Merry Christmas!

This week has definitely been memorable.  It started off pretty normal, with work in our area and two exchanges.  We had a wonderful miracle with a part-member family we're teaching, the familia Lopez.  The dad is working on coming back to activity and his three daughters recently moved in with him.  We started teaching the two younger daughters.  On Wednesday we had an awesome appointment with the 20-year-old daughter.  We taught about the Book of Mormon.  It was amazing to see the Spirit teach her about the connection between the Book of Mormon, revelation, and knowing that the Church has been restored.  It all seemed to click for her.  I was on exchanges with a brand-new missionary that doesn't speak much Spanish, but the lesson went just about as perfectly as I could have hoped for.  The Spirit was strong and she accepted the invitation to be baptized on January 20th!  We feel like the Lord has been prompting us to work more with the part-member families in the ward, and in this lesson we saw what I'm sure is part of the reason for those promptings.

 

The rest of the week was very different from any other week on my mission.  Sister Jensen came back from our second exchange and was basically dead on her feet.  She has been really, really sick.  I don't think I've ever seen anyone as sick as her.  She received doctor's orders to not leave the house until Christmas.  That was on Thursday so we've been inside the house since then.  That's the other reason why this email will be short--we're not supposed to be out for long today.  We haven't been able to do any prostelyting work this week, and we had to skip out on the ward Christmas party and even on church yesterday, but it's still been a good week.  I've had lots of time to think about my purpose, to study the Book of Mormon and to think about the Savior, especially as we're approaching Christmas.  I've had many spiritual experiences this week, for which I am grateful.  I've also been blessed to remain healthy!  Despite spending 24 hours a day in the same room as Sister Jensen, I've come away without illness.  I felt a little sick one morning and started to get a cough, but took a short nap and I feel fine.  Sister Jensen is improving as well, which is an answer to many prayers.

 

Yesterday we had the sacrament brought to our apartment.  It was probably the most spiritual experience I've had taking the sacrament.  Because it was just us two taking it, it immediately became more personal for me.  The Atonement is so infinite and reaches all of us, but I really felt in that moment as I took the bread and water that the Savior would have still done what He did even if it were only just for me.  It was humbling and a very personal experience with the sacrament that I won't forget. 

 

Anyway, while it's been hard for both of us to not be able to go out and work in our area or go on exchanges, I think it's renewed our love for the work and the blessing it is to be able to preach the gospel.  This has certainly been a very memorable Christmas as a missionary--not in the way I'd planned it or envisioned it, but in many good ways. :)