Can you believe that Christmas is already here? I can't! This week I will have offically been in the mission field one month! I am SO happy to be here at Christmas time! I truly have felt the true spirit of Christmas this year, more than ever. I love doing service and seeing the way it softens people's hearts. Especially at the time of year, I can see people are just more willing to give of themselves. Having the perspective of a missionary is so different, I love it, I feel like it's so much easier to see the good in people.
Yesterday was a crazy day. Friday & Saturday we had another huge snowstorm. Saturday night the elders (E. Pulley & E. Jolley) called us and asked if we would be shoveling peoples walks before church... HAHA we don't even have shovels and that was SO not in our plans seeing as church starts at 9am. (plus, we've only shoveled in skirts once before!) But, we said we'd go if they went with us. SO they apparently woke up way early and were shoveling at like 5am. They met us at our Ward mission Leaders house at 7am where they had already shoveled the driveway, we knocked on their door and asked to borrow shovels. Bro. Robertson thought we were crazy, his house was still sleeping, but he directed us to the garage to the shovels. We took a couple and we were off. We shoveled the Trujillos first. It was cold outside, but I figured I was just a wimpy Phx girl. We got in our cars and just then Bishop Huzzey called us and informed us that church was cancelled due to severe weather conditions! He asked what we were doing, so we told him and he said BE CAREFUL! It's -25* outside with windchill, and there is lots and LOTS of snow on the road. In that kind of weather any uncovered skin can get frostbite in 15 minutes!!!! HAHA suddenly I was VERY COLD!
I HAVE NEVER HAD CHURCH CANCELLED BEFORE! It was wierd! SO we continued shoveling: the Alcortas, the Ribbens, the Bartels, the Erbs... inbetween there I called the Robertsons and asked if they were making us breakfast! :) they said they were! haha so we ended up there. Bro. Robertson made breakfast, then we had a sacrament meeting. I love the Robertson family. They feel like my own family. Sister Robertson makes me laugh, we get along great and always laugh at the same things. They have 6 kids: Jocelyn 16, Annie 14, Brooklyn 12, Jed 8, Eliza 6, Olivia 3. I LOVE THESE KIDS! They make me miss "my kids" back home, but they fill the void well. I think that is why I was so touched during the sacrament meeting we had. The spirit was SO strong in such a humble setting in the living room with the Robertsons and us four missionaries. We had a little sunday school activity before where each of us paired up with someone else, discussed a passage from a christmas talk and then shared. The missionaries got the little kids, it was fun. Then we had the sacrament, then a testimony meeting. I cried through the whole thing.
THIS CHURCH IS SO TRUE! What a blessing it is to be able to feel the spirit so strong in a setting like that. We went aroung the room and each person took a turn, little Jed was just baptized saturday and his testimony was so powerful. I love being a member of this church and I love being here in Green Bay and getting to know people like the Robertson family. They are such a great family. Afterwards, we watched a video called The Fourth Wise Man. That was powerful too. Even though church was cancelled, I got my dose of church in for the week through those activities.
Being with that family and hearing their different life experiences & testimonies and hearing the missionaries I serve with bear their testimonies and their absolute LOVE for this work we are engaged in I just felt SO good. It was at that very moment, singing Christmas carols, sitting with Olivia, with tears in my eyes, that I thought, "This is what it is all about, right here." Sometimes I get a twinge of guilt because I feel like this with this family that is not my OWN, but then I remember that that is why I am here, to feel the blessings of the gospel and to grow close to and to have an absolute love for people I have barely known 4 weeks! This is what has strengthened my testimony THE MOST this past week.
We stayed in side for most of the rest of the day as we were advised to by many locals. I am new to this whole cold thing!
Corry came to Jed's baptism on Saturday and feels less anxious now about her baptism date coming up on the 12th of January. She is so great, the other day she taught ME out of the scriptures! It was so funny, she rebuked me for saying something like "that scripture always confuses me, lets move on to the next one" (we were reading in Psalms, her choice). She took time to reread it and to read scriptures before and after it and then explained it to me! ha! we were talking on the phone so I was just trying to get a meaningful verse or two out, kind of in a hurry, but I just started laughing. She is so impressive! I love her.
Diane Anthony is another woman we are teaching. She moved from Milwaukee here to Green Bay for work. She called in for a Joy to the World video, we have been teaching her ever since. She recently lost her favorite aunt, lost her job and her kids are not doing good things in their lives which stresses her out. GOODNESS! She is having a hard time. On Saturday when we taught her, I shared with her Alma 7: 11-13 whichs talks about how Christ knows EXACTLY what we're going through because he suffered it in the flesh too. We also shared with her Doctrine and Covenants 122: 7-9 and promised her that Heavenly Father is aware of her and knows her troubles and the His son Jesus Christ has felt her pain.She loved those scriptures and was going to read the Book of Mormon on her many bus trips from here to Milwaukee and then Milwaukee to Detroit for the funeral. She'll be back before New Years looking for a job. She prays often and knows her bible well, we always pray with her and she'll be attending church when she gets back. I am so impressed with her faith. We're praying for her too.
There are so many other things I could say, but mostly I feel BLESSED. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true and living gospel of Jesus Christ here on the earth. I know that because I have felt the spirit of God witness to me and because of that I can not deny it. I love this time of year and know that thru giving of ourselves we find the Christmas spirit, which is the spirit of Christ.
Merry Christmas!
Love Sister Pamella Jo Black
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