This week--Starting off December right!!

This week has been incredible! And stressful, and crazy, and full of laughs. Tuesday we drove up to transfers and I said farewell to my lil companion. So weird. A person is a part of your every waking moment and then they get shipped away and you usually have no idea when the next time you will see them is! Luckily I will get to see Sister B at the Sister's conference on Thursday. I am really looking forward to seeing all my friends! So I already knew who my companion was going to be because President sent out an email to a few of us the day before. So that relaxed me a little. It was definitely weird saying goodbye to so many departing missionaries! I have served with a LOT of them and I just hated (and loved) to see them go! It's just such a weird concept!

Sister M is my new companion! She is from Idaho! Woo! Potatoes! Shout out to Amelia! I mean Sister Knuth. Anyway, she has 7 siblings and grew up part time on a farm! Woo! Haha. She's great. We laugh so much and we are running outside every morning. It has been a big adjustment but we are loving it. Our first planning session was a crack up. We are sooooo different! But it's okay and we are finding out what matters to each other and it has been getting better each and every day! I felt the Spirit so strongly those first couple days together and that really assured me that we were supposed to be together. We are ready for a lot of miracles to happen. She turned 20 in October and did a year of college in Idaho before she came on her mission. She has a very interesting family background and she is open about sharing with me... so it's great! She loves the Lord so much and she is filled with sooooo much faith! I need some more of that!

I told her on the way home how long I've been on my mission and she didn't know I only had two transfers left. Thinking about that now... I wonder how long I could have kept that from her... hahahha jk jk jk, I would never. But that would be pretty funny! I'd be like, I'm getting transferred, and she would ask how I already knew and I would say... well... I'm going HOME! hahahhaha jk jk it would come out way before that at Zone meetings when we have to bear our testimony and all of that stuff. Just a funny note to think about.

Okay so this week was crazy!!! We were in a parade, we taught a lot, I had a headache like all week because I'm so high-strung and I wanted her first week here to be perfect haha. Well, she does love the area and we are super blessed to be here but I really need to settle down a little.

More on the parade... We were in the town of Shallotte parade with the ward's float! We walked (/ran) behind it and handed out so many pass-along cards! It was such a blast. The Elders in our district came as well and it was a really fun time. We were almost too late and so we were sprinting by all the floats trying to catch ours so that we could still make the parade. I was sooooo frantic and I'm surprised Sis. M still likes me after how stressed I was. LOL. Struggle.

It was such a blessing to see the light and joy in people's faces as we gave them pass along cards depicting the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. It was fantastic. Just hearing parents say, "This is the real reason we celebrate" was fantastic. I heard one girl say, "That's my church!" and I had never seen her before so I made sure to figure out her name. Turns out she lives in South Carolina but it was funny that my instant missionary reaction was already wanting to reactivate her! haha Lawlz. I love this lifestyle.

One of the Elders looked a little ridiculous as one of the three wise men, with a tiara on his head. Hahaha, so funny. He said, "I will do anything for the church!" It was hilarious. As will I! I have promised that I will do my very best in building up the kingdom of God on earth and I am so happy to do it. I absolutely love to serve and minister to the people here in North Carolina. I love teaching the gospel and I love how much the Atonement of Jesus Christ enables me to do. I am such a better person because of my knowledge of the gospel. :)

What else happened this week? :)

Sister M has had a lot of "firsts" this week! First time bearing her testimony in sacrament meeting! First time being a parade! First time seeing the ocean (well, that will come after we finish emails)! It has been so fun to spend time with her and get to know her more. She is a great listener and she really laughs at my lifeeeeeeeeeee. In a good way. Sometimes I'm a mess haha.

We had zone training this week and it was incredible. Our zone leader made a comment about how we could receive revelation if we wanted to! I didn't lack faith, but I just hadn't thought about it specifically for that day! Revelation came! It was amazing. They taught about how to have faith in planning. I came away so much more faith-filled and wanting to include the Lord more than just my own logic. Sister M walked away feeling like she needed to be more logical and diligent in her planning. It made us meet right in the middle for our day-before planning struggle! Not even together 24 hours in our companionship and we were already being led by the Spirit to change our ways and adjust to meet in the middle.

Another amazing and "small" tender mercy happened last night. We had to send in our weekly key indicators before we watched the Christmas devotional at 8pm. We were sitting outside a member's house trying to frantically count them up so that we could send them in on time. We got them all ready and we sent them. In that moment, I realized that Sister B had previously told me that we do not get service past a certain area in the country. We were DEFINITELY past that area. As soon as I made that known to Sister M, the text had sent off. I was surprised, but proceeded to attempt to send a quick reply to another text before we walked in. The service went to absolutely no bars in a blink of an eye. This event had such a profound impact on my night.

We walked into the house and sat down for the devotional. As I pondered what happened, I realized how Heavenly Father was SOOOOO mindful of us in that moment. We had just come from an extremely stressful lesson and travelled to the next home with about 5 minutes to spare. We couldn't have pulled over before the "dead zone" and sent in our numbers, even if I had thought about it. Which I didn't. The phone had just enough service to send one lil text, in one in lil instant, for one lil missionary companionship that was trying to be obedient to their leaders. The Lord provided a way! And not only did He make it possible... but the Spirit helped me to understand how aware God was of me in that instant.

Heavenly Father doesn't just help us get done what we need to get done. Yes, He does do that, but He does so much more! He makes things lighter, He makes things happier, He makes us realize how much good we have around us.

I'm so grateful for the experiences I have every day to build my faith in a loving Heavenly Father above and also in His Son Jesus Christ.

The Christmas devotional was amazing and I am so grateful for the organization of the Church as well as the gospel that is taught within in. If you haven't watched, you should! :) It's amazing.

I love my calling. I love the Lord. I love and my friends and I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas season. :)