kittens inspired by kittens.

Seems like I just wrote you! Let's see if I can muster up some good stories to tell.

On Wednesday I met a gypsy..wish I could tell you more of the story, but we didn't get to talk long. She said she was really glad I came to talk to her and "happy Jesus' birthday!"

We've also just started teaching this family Gloria and Hope. Hna Acevedo taught them a year ago when she was in silver, and we just picked them up again, and they are amazing. We taught the restoration with an object lesson that Hna Acevedo taught me (so I knew she had done it on them) and they kept lighting up and saying, "I remember this!". Gloria, the mom, looked like she was about to cry during the first vision...and everything was clicking. I loved being in there, and feeling that "familiar" spirit

We also had a lesson with Lynn last night. Remember her? She's been saying forever that she wants to get baptized, but that she just can't pick when yet. Well last night, after talking about Joseph Smith and the authority she finally decided on a date to get baptized. We had a member with us, and his testimony and support helped so much. He told us later that he was baptized 25 years ago just because his wife wanted to, but then he became inactive. But then the past few years as he's been going out with the missionaries, he was truly converted...and now he's on fire!

The Hamiltons have also been doing fantastic. Bro Hamilton has been reading every reading assignment we've been giving him, and he'll probably be blazing through the bom in no time. His wife is sold, now all we need to do is to get Walmart to give him a different shift at work so he can start coming to church.

oh, and sister hamilton bought me a giant kitten blanket. Now everytime I walk into my room I just bust up laughing.

Cody went to the temple to do baptisms and got his Patriarchal blessing last night. I was SO stoaked. I kept asking him during church how excited he was. Pretty sure I was getting more excited than him.

Also the Mowers (some members) are the coolest people I've met. just a random fact for you.

my zone leaders just told me to say:
:" I have the studliest zone leaders in the whole mission"

alright..so here's my little food for thought from Jesus The Christ. (kelsey, READ THIS BOOK)

"It is well to know that prayer is not compounded of words, words that may fail to express what one desires to say, words that so often cloak inconsistencies, words that may have no deeper source than the inconsistencies  words that may have no deeper source than the physical organs of speech, words that may be spoken to impress mortal ears. The dumb may pray, and that too with the eloquence that prevails in heaven. Prayer is made up of heart throbs and the righteous yearnings of the soul, of supplication based on the realization of need, of contrition and pure desire. If there lives a man who has never really prayed, that man is a being apart from the order of the divine in human nature, a stranger in the family of God's children. Prayer is for the uplifting of the suppliant. God without our prayers would be God; but we without prayer cannot be admitted to the kingdom of God."

Remember to keep all our prayers sincere, and remember that through that we have the absolute most direct form on communication with our Heavenly Father. We can do anything with that.

love you all, have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

con amor

-hermana aguas

22 & christmas.

She's alive!

Feliz Navidad!

I'm having another food coma, so if I sound a bit incoherant, blame that.

I may or may not have had five full christmas dinners yesterday.

dessert at every single one of them.

and that was only dinner.

 

I was close to loosing it at a few of them.

 

Singing at the rest home was also awesome. It reminded me of when you used to take me to there to play violin. good times.

 

I forgot to tell you, on Christmas eve we acted out the nativity. The dad was the donkey, their little kids were all the characters, I was the sheep. When their youngest one came out as the wise man, he jumped out from behind the door doing air guitar and sang/yelled "WISE MAN!"

but before we even started, we were all "backstage" aka the kitchen and we go up to their son Tommy and say, "man, you're shepherd costume is great"...he freaks out and says, "I'm JOSEPH! I have the BROWN...can't you see? I"m JOSEPH!"...then he started pacing around the kitchen "mentally preparing himself to get into character".

then we had a howdown. it was great

 

a few stories, since we didn't have time yesterday.

 

Lynn is one of our investigators for first ward. she's in her 50s, and has had a real rough past. We get a long great, and she just adores Hermana Sanchez and I. There was a baptism on Saturday, so we invited her to see it, because she's working on getting baptized. The elders sit infront of us, and they were showing her around and introducing her to people. They gave a short lesson on the restoration while the little girl was getting dressed. I explained to her that those were the elders, and they are the boy version of us. She then says to me, "man...they set you up with good looking boys!"...I just start laughing and tell her that we don't do that. We are missionaries. She had gotten it into her mind that we go off on missions, then they pair us up to get married. I kept telling her that's not what we do, and she kept saying, "well you should... and if not now, at least when you end your mission."

She also said elder tanner has a real good head of hair, nice and healthy and shiny. She may or may not have a small crush on both of them.

 

But the good news is, she LOVED the baptism. She fell in love with "I am a Child of God", and when the girl got baptized, she started crying saying, "how beautiful! that's perfect". I haven't seen her that happy in awhile, and she got so excited when she saw the chapel...so a lot of prayers is to help her.

 

wanna hear a weird story? so..the other day we were driving home, and the winds were REALLY strong. and we ran out of gas. the elders come and bail us out...and they told us about how some other missionaries had done the same thing, but they decided to fill up their tank with water, and say a prayer to turn it into gasoline.

 

...no, it didn't work. actually destroyed the car....

but at least you know that your daughter DID NOT do that.

 

I loved the temple.

Christmas conference was fantastic. it was so good to see a bunch of my friends again, and then to talk all about the birth and life of Jesus Christ.

We read parts of the christmas story (the part that is my mission scripture) and we talked about how the shepherds were visited...they were the lowly of low at the time, but also the wise men. part of the higher class...showing that he came for everyone

 

christmas eve was a blast

and christmas was a bit overwhelming with food, but it was super special, and it ended perfectly

and of course I loved talking to all of you--too bad it couldn't have been longer

 

but mostly, it was amazing to realize how every person we saw has been blessed by Christ. That His birth did make a difference,and that He makes everything worth it. He's the reason we can be together forever. I'm so grateful for that...and I hope we all remember some of the most important words from the story of Christ, "Fear Not...I give you good tidings of Great Joy."

because of Him, we don't need to fear. Everything will be alright, with Him.

 

love you all, and talk to you soon!

love,

kait