Sister Young : The One Where We Froze Our Rastafarian Nae Naes Off!

This week was packed with travel, it seems like. And it was pretty funny because with road trips before missionary life, music jams would be vital and specific music jams. (Celine Dion, Queen, Kelly Clarkson, Josh Turner, and many more) And as a missionary, obviously, we can't do that. But! I love gospel music so much that I can pretty much jam out to anything! So that's something new I learned about myself!

Things here in Ozark are going good! Both of our wards had their Christmas parties and we went to both. We had a specific part in our Highlandville on where we were going to read a Christmas book to the primary kids and then speak a little bit about Christ. So we were given the book a couple days earlier and we read over it and just decided to share our testimonies of Him.

So we had dinner with a family in the other ward before the Christmas party but we totally lost track of time because it's so easy to get talking and laughing and discussing that we were running late to the party! 😬 so we rushed over there and there were basically 2 minutes between getting out of the car and starting to read the book. The kids all came over to us and she handed me a MICROPHONE. I was reading it to everyone! 😅 and my chubby face is red from running everywhere and I'm still trying to catch my breath AND the little girls in the Highlandville ward love me and Sister Taylor so they're climbing all over us and stuff. So I finally accepted my fate and read the story. Then handed the microphone to sister T but she couldn't get up because she had about 4 kids overpowering her tiny body and everyone's sitting there waiting so I spent another 3-4 minutes talking about Christ until Sister T could get free and then she spoke and bore a powerful testimony. It was a pretty cool experience. 😄

Since transfers are on Thursday this week, they have p-days on Wednesday so Monday was district council. We decided that we wanted to do a district activity and we decided on ice skating in which Sister Young would sit out because my feet can't handle that. They wanted to get me a bucket to sit on to slide around the ice, which I was all for. :) we planned it for Wednesday and we were all excited! Then, that night, we get a conference call from some elders in our district and they said they had free tickets for all of us in the district and the okay from the president to go to the amusement park in Branson!! So today, we're heading to Silver Dollar City for p-day! So excited!!

As Light The World has come upon us, Sister Taylor and I have made plans each week to follow the ideas given! If you haven't already looked, you can go to lighttheworld.org

Light the World This Christmas | Mormon.org

Light the world with us this Christmas season. Click to find ways that you can #LightTheWorld.

lighttheworld.org

and watch the videos! But we decided to hand out free hot cocoa in front of Walmart. :) we called the elders and told them the plan and we gathered all the stuff and made it happen. At first, people thought we were crazy (it honestly feels like -13 when it's only 28 here with the humidity 😱) but a lot of people stopped and thought it was so wonderful. We had been having a tough day emotionally so to be out bringing smiles to others helped lift our hearts.

One woman thought it was so wonderful that she took our picture, added us on Facebook, and then is going to post about it! She thought it was just amazing!

Another woman stopped before going in and got some hot chocolate and we talked a tiny bit. Then, after she came back out, she stopped by again and with tears in her eyes, told us how much of a blessing we were on a dark day. She had been having a hard day and the drive to Walmart was difficult and our kindness was a light. #lighttheworld! Bless her heart! I gave her a big bear hug and our hearts exploded for her. ❤

Another person who stopped was a police officer who was a little snobby to us when he walked in but when he came out he came over and then saw that it was free and got a cup. He then told us that we were rare to be spreading that kind of kindness. He thanked us for serving his community! So very cool.

Not a lot of teaching new people. The work in Ozark is very slow and sometimes non-existent. We are doing our best to stay positive and find motivation to go out and get doors in our face and skepticism. But we also know that we have members of our wards who love us and because they love us, they are more dedicated to helping us reach our goals. The members have changed from snubbing and ignoring to hugging and inviting. This last transfer, the miracles of members has been exemplified. I'm so grateful for the blessings that have come from our diligence and patience in the work.

I listened to a talk recently by Jeffrey R. Holland called The First Great Commandment. I invite you all to listen to it. Reading it is good, but listening to it comes with much power. In listening to it, I could help but have a passion to rededicate myself to missionary work and true discipleship. We can all learn something from Peter's example and follow the Savior, even when we cannot feel his presence. Choose today, choose this very moment, to never forget Him and to always strive to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

I love you all and I'm so very blessed to have your love and kindness. Thank you for the prayers and thoughts. They help in ways that simply couldn't be done any other way. Have a wonderful week this week and light the world with the kindness that only YOU can give! ❤🤟🏻