Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

(Aspen '08)

HelLo! How are each of you? I am on a computer this week that has microsoft word… hallelugiah! It makes my life so much easier… so now I can type freely without fear that my email will be erased off of myldsmail. [president barrett said that sometime soon myldsmail is switching to use the gmail server… I can’t wait for that to happen… this thing is SO slow and it ALWAYS erases my emails.]

SO last week I had a lot more to say… but didn’t have the time or desire. So here it is…

First off though, Don’t you just love Christmas? Goodness, I am sad it is over, but I feel like I throughouly celebrated it this year! We went caroling EVERY night we could since the day after Thanksgiving… that’s pretty impressive. I think the elders are done with me and caroling; I can’t help it if I LOVE it and it’s an EXCELLENT finding activity. Plus, it was an AMAZING way to see all of the people we needed too, unannounced! NOT TO MENTION that people LOVED it… they were so happy to have carolers at their door.

I know that we caroled a lot for two reasons. The first is in both my spanish and english hymn books the book naturally falls open to the Christmas Carols. The second is that sister johnson and I were singing with some people last night who obviously hadn’t caroled much and they were singing at an incredibly SLOW tempo. We both looked at eachother and just helped them speed that song right along… our audience was losing interest! I love caroling.

Last Sunday [12/20] we wer e caroling/tracting… we knocked the door of an elderly couple and sang them a christmas hymn; at the end of our song she said, “Merry Christmas, and it’s ok to say that- It’s not Happy Holidays, it’s Merry Christmas!” She was a cute little lady and she was all fired up. She is right though… That is why we have so much JOY this time of year: because we are CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS!

Last Sunday [12/20] was the Christmas Program in the Racine Ward. I had to speak and sister johnson sang a solo: “O Holy Night”. It was beautiful. My talk was to be 5 minutes on “What Christmas Means to Me”. I liked that topic a lot. I first spoke of my Christmas Traditions: going to see temple lights [did you guys do that this year?], baking sugar cookies, decorating the tree, gma & gpa lighting a fire in the fireplace even though it’s already plenty warm in the house and things like that.

Then I talked about how as a missionary Christmas has come to mean a little bit more to me. I read the scripture from Luke 2:10
…
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. …

I based my whole talk off of that scripture. It was glorious. I talked about how the gospel is the good tidings of GREAT JOY! Let’s just say I said the word JOY a lot… I know that the birth of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made of His life is the reason we are able to feel so much joy and happiness in our own lives. We can be with our families foever, we know we can repent and CHANGE, we know how to return to live with our Heavenly Father. I love the GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST! My talk went well.

This is definitely a Christmas I will not forget. Last Christmas sister Barrett challenged us to make that a Christmas we wouldn’t forget. It was. I remember making a MILLION sugar cookies with elder jolley and elder pulley and delivering them. I remember taking corry and her family a christmas tree and all the decorations for it… so fun.

I remember the year before that when I was at BYU. Michelle and I, after attending the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, decided to do an act of service each day for someone. What a difference that made- what a good Christmas that was, it made the fact that I didn’t get to fly home until the 22nd or 23rd of december a little easier.

And then this Christmas with all the caroling with the elders. . . unforgettable! It was freezing cold… yet we felt warm and bundled as we shared the joy the gospel brings at each doorstep. We were often invited in, given some kind of treat and that made it so worth it! I am so grateful to be a missionary at this time of year. There is truly nother better! I can't explain it... I was so happy as we did that... all singing together songs about our savior as it snowed! seeing peoples faces light up as they saw what we were doing... one house even recorded us!

I am sorry that I didn’t send out Christmas Cards this year, there was no snow! I will be sending out some other greeting cards sometime soon… now that we have snow! I can’t stand to take a winter picture in wisconsin without the white stuff… we do that at home all the time.

Here’s the DL on the week:

*lunes* pday. Email. Play soccer with elders at the church. They made me mad so I got a lot more letters written! They felt bad afterwards, sometimes they forget I am a girl… goodness, I do have feelings! We had dinner and FHE with Temika and her family. They read a story and sing a song every night in december from one of those book things. That was fun to do with them. We taught nancy and then we went caroling with the elders!

*martes* we went to seminary! We got up at 5a. ugh. Remind me to never do that again. I don’t know how those kids do that! It was their last day… we had bkfst with them then we taught them about marking their scriptures and the elders taught them about paying attention in seminary. I could tell it was a little early for e. stribling, he was a bit intense with those kids. So funny. We taught Marka, saw some referrals, or tried to at least, we taught raygon taylor and then We had dinner with the abbott’s. We ended the night going with Fani to Nancy’s choir concert at Park HS. Little J wasn’t feeling good, so we came home and she went to bed.

*miercoles*we studied, stopped by to see vicki and then we were off to milwaukee. I had to go to the dentist, I saw Dr. Knutsen, he’s the spanish branch president in milwaukee and he took good care of me. I fractured my back molar. When I got in there he started working on the other back molar, apparently that tooth is fractured too and that one has a cavity.. ugh. So he is going to fix both of those problems for me tomorrow, 12/29. We then came back and caroled with the elders the rest of the night. We ended our night with the first snowball fight of the year at the aquinos! It was a surprise attack on the elders! It worked out well… smith got me good in the face though… it was SO FUN! It snowed so much this day! Driving wasn’t so pleasant.

*jueves* CHRISTMAS EVE we had 6 appts! Brkfst at Temika’s… then the Sura’s for lunch… then the Crowther’s… then we went to kenosha with our family… that was SO FUN… then to the FLORES… then to the Davis’. Everywhere we went we were showered with FOOD and GIFTS… it was a good day. I felt like I was with my family, it was so fun… I love this area! I am so glad I got to be here for Christmas!

*viernes* CHRISTMAS DAY … I got to talk to my family. That was so wonderful. Everyone sounds like they are doing great. WE had breakfast with the Brigg’s, lunch at the Ngorney’s and then with the Schlitz’s then dinner at the Petriceck’s… GOOD DAY! I love Christmas… same thing as christmas eve… we were showered with food and gifts.

*sabado* SOCCER. STUDY. CAROLING. [who cares if it’s the day after!] [& dinner with the elders and sisters warner and pluim at culvers, they were passing thru on the way back from an appt.]

*domingo* CHURCH. Brother and sister Cabrales gave talks in the branch! It was so adorable. They did such a great job. Brother Cabrales said his life completely changed once the elders taught him, That is what the gospel of Jesus Christ does for us… AmAzing. We ended our night… CAROLING for the last time. We caroled to the calderwood’s in kenosha and to their neighbor with the kenosha elders… and then in racine with our english elders… they are much better carolers! … they’ve had A LOT Of practice. IT was snowing last night. We parked our cars and walked up and down to those we needed to sing to. As we did that, Sister Johnson, Elder Zobell, Elder Stribling and I, I thought, “This is the LIFE!” I thought about Rocky! I can’t wait for him to walk up and down cold, dark streets in Maryland and think the same thing… “This is the LIFE!”

I LOVE LOVE LOVE being a missionary. I really do. I get to share the greatest message this Earth with ever know!

Happy New Year!

Love, Sister Pamella Jo Black