Date
December 27, 2016
Area
Ponderosa, TX
Companion
Sister Halliday
The Christmas Season is hands down the most fun time of the year to be a missionary!
The Christmas Season is hands down the most fun time of the year to be a missionary! I just loved how much kinder and open people were as we were sharing the Christmas message, which we promised would bring them the Spirit of the Lord into their homes. Who wouldn't want that? Well… some people, but there were definitely tons of people who let us in and opened their doors to us who otherwise would not have.
The Christmas message was also a good transition to talk about things like the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, eternal families, etc. and get them interested in the Gospel. We got a lot of new investigators that way. It was sweet!
One of the awesome things about being STL (Sister Training Leader) is setting up exchanges with the other sisters, getting to minister to them, helping them with the area, helping each other personally, improving our teaching, etc. And they get to help me of course! I went on an exchange with Sister Fies'ehoy, who is from New Zealand, so that was pretty cool. :) We did studies together and talked about how to better remember the teaching material from our outlines. I showed her some tricks on the iPad and gave her some suggestions that she was just blown away by. Haha.
Sometimes I question what I can possibly offer the other missionaries, but then times like that I realize that I have acquired skills and knowledge that a lot of the other missionaries aren't aware of. I love moments like that, when I am able to share things I have learned and then watch how excited the other missionaries get to try out what they have learned. There is something awesome about sharing knowledge to build each other up!
Sister Fies’ehoy and I also practiced a lot of door approaches, where we actually stood at a door in the apartment and the other person stood on the other side of the door, so we could pretend we were actually tracting as we role played… haha. As I have been on my mission for a longer period of time, I have really grown to love role playing, because we get to give each other feedback about what went awesome and what we need to improve on.
I love being a missionary because everyone you are surrounded by only wants to help push you to become even better, all while making you feel good about yourself. It is such a positive environment. I wish you all could just spend even one day with missionaries, because I feel like there is just a different feeling about being a missionary. Maybe it's the excitement or the positive vibes we carry, but it definitely is the mantle of carrying the Spirit of the Lord with us.
Speaking of missionaries, the whole mission got together for a Christmas Conference! It was so much fun to be able to go twice (which not a lot of sisters get to do in 18 months)! But at the same time, I was a little heartbroken as it dawned on me that this would be the last time we would get together as a whole mission before I go home... sad! I really soaked up the time there. I was super happy to talk to all of my missionary friends I have grown to love, as we worked so hard together these past 15 months. I also realized how "old" I am in the mission, because everyone kept making comments about how I am going home soon and asking me what my plans are, etc. That was weird for me, because I still feel like having 3 months left on my mission is a while. I am going to soak it up!
We had some super inspiring training from President at the Christmas Conference! He talked about our mission being about 50 baptisms short of the 600 that we originally committed to at the beginning of the year. He talked about Nephi and his brothers and how they thought they had failed after they had returned from bringing Laban their gold, silver, and precious things. Much of the wealth had been taken out of Jerusalem, perhaps making Lehi one of the wealthiest people in the city. (This is speculation that President shared.) So when Laban had gained Lehi's wealth, he was excited and was perhaps celebrating the night Nephi came back to get the plates—a possible reason why Laban was drunk. And because of Laban’s drunken state, Nephi was able to get the plates. At first, after Laban had stolen all of his father’s wealth and they did not obtain the plates, Nephi might have felt like he failed. However, taking a retrospective look, this so called failed attempt prepared them to receive the plates during their next trip.
President related Nephi’s experience back to us by saying that even though we will be just barley short of the 600 baptism goal we set, it still prepared a way for us to achieve our commitment. Last January President started this initiative called "Faith Meets Families," where all recent converts who haven't been to the temple the last couple of years get to go after hours on the 4th Friday of every month. This extended time is just for converts to do baptisms for the dead with family names for the first time.
Over this last year, 206 recent converts took family names to the temple. On average, they did about 2.33 names per person, making a total of 606 baptisms for their deceased ancestors!... Not to mention the around 550 missionary baptisms we will end the year with! It is just incredible! Our attempt to reach 600 baptisms for the year ended up reaching far beyond our anticipation! The collective faith, unity, and obedience of the missionaries in our mission is just amazing and awe-inspiring!
Also, President read Luke 2. He stopped and talked about the attributes of shepherds and made a big list while we discussed. Some of the attributes of the shepherds include: keeping watch, abiding in the field, not expecting anything, ministering angels, obedient, quickly acted, faithful, humble, trusting, counsel together--unity in their actions, shared news, shepherded/brought/led sheep, enthusiastic, submitted, noble lineage, standing in good places, finders--not just seekers, went directly, persistent, knowledgeable, opened their mouths, good listeners, knew no bounds, the way they taught made people marvel/wonder.
