Snow In Big Bear 12/17/2012

Dear Everyone:

Hello! How was the week? We had a great week up here! It snowed!! We were so excited. We first shoveled ourselves to our car, and then drove over to people's houses to then shovel them out too. In our skirts and flats, no less! It was fun.

Well last week we had our final lessons with Kevin. I love teaching people who just really want to learn and do whatever it takes to be closer to Jesus Christ. He was really sick on Friday and Saturday, so the bishop and ward mission leader suggested that we postpone it until he was feeling better. So we asked him about it and his answer was (we asked him the day before) 'Even if you have to bring me in on a stretcher, I AM getting baptized tomorrow night'. Good answer. He was so excited. The water heater wasn't working, so he got baptized in liquid snow. BUT he said he also felt like he was just walking on cloud nine and didn't care at all that it was freezing. It was so fun to teach him and I'm excited to go through all the lessons with him again. He's going to be Santa Claus at the ward Christmas party on Friday. Perfect man for it. He's 6'5" or something and we had to call the Polynesian ward to find a jumpsuit big enough for him haha. The only thing he's lacking is a white beard. Other than that, he looks just like Santa.

We had lots of appointments set up for last week, but almost everyone cancelled because they were all sick. It seems like everyone is sick right now. So we're really hoping that this week we're able to find some new investigators. There are a few people that we've been trying to see, so hopefully this week is the week! It's hard to find people with spare time the week before Christmas. We've been trying to share a quick Christmas message with people. I love how the meaning of Christmas has changed for me. I understand so much more about Jesus Christ and just how much He's done for us. I love that we have a whole month basically to enjoy the spirit of Christmas. If we pause for a minute and ponder the birth of the Savior in our hearts, just as Mary did, we will experience the true joy of the season. I read this awesome book by Emily Freeman called 'A Christ Centered Christmas' about the nativity. She goes through every figure of the nativity and talks about what we can learn from them and then at the end of every chapter there are spiritual things to do that will help pull our minds and hearts closer to Jesus Christ.

I wish I had more to talk about from last week. It was kind of slow with all the illness and snow. We were able to do a bit of service, though, so that was fun. We are going to do all we can this week to teach lots of people and stay busy. It's a hard week, the week before Christmas, but as long as we're doing all we can to best represent Jesus Christ in this area, then we will have a great week no matter what.

I love you all! Have a great week!