15 December, 2010

Hi family!  Thank you so much! I got the cd's I love those songs!

 I love you all so much!   Sorry to hear about Grandpa!  I'm so glad to know he's ok!  Tell him to take it easy if he'll listen. :-)  Knowing him, he'll still keep going 100 miles an hour.  How's everyone doing?  Sounds like you're all still pretty involved.  How's Natalie doing?  How are all the BYU cousins?   HUGS to you all!

We had a special Christmas zone conference.  President Gonzalez shared "Christmas scriptures" all about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  He brought up a good point.  When we celebrate someone's birthday we don't take out baby pictures of that person and focus on the day they were born.  We see where they are now and celebrate for that.  At Christmas time we do celebrate Christ's birth.  But it is most important to remember that the reason for him being born was his atoning sacrifice.  It is a lot easier for people to focus on the baby than the man he grew up to be.  There is a lot of responsibility and sacrifice that comes from being a true follower of Christ.  We shouldn't just celebrate Christmas.  We should live Christian lives. That's hard to do.

We have a 17 year old investigator named Amy.  She knows little to nothing about religion at all but she has a desire to know her purpose in this life.  We taught about God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost and we're working on the plan of salvation.  She committed to be baptized on January 23rd.  She came to church for the first time on Sunday then stayed after for ward choir then sang with them in the stake music Christmas fireside that night.  The members really welcomed her.  It was great.  We got to do the fireside too because we can go if we have investigators.  Every song was beautiful.  I love music, especially this time of year!  There was one arrangement of "I heard the bells on Christmas Day" mixed with "Carol of the Bells" with organ and piano accompaniment.  I loved that.

Remember our investigators Nancy and Jose?  I am SO excited for them to be baptized.  I know it will be something special because Satan is throwing everything he has at them. They are still going strong though.  We're not giving up hope.  The wrong shall fail, the right prevail!

We got to go to the temple today!  That was great.  The Bishop and his wife drove us.  As always it was a haven of peace and very enlightening.  It's the first time in like 6 months we've gotten to go.

A brother in our ward asked if I would accompany him in a musical number for church so I borrowed a violin and we did "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring."  It went well.  That's the first time in over a year I've played.

I got to go on an exchange with the sisters in Madera.  That was my last area.  We taught a lesson to an investigator that we were teaching when I was there.  Now she has a baptismal date!  That was fun. 

It's a lot easier to be obedient 100% of the time than 98% of the time.

Prayer is the key to receiving guidance.  We don't get direction unless we ask for it.

For everyone that thinks we're weird for not spending money on the Sabbath day, Nehemia 10:31.  We're not the first ones to do that.

I've been seeing lately the effects of gossip.  PLEASE everyone, don't touch that stuff with a 50 ft pole! Pay attention to who you're talking to and keep all negative thoughts to yourself.  Like Bambi, If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all, no matter how reliable the source.  We've heard things about people then go to the supposed "source" and it's completely false.  It's not necessarily anyone's fault it gets twisted so just DON'T PASS IT ON!!!! You can let rotten fruit just fall off the tree and disappear.  You don't have to pick it and throw it in everyone's face.  I want to share a quote my MTC teacher sent me:

“If you have anything good to say, speak it and comfort the hearts of the Saints. If you have that which tends to death, keep it to yourselves; we do not want it, for we already have plenty of it.
“Frame your lives according to the precepts of the Gospel. Let your deal, walk, and conversation be that upon which an angel can look with pleasure. And in all your social communications, or whatever your associations are, let all the dark, discontented, murmuring, unhappy, miserable feelings—all the evil fruit of the mind, fall from the tree in SILENCE and unnoticed; and so let it perish, without taking it up to present to your neighbors. But when you have JOY and HAPPINESS, LIGHT and INTELLIGENCE, TRUTH and VIRTUE, offer that fruit abundantly to your neighbors, and it will do them good, and so strengthen the hands of your FELLOW BEINGS...”
-Discourses of Brigham Young—Page 123 by John A. Widtsoe; Journal of Discourses Volume 7:268-269

I am learning so much on my mission.  I love it.  It is the best decision I have ever made.  You grow so much. You learn so much.  You build friendships that will last forever.

Merry Christmas everyone!

            Hermana Evans

P.S.  For Christmas we get to watch one movie.  (g-rated Disney.  We're watching Toy Story 3 at a recent convert's house.)