The Spirit of Christmas-December 9, 2013

This week has been so great! My new companion Hermana Miner is awesome and I love her. She's from Morgan, Utah. She makes me speak in  spanish all day which is really good for me, but we've compromised that at night when we get to the pension, after our long days we can speak in english. It's so wonderful to have a real conversation with someone. She's also been helping so much with all of my nuevita hardships. She has so many great suggestions for how for things pertaining to our mission. We're both two really different people, but we get along well and it's been great! We also had the Maray hermanas move into our pension as they were switched to Palomar and don't have a pension there yet. It's been so fun living with more people! Every night there's something new to discuss or something funny to laugh at. We have such a great spirit in our pension. It makes everything easier. 

It was a little hard this week, because I don't know our sector as well as I'd like to. We did a lot of walking trying to find and visit people. And we had a little bit of bad luck as almost no one was home. We had so many set appointments that everyone was so sure about, but when we would get to their house they wouldn't be there, and we would call and they would say how sorry they forgot to call and cancel. This tends to happen a lot. But usually near all these houses, there was a member nearby, so we ended up having about 10 different member lessons this week. There must have been a reason for that. I'm not sure what, but I guess our members needed some strengthening this week. 

I also forgot to include to interesting things that had happened last week. We had intercambios where I went to Chanarcillo, and helped dig a dog grave in someone's backyard. I got really really dusty, and the dog smelled terrible. It was huge and had died the day before. And we were digging through super hard packed dirt, so my arms were fairly sore the next day. Then that friday a member from our ward told us that another member's sister had died. We called her to give our condolences and she asked if we would come to the funeral that night and sing. So, we sang How Great Thou art, and Nearer my God to Thee for a funeral of someone I didn't even know. And Hermana Vera wanted me to sing alto, which I know a little bit, so I kinda just went with it. I'm getting pretty good at harmonizing. I was also chosen to play piano for the ward choir. Well, It wasn't really a choice or a calling, the director just assumed I would play because I'm the only one who can. We're singing Angels we have Heard on High, and the notes are too big for my small hands, so I do a lot of improvising. However, no one seems to notice, so it's all good. I've had a lot of opportunities to develop my talents this week, even if developing includes a lot of hard work and wrong notes. But I'm happy for this chance to grow. 

I am so excited for this week, as we're going to do our best to bring in the spirit of Chirstmas to every house we visit. We spoke on sunday, and I spoke about The Spirit of Chirst in Christmas and being a disciple of Chirst through service. Everyone told me they understood me and that it was a great talk. Success! I just hope that the spirit was there to inspire our ward members to reach out to others in love and service to help others this season. Hermana Miner challenged everyone to find one person before Christmas for us to teach. I am so hoping that everyone really could feel that strong spirit in the chapel and were inspired to really help us this week. We really need a miracle with a few of our investigators, which I know through God is possible. Pray for missionaries, pray for the work, pray for the hearts of many to be softened and prepared to recieve the restored gospel of Jesus Christ so we can help them be eternally happy! Have a wonderful week and be a disciple of Christ!

Hermana Richardson