I truly am a missionary now!

Hey!


Sounds like things are going pretty well, and the family's getting into the holiday spirit with aplomb. Thanks for all the updates about all that is happening with the ward and everyone. Some of it's sad news, but I appreciate knowing about it. I'll be praying for them and their families.

I'm laughing at the picture with Santa--both at that coat's extremely reflective zippers and at the brother wearing my socks -.-

This week was pretty good! We have been trying to contact a member referral for a long time, and finally got in touch with her on Saturday. She seems really, really receptive, and accepted the invitation to be baptized! (Okay, this is something I didn't tell the Mission President: one big reason we weren't able to contact this referral for a full eight weeks is that we were knocking on the wrong door--she lives in this town-home complex, and her address was #200. We found a 200 in the complex, and just kind of assumed that there was only one in the complex. I guess we were wrong.) Right now we have her and her son on baptismal date for the 28th of December!

We were also able to visit a few great families and talk about how important church is--we even were invited to spend part of Thanksgiving with a family who doesn't regularly come to church, which was great. One really cool experience was being able to visit a family with one member where she hasn't attended church for a long time. Her Dad was there, and he attends about as often. He told us that even though he hasn't been to church in a while, he knows how great it is, and how much he wants his daughter to be able to find the blessings of the church. It was really great to hear his testimony of the Book of Mormon, and see how much he cares for his daughter.

Thanksgiving was pretty awesome. We ate too much food, but that's what Thanksgiving's all about, right? We started off the day with a breakfast appointment. We had Cinnamon Rolls, and played Five Crowns, which was as "fun" as always :). We had Dinner with a different family, who are also awesome. They fed us the usual--Turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, gravy, stuffing, etc. While we were waiting, we had a little bit of a nerf gun fight--Brother apparently does a lot of prop design work for the high school drama department, and had made these awesome black and silver nerf blasters for a production of "Back to the Future"--so cool.

One not-so-cool thing: I finally crashed on my bike on Saturday. My companion tells me that this means I truly am a missionary now. I actually feel really blessed, though--the crash was kind of bad (I flipped over the handlebars), but I escaped with very little injury--basically just a scrape on my hand and knee. The crash was actually pretty similar to the high adventure mishap, although it was on pavement rather than gravel, so I got less hurt, I think.

I haven't had a ton of time for making music, although I've been trying a little bit to get into the Christmas hymns while we wait for everyone to show up to district meetings. I've mostly just been playing piano, although I have been having a lot of fun singing Christmas hymns in Sacrament Meeting.

At last transfers, one of the sister missionaries serving in the trio left to work in another area. It's interesting that there's always just an adjustment when you're used to working with a person, and then you aren't working with them anymore.
I've been really enjoying the decorations you sent me. The lights are hung up around the bedroom door, the mobile is hanging from the smoke detector, and the nativity stickers are up above my bed.

On Thanksgiving, the Second Counselor in the Bishopric (who actually is now the ward mission leader, as of this Sunday) invited us over to make gingerbread houses, which was awesome. The other missionaries were busy making beautiful houses, but I made sure I remembered what mattered--I'm pretty sure I got the most candy on mine :). 

I've been reminded out here that missionary work doesn't just have to be to non-members, but that everyone can really benefit from your testimony, whether it's a non-member, a less-active member, or an active member.

The weather actually was not bad at all this week--it stayed in the 50s most of the time. Apparently when it gets really bad is the real winter, January and February. I think I've got enough warm clothes that it shouldn't be too bad, though.

Love,
Peter