December 1, 2014

Hello everyone! I sure hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving! And that y'all ate lots of food. Food is always a good thing! 

This week was good though! I'm starting to get to know the area more, and the people that are here, and it's great! I hit my hump mark this week, and it's CRAZY how fast time flies!!! Its super scary at the same time! I truly love being a missionary, and am SO thankful to be out here serving The Lord, and serving Gods children! 

Our Thanksgiving was good, we ate with a young couple in the area and their in-laws, so it was a house full of family! We had lots of food, it was nice, at the end of our meal we all sat in a circle with a glass of Apple Cider and we all talked about what we were thankful for. It was so great to be apart of a families Thanksgiving tradition! It sure made me feel all special! 

We're still trying to teach Marlee, and Phil and Tammy. 
Marlee is good, we've been trying to get her to come to our ward (congregation) so she can get baptized, she's been going to a different ward, so it's all a little bit crazy right now. 

Phil and Tammy are also doing well! I'm trying to master my skills of talking to talkative people, but sometimes its just hard to get a word in.. But I'm so thankful to be teaching such wonderful people!! 

We also did some service this week! YAY! We helped lay down a concrete walk way! We set them as stones so this guy can walk in his yard so he doesn't have to walk in dirt all the time! 
It was seriously so much fun, who knew I would learn how to mix and lay concrete while on my mission? And guess what! I got to put my initials in the stones! Super duper fun! :D 

I don't remember if I said last week or not but we'll be singing at the ward Christmas party which is this week, so we've been trying to practice for that..And guess what else! We've also been asked to sing in church the Sunday before Christmas. We don't know what we're singing yet, but I guess this ward sure does love when missionaries sing! 

Speaking of Christmas, I'm so thankful for this time of year to reflect on the love I have for my Savior, and how grateful I am to be able to serve him. 
I don't know if y'all have seen the new "He is the Gift" video, but I would invite everyone to watch it, it's just a short maybe 3 minute long video on how Christ truly is the reason for Christmas. 
The link for the video is right here http://www.mormon.org/christmas 
  But in all honesty, I'm so thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, I'm thankful to know that through him I can be cleansed from my sins, I'm thankful to know that I never have to be alone, but that he went through everything I've experienced and continue to experience. 
Christ is my best friend, and I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful to have this relationship with my Savior, and to know that I can overcome any trial that comes my way. 
   Having that relationship with him makes me want to become an even better person. We have on our wall a paper, and on it, it says "To become", underneath it, it has our goals of how we can become better, which is just a reminder to me that I don't have to be perfect now, because that's not possible, but what is possible is that I can become better. And that's only because of Jesus Christ. And I love being able to share that with others! These past 9 months have flown by fast, and I can only imagine how fast the next 9 months with fly. But in the mean time, I'm going to serve my best and truly try my best to help others, and to serve others as Christ has served me. 

As for the funny moment of the week, like I said we were doing service, and so we were outside in the dirt, and there are these things called goat heads, and they're just these spikey little pokey round balls that are everywhere and really hurt when you step on them, or poke them. Well, we're all working and stuff when all the sudden, someone yells out "I have pokeys on my butt!" Rather loud. 
Apparently he had sat down in the dirt right on the goat heads. We were all dying of laughter. It was great! 

Well, I sure do love y'all!!!! I can't believe it's already December! 
I hope y'all have a great week!! 

Love, 
Sister Bond