natalie ann: week 9: new year, new natalie!

Monday, December 28th, 2015

Well I hope ya'll had a very merry Christmas!!! I sure did! It was great talking to you family!!! Even though the siblings were on their phones the whole time lol...

So last Pday, Monday was good. We taught Sue about the good Samaritan parable and how it relates to Christ. It's really really cool! If I had time I would share it all but that would take too long. We had dinner at Sue's. PIZZA. It was so fun, it was like a girl's night. We love her so much and she is going back to the temple soon!

Tuesday we had exchanges! I took on the area! I was with my STL, Sister Colina. She is hispanic and I love her so much! We had a lot of fun! And I learned so much from her! She thinks I will be an STL soon doubt it! But it was good finally getting to drive and really be able to know that I can actually do this by myself! Also it was good because we had a lesson with Isaac and Sister Colina is over YSA so we kind of tried to transition. She was really good with him. We tried to contact our Indian referral..it didn't work out so well. Baha. He opened the door in boxers and was like "this is not a good time right now." lol. We also saw Sister Breuske. She is a really nice lady but does not go to church because of work and travel. Her husband isn't a member. They live in a really nice home. Her husband was not very friendly toward us. Then we exchanged back and had to go straight to a lesson with Theresa. It was a really good but simple lesson. We showed "He is the Gift" and talked about how we can come closer to Him by reading our scriptures, praying and coming to church. She started crying! She is going through a hard time and I know that the church can help her! She said she would go to church this week. She is just so sweet I love her.

Wednesday we got to see the Holdimans. I love them! At first I didn't know why we were visiting them cause they weren't changing and were so stubborn. But their hearts are really softening! At dinner Sister Bentley told us about a new member who moved into our ward and her husband is not a member. So we went over right after to visit them! They were really kind! Her husband is a Jew. She has been a member for 5 years! I really want to visit them more! They both came to church on Sunday! And her husband asked us for some tithing slips! How awesome! We then saw a less-active, it was good! He gave us a referral! One of his neighbors!

Thursday, Christmas Eve! It was one weird day. I think all missionaries have those days when we are just in a funk. We did weekly planning because the next day was Christmas. Right as we were about to leave our phone was on the counter and I was talking to Sister Jones and I swung my hand and the phone went flying right into the toilet! lol. oops. I just fell on the ground and started laughing. haha.! We went to a members to get some rice to soak it! It was working! Except the end call was not working...so calling people was interesting haha. We had dinner at the Moshers and then we went to a nursing home to do caroling with the district. Except no one showed up! And we couldn't go inside because no one was at the front desk to let us in! So that was a fail! And we didn't have a phone to call anyone cause of course it stopped working again. We then saw the DeBenckendorff's and the Ross family. I love them both so much! The cave creek sisters then came over for a sleepover! So fun!

Friday Christmas! Our phone started working again after a night in the rice. Christmas miracle! We did some studies and then we to our stake correlation guy, Brother Horn. His house is so nice! Our whole district went over and they made us cinnamon rolls, eggs, and sausage! Also I had egg nog, YUM. They are such a nice family. It was just a fun relaxing day! I love our district! We then had a white elephant exchange. It was pretty funny. I just collected all the food and candy I had gotten from Christmas from anyone and put it in a box and wrapped it. haha. I got a talking parrot who copies you. haha so funny. I gave it to a little kid we teach though. Haha it was so funny. He LOVED it. We then went to our Bishops, the Jorgansens. They invited us over like a month ago! We had lunch there and they gave us a bunch of gifts! She is TOO kind. We shared a Christmas message with them, a longer one. I then skyped the fam at Sue's! It went well! We then ate dinner at the Shumways! I love that family! It was very chill and we had mexican food. All of their family was over. We then went caroling with half of our district. We went to the Luongs and DeBenckendorffs and a few others. We also did some TTI caroling! That was the best! I loved watching people's faces! They were just so happy! I love making people's day! Seriously it's the best.

Saturday we went to see Joy Christensen. She was doing pretty well. He daughter comes to church sometimes so that's good! We went to a widow's house, Sister Nebeker. She is almost 89. She is so funny and so accomplished! She was an english teacher and is very brilliant. She is so upbeat and is doing SO well for her age. She is outliving her kids. She has beautiful art and nativity sets in her home! She showed us old pictures and she was so beautiful! She also can put her feet behind her head...WHAT lol. We ate with our ward mission leader, Brother Newbold. He is so intelligent! We learn a lot from him. Also our phone for sure then broke, it wouldn't charge.

Sunday we expected Theresa to come to church. Cause she texted us the day before telling us she would. She didn't show :( We tried messaging her off others phones and our imessage on our ipads. She didn't respond though. It was a bummer. President and Sister Sweeney came to our ward! That was a nice and (scary) surprise. Church was amazing! It's actually having two wards, we are that much more edified! In our second ward Bishop asked us to bare our testimonies on Christ because the youth speaker was sick. And GUESSWHAT. The Holdimans came to church!!!! Best thing ever! They hadn't come to church in years!! We were so happy!! You could tell they were so excited to partake of the sacrament. We sat next to them. Ah I love them! We saw the Luongs and taught them about callings and it made me appreciate callings so much more! I am learning to much from the Luongs! You can really tell how much they love and appreciate the church! It brings them so much happiness! They thought it was so cool they we get set apart in callings. They are the cutest family.

Overall the week has been good and we actually got to see quite a few bit of people for it being Christmas! A lot of people were gone but we made it work!

We have been getting so many sweets...DIET starts tomorrow. Except it's hard when you can't control dinner. Also we are so out of miles...So we are going to do a lot of contacting and knocking doors in apartments! And getting members to drive us to lessons! It's one way to really push us to get members to lessons! It will be good! We also got a new phone today luckily!

I'm reflecting on my year this year. 2015 has been one of the best. I have done a lot and changed a lot. It's kind of funny cause last year I said "New year new natalie!" and it was kind of an inside joke but I think it really was a new year for me to become more like Christ.

This year I really want to become more like the Savior. Instead of having a new years resolution on what I want to do, I want it to be who I want to become. Christ has so many attributes and I want to work on them. To become those, we definitely need to do though. So again I say this year, new year, new natalie. It's weird because 2016 will be a whole year of my being on a mission, I think they call it the black year or something.

The past few days we were talking a lot about Christ names. He has SO many. Savior, Redeemer, Good Shepherd, Messiah, The way, The truth, advocate, and the list goes on. Pick one of your favorites. One that really is close to you personally and sticks out to YOU. We all have personal relationships with Christ. Pick one and study it and really apply it to your life. I know that as you do this you will become close to Him and understand who he really is and what he did and does for you! This Christmas I have truly gotten to know him better. It wasn't so much about families or giving. It was about Christ. He truly is my everything.

I am sad Christmas is over...but it's always nice to start a new year. I hope it's a great year for all of you!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

LOVE YOU ALL

-Sister Fisher