Monday, December 16, 2013

merry christmas y'all!

Hey Family!
 
Well goodness, school is just getting out later and later isn't it.  Don't study too hard this week Andrew and Sarah!  And keep singing Emily!  Our ward Christmas Party is this saturday and they asked all the missionaries to sing a song for part of the program...haha aw man it's not gonna be pretty that's all I gotta say.  When we've been inviting people lately we always mention how we'll be singing so they'll feel bad and want to come.  ;)  but hey I'll take some pictures and send it to you.  We've been helping decorate all week there's snowflakes everywhere and it's gonna look awesome! 
 
Oh hey and here's some good news!  We get to skype for christmas!!  We've been trying to find somewhere to skype all week but no such luck.  Then last night we had dinner at the Holbrook's and they asked us what we were doing for Christmas and they said we could come use their computers!  So I have no idea what time we'll be skyping and there's no limit on time or anything just like for Mother's Day but I think we'll keep skyping to 30 minutes since we don't want to be bothering them all day and then I can call y'all later if you want.  So I guess I'll just call y'all Christmas morning sometime to give you more details?  Any time work best for y'all?  It'll be probably a little after 10 here or so I'm guessing.  But hey I have no idea what my skype username is or anything like that.  We could possibly use facetime again, but if they only have one ipad or not I'm not sure and Sister Brady already said she wants to facetime instead of skype.  Sooo sorry I'm not a big help and have no clue what's really going on but hopefully I'll let you know next monday a little more details.  These are the phone numbers to call right?  8019433421 8017928837 8018705975
 
I haven't received the package you sent yet but it'll probably get here today.  I want to send y'all something too so hopefully I can get that sent out today!   Remember when I told y'all about one of our investigators, Orisia?  Well this past week we went and saw her and she gave us both a Christmas present!  So sweet of her and so unexpected!  We now officially have one present under the paper christmas tree that Sister Brady's mom sent.  :)  man I just love this time of year. 
 
Haha mom since you asked, here's the story about the emergency transfers.  First story is mandeville and covington were going down to New Orleans to play basketball with the missionaries down there one pday.  Another set of elders showed up to go with them so then there were six guys in a five seat car.  Needless to say they drove down with someone in the trunk...president found out....and the elder driving got red dotted which means he can't drive anymore so they transferred him out.  Second story president just had been thinking of moving this elder and he decided to do it in the middle of the transfer...don't really know why he didn't wait a week longer until transfers.
 
That's pretty sweet what President Mendenhall said yesterday in sacrament meeting.  I think I told y'all this last week but if not I'm gonna tell it to ya again.  We've meet tons of people that hate Christmas down here.  I love just asking people what their favorite thing about Christmas is and seriously tons of people say they hate it.  When we get talking about it more they don't actually hate Christmas, they just hate all the commercial stuff.  Christ is the real meaning of the season and everything else doesn't really matter!  My favorite part about right now is being able to serve others and see how Christ brings the light into their life.  
 
There's this member that moved here a couple months ago and everythings been going wrong since she came.  She doesn't have lots of money and everything is going terrible so we went and visited her this week.  She was one of those ones that said she hated Christmas.  Well after we left I asked Sister Brady how she felt about getting her a little tree for her apartment because she talked about how she's the only one in her family that likes Christmas trees.  So we went to the dollar store and got a little tree, some decorations, and a few presents to put under.  Decorated it all up and made it look good and that night we left it at her front door.  Haha needless to say she knows it was us but the greatest part is just making someone day so much better.  I mean yes, our apartment doesn't look like Christmas at all and we could've just bought a tree for ourselves, but it doesn't matter because we got to bring the light of Christ into someone's home.  If only she didn't know it was us, then it would have been even better! 
 
As usual this week has been a super good week.  The miracle of the week was probably hearing that Jolei wants to get baptized!  Alright so here's the story.  The Asevedo's are a less active family that we see quite often.  They are seriously the sweetest!  Leah (mom) and Sarah (12) joined the church maybe three or so years ago.  They live with Leah's mom, Tonya and she's read the Book of Mormon so many times!  (She isn't a member though because she can't get baptized because her boyfriend won't marry her...but that's okay she'll get baptized eventually)  and then Jolei just turned 8.  We've mentioned baptism before but they haven't really said much.  So on monday we went and were talking about the Holy Ghost.  It was perfect timing because Leah was actually there and she immediately said that she wants Jolei to get baptized and Jolei wants to too!  We set a date to work towards for Jan 11!  Even though she's 8 and her mom's a member she's not really an investigator or will be a convert, but we're gonna teach them all the lessons before then.  Now we just gotta get them all coming back to church and we'll be set.  The family is so sweet, I love em!
 
I think this has become one of my new favorite scriptures, Matt 28:19-20 this is after Christ was resurrected and he was teaching his apostles.  "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."  Christ is always with us, always.  I'm so grateful for this knowledge and to know that the Savior lives and walks with us everywhere.  Which then makes me think of my all time favorite scripture, Isaiah 41:13 "For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee."  What a wonderful gift Heavenly Father gave to us! 
 
Also I found my favorite spot in all of Louisiana yesterday.  The tchefuncta river divides Madisonville and Mandeville and there's tons of sailboats plus some houses are right on the river.  A member lives right there too and it's so pretty!  I didn't have my camera so I couldn't take any pictures but it's beautiful, especially all of the sail on the water.  Don't worry, I'll bring y'all down here sometime soon!  Man I love Louisiana and especially the people down here.   
 
Anyways, I just wanted to say that I love y'all so much.  I couldn't have asked for a better family! 
 
Love always, Sister Schmutz

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