2014

Hey Family!

It was so good to see y'all on Christmas too.  Y'all definitely made my day and I loved seeing your bright and shining faces.  :)  thank you for being such an awesome family.  And I'm glad y'all liked the package I sent home.  Haha Mom, I'm glad I only have one Christmas away too.  I'm not gonna lie, I loved the days leading up to Christmas and getting to share so many messages about Christ with everyone but then after Christmas was over I just had no desire to do anything.  It didn't help that it rained practically all weekend and all I wanted to do was go home and crawl back in bed.  But hey the desire to keep going is back and I'm ready to work hard during this year.

Goodness gracious the craziest thing from the past week was yesterday.  During the 3rd hour of church Bishop Elmer had a combined lesson and he talked.  Seriously he's talked the last couple fifth sundays and in sacrament meeting a couple times on missionary work so the members are probably sick of it.  But yesterday he said that for 2014 our ward is gonna have a goal of 25 baptisms.  As far as I know we've only had two baptisms this whole year...but in 2011 they had 23 baptisms.  At first I was just thinkin man this is never gonna happen.  But ya know, when you trust in Heavenly Father he can make anything happen.  He challenged every person to invite someone to listen to the missionaries and he's constantly focusing on inviting others.  Covington Ward is part of the New Orleans Stake so our goal is to make a stake up here so we don't have to drive all the way across the causeway.  I think our bishop is inspired and knows what he's doing so it's pretty sweet to see how he's pushing to hasten the work of the Lord.  Now the members are just gonna have to step up so we have tons of people to teach!

But going along with that I think the true miracle from the week was yesterday we got to share the restoration with our investigator Orisia.  Let's just say we've been visiting her about every single week since I first got here but she talks a ton and we never get a chance to share a lesson before she kicks us out.  It was definitely a sweet experience because she already knew most of the restoration and about the Book of Mormon but we were able to clear up some questions she had and the spirit was definitely there.  We're going down to New Orleans with her next monday to go to some thrift stores...haha she's the one that got us hooked on shopping at the thrift stores.  Goodness I just love her!  She's a chinese medicine doctor and kinda crazy, but hey I love crazy people.  :)

Mom, don't worry I don't need a coat or anything.  Thank you for thinking about me!  Haha and I wish I could've heard your talk yesterday.  I bet ya did great!  I'm sure y'all are glad I didn't call you at 5:30 in the morning like McKenzie did.  I remember she did that last year too and I was really considering doing it to wake y'all up but then decided to opt out.

The week was a pretty good week overall, here's just a couple of the highlights:

Monday- Pulled our couch outside and played Life with the Covington Elders in the driveway of our apartment.  Haha our neighbors thought we were crazy and it was freezing but it was fun!

Tuesday- Made tons of cookies at Joy's house and then went caroling with the Elders and gave them to some people we knew and some random people with wrapped copies of the Book of Mormon.  Plus we found out Dale passed away...his niece said that on the way to the hospital he asked her to grab the peanut butter cookies we made to bring them!  Goodness he was the sweetest guy.  :)  She mentioned how he always talked about us!  Don't know if she was just being nice of if that's really true considering the fact we'd only met him twice and talked on his porch for maybe 5 minutes total.  But hey I know he's probably already found the missionaries in the spirit world and is listening to them right now.  I'm looking forward to the day when I'll get to see him again.  :)

Wednesday- Got to see y'all!!  Other than that we got to play checkers with the Tapia's and make some cookies.  And then helped the Holbrook's with a puzzle they got for Christmas.  Definitely a good Christmas....I'm thinking a puzzle every Christmas should be a new tradition.  Remember when we'd always go to Little Grandma's and she's be working on puzzles?  By the way be sure to tell her thank you so much for the blanket!  It keeps me warm everynight.  :)

Thursday- Here's a funny story for you.  It didn't happen this week but it happened at the Goff's and we visited them on thursday.  Maria asked us if we wanted an altoid but we told her no thank you we were good.  So this is what she says, "You sure?  These are special altoids...see right here it says they're made with real peppermint oil and the dreams of pregnant mermaids."  Haha I thought it really said that!

Friday- We updated our map since everyones names have fallen off...and we didn't know what else to do!

Saturday- All our plans fell through and we didn't know what else to do.  Perfect timing Sister McMullen called and asked if we could come clean up her house so we got to serve her!  That was just a little tender mercy of the Lord for providing us with something useful to do with our time.  Plus she's the sweetest lady.  Plus we met a new less active family that is willing to let us come back and see them!

Sunday- We finally taught Orisia!! 

Oh yeah and here's one scripture for y'all.  Alma 33:23, "your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son."  Christ has already suffered for each of us, and he wants us to use the atonement so we can be forgiven!  It makes him happy when we turn to him and he can help us.  And what a blessing that is, that he can lift our burdens and take everything away...all because he loves us.    

Well family, I hope y'all have a good rest of the holidays break.  Enjoy the movie y'all are gonna see today and skiing later.  Thank you for all your prayers! 

Guess what?!   I LOVE YOU!  (I hope that makes you think of Jo:)

Love Always, Sister Schmutz