Sisterhood of the Traveling Skirts: First Christmas away from home!

Hey everyone!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I sure did!! Christmas eve Me and sister McCrea went with the YSA Elders to a members home (the members aree in Dalhousie ward but the daughter is in YSA) and it was a BLAST!!! President lets us watch family movies with families Christmas eve and Christmas so we watched most of the Grinch there! It was SO GOOD!! Me and Elder Kendall pretty much quoted the whole thing haha loved it. We had a wonderful dinner with them and even got presents! We actually got presents from a few members! we are spoiled!! haha. And lots of treats.. lots and lots of treats. It was great. So much laughter and joy filled the room. Christmas was good too, I got to Skype home and talk to everyone! I sure am blessed with an amazing family. They brought so much peace into my heart. I couldn't imagine going on this journey without their full love and support along the way. Such a blessing.

I have been doing my best with the book of Mormon challenge! I am a little behind where I should be but I can do hard things! haha Its been amazing though! I have felt the spirit so strongly while reading and throughout the rest of the day! The stories are coming to life in my head and I am understanding them way more then I have before! I seriously love the Book of Mormon so much! How amazing is it that our Father in Heaven loves us so much that he literally gave us the answer to every life question in a book? We know where we came from, Why we are here, and Where we are going. He gave us examples of what to do and what not to do and allowed us to have a savior to rely on and read about him and how he can help us! It blows my mind that we are given so much knowledge yet it can be a struggle to pick up our scriptures and read them daily. Maybe because we think we know enough? I definitely wasn't the most diligent at scripture reading before my mission but I have learned that the more I read and the more I learn... the less I know haha it's for sure given me much encouragement and fire to read more! Which is good haha I love the book of Mormon!!

A fun moment we had this week was we took a young women in our ward, Emma, out with us ALL DAY. to be a "missionary for a day"! She even went to our district meeting in the morning and got up at 6:30 am! The she stayed with us all day! We had some great lessons and it was a blast! Best part was our very last lesson. We were meeting an investigators husband for the first time because he works in Dubai and has been gone for 8 months!! So we were very excited to meet and teach him! We got Emma to teach a part of the lesson and she was so nervous but did such a great job!! Then we asked her about how she gained a testimony on the topic and she told her story then whipped out a challenge and challenged them to pray to find out the truth and promised they would get an answer! We were so excited!! like what?! she did such a great job! we freaked out after we left (the lesson was super great by the way) and she said she just ran out of things to say so she thought "what would the sister missionaries do? challenge them!!" hahahaha so cute!! it melted my heart. I love her so much. Teaching is definitely one of the best parts of being a missionary. It is so fun and the spirit is so strong and just guides you! I love it.

I love you all so much! stay warm, stay safe and have a happy new year!!!

love,
Sister Heinzlmeir