before the meeting starts (so we had to wake up at like 5:00) and we got there around 7:00. We got to play with the other missionaries until the meeting started. It was too crazy because Hermana LeBaron and Elder Joel Gardner were there. Both kids from my high school! We are still representing the Ville all the way out here in the heart of Texas :) It was fun to see all of my old compas and play some sports! Then we started the training. I have got to say one of the things we always learn is how importance obedience is. One elder, Elder Sears, that actually served 17/24 months of his mission in Honduras told a really interesting story. He said there was an Elder in his mission who wasn't the most obedient and didn't really give it all of his "heart, might, mind, and strength." Nevertheless, this missionary had something like over 100 baptisms in during his service. Can you imagine?!? Wow. Anyhow, during one of his last interviews the mission president asked him how he felt about his service over the last 2 years. This Elder began to cry. Even though he had baptized so many he knew he hadn't given it his all and wasn't happy. That sure hit me hard. My mission president also loves singing! So during this we had a competition of who could re-write the words to deep in the heart of texas to "in our hearts forever" We got in our Texas gear and I had on my Texas T-shirt and sleeping shorts. It was so fun!!! My district won and got the prize :) Sometimes I wish I could record those meetings and send them home to you. I always learn SO much. He also had us prepare lunch, a 5$ gift, and a paper we wrote on how to be a successful missionary. We ended up putting them in a line and we all got somebody else's. He then taught us a lesson that whatever we are doing this season we should be preparing it for others and thinking of what we can give instead of what we receive. He said he hoped we prepared a better lunch for the missionary who would receive it than we normally prepared. It was sure good! I also got to sing :) The assistants called my compa and asked her if she would do a musical number so we ended up doing The First Noel. It was one of the songs I sang as a Madrigal and it sure made me happy :) Thursday we got to meet an awesome family. Their names are Irene y Omar Rodriguez. They were a referral from the Elders. They are super Catholic but they love Jesus. I guess the mom spent like 3 hours reading the Bible with her two little boys one night just explaining things to them. They seem really sweet! They are convinced we are not going to change them at all but said they are willing to listen to us because they feel like they need to have open hearts. They said shutting the door on us would be like shutting the door on Christ. We're really excited to see what comes out of it :) They seem like a really sweet family. We are still working with La Familia Segovia and Chequer. The Chequer family hasn't been coming to church the last while and that makes me sad but hopefully we can get them coming back. :/ They have all been reading in the Book of Mormon though and praying to see if it is true!! I sure love them :) The Segovia's have the cutest little girl named Dayana who is 11 and Mitchell who is 4. He is SO crazy :) We stopped by their house on Sunday to see if they were coming to church. The grandpa was there from Mexico and he was like why not?! :) So he came and brought Dayana and Mitchel. Mitchel DID NOT want to go into primary so we sat in the hall and made snow flakes, colored pictures, and watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas. It made for a good time :) We were SO happy to see them at church!!! Oh yeah... Tuesday a miracle totally happened. Hermana McDonald texted me and asked me if I could bring her brown coat to the training. She couldn't find it and figured she had left it. I couldn't find it anywhere. I was at service that day and before I even knew what was coming out of my mouth asked Jose if he had seen a brown coat... he went to the back and said is this it?? Sure enough, there it was!!! Couldn't believe it :) Turns out when we went there to pass out Turkeys thanksgiving I had left it there. I had NO idea!! God knows how much I lose things and is ALWAYS looking out for me :) One last thing... last Sunday when I was still feeling kinda down this lady stops us after church and says SISTERS! :) We started talking to her and she said she had served in Switzerland. People there weren't very open to religion at all. When I asked her what her best advice was... she told me she looked for a miracle in every single day :) She was standing there with a 3 month old in her arms and another little kid. I realized before I knew it I would be off my mission and standing in her shoes. It really hit me that I need to take in every second and love it as is :) So there's my challenge to you!! Look with your heart and find a miracle in every single day :) Stop and take a few minutes to be quiet this Christmas and think of why you love your Savior, Jesus Christ :) I know that He lives. I love Him. I LOVE YOU!!!!! :D FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D
-Hermana Jenny Hadlock
Also we had super crazy rain this week!!! Check it out :)
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