We talked about how we can acquire some of the same shepherd attributes and how we are the shepherds. This relates to the story of Ammon. King Lamoni represents the King of Kings (aka God). Ammon represents any worthy servant of the Lord. Ammon is sent to do the lowliest job (a shepherd herder). What happens to shepherds who don't herd properly?... Spiritual death, or in this scriptural example, they are killed. So to protect the sheep, Ammon leads them TO THE WATER. And if you notice, when the sheep are surrounded by God’s servants at the water, they are protected. Good shepherds always lead their sheep to water!!
I loved this comparison by President, because I think it relates to all of us. One of my fears about coming home was that I didn't know how I was going to just start talking to everyone about the Gospel… but then I thought about it. Whenever we introduce ourselves, we always say that we are representatives of Jesus Chris--not missionaries, because the word “missionary” has a negative connotation. And not to mention, our true identity is revealed when we say we are representatives of Jesus Christ. When I thought about this, I realized that it doesn't have to change when I get home, because even when I have to take the name tag off, I am still a representative of Jesus Christ! That is something I’ve covenanted to do (as did all of you who are baptized)! So when I go home, I can still be and will be a shepherd. True disciples are always the Lord’s shepherds!
Let us all be good shepherds in our wards, homes, neighborhoods, and with our friends and colleagues! What direction are you leading those around you?... Is it to water? A great reminder this Christmas season was that we can be Christ's hands, especially in loving and encircling those around us. I love my Savior. He truly is my Redeemer, my Light, and my Life! It was another Christmas that I gave my whole heart, time, talents, and effort to the Lord. It was great to lay down my sacrifice to the Lord, as my seemingly small gift to Him, in comparison for what He did for me and all of us!
The key to my success has honestly been applying the Atonement of Jesus Christ, not only to my investigators and those we teach, but also to myself, because we truly need it every day!
We had some more amazing and fun things happen this Christmas week! We were able to find an excommunicated member of the Church and start teaching her this week. She was just raving about how it was the Lord’s hands that we found her, because she has been praying to come back. Over the past couple of years, she has been going to the church parking lot and just crying and praying that God will help her come back. Whenever she sees the missionaries out and about, she cries. She told us that when she sees us, she prays that we will come to her and help her come back. How sweet it that?... especially that the Lord answered her prayers and lead us to her!
Also, Josh and his family are so cute! Like I was saying before, they are all living just crammed with so many people into a small motel, which is their home for a reason I'm not sure of yet. But I do know that they are really poor and struggling. Last week a robber came while his grandma was trying to get into the car, and he pushed her down to the cement. She got really injured and had to go to the ER to be treated for a brain injury! Scary, huh? Well, when we visited them, she looked in bad shape but was still up and going, trying to care for her family. She had already forgiven the person who did it and was so kind and gracious. It was so sweet. They were stressed because they have a bunch of kids and no money, so they were certain that they weren't going to have a Christmas. But all of the sudden, a flood of donations for their family came in. Even people from Chicago sent them stuff. They were SO grateful, and the grandma gave all the credit to paying her tithing to her church! What a powerful testimony she had about tithing, as she gave full credit to the goodness of God in her life! I wish you all could meet this family. They are amazing!
We went and visited this family on Christmas Eve night. But before that, we ended up going to two dinners… haha. One was with the Rosas family, where a bunch of other missionaries were invited too. It was this big Latino party… it was so awesome! Ha. We had so much fun. We also ended up going to our ward mission leader’s house to have dinner and do some traditions with his family. Their little boy wanted to be my best friend. It was so cute! It was also really sweet to see them do their family traditions, like opening their PJs together and reading the Christmas story! They even gave us gifts.
Everyone has given us SO many thoughtful gifts this year. We are so spoiled! We loved the gifts we got and kept much of them, but we also ended up re-gifting many things and giving them to our investigators. It just made their day, because we went and saw many people who were lonely and didn’t have much on Christmas. Showing up with gifts, our smiling faces, and a great message just made so many people's Christmas brighter! I don't think I will ever get to spend another Christmas with such a wide variety of different people, and that makes me sad because it was so much fun!
Christmas Day was so great too!!! Sister Halliday and I started our own tradition and read the Christmas story book mom gave us for Christmas. We loved it so much that we read it for our message to the Hallidays (Sister Halliday's aunt, uncle, and cousins) when we went to their house for Christmas breakfast, which was so yummy! Afterwards we opened our gifts from our parents and then FaceTimed our families!!! It was so great to see them. My heart is full because I realized that God blessed me with the best family in the world! I can't wait to see them in 3 months!
After our calls, we went to church and had an awesome investigator named Elmore show up, which was surprising and awesome. It is so hard to get people to church on Christmas, which is odd because it should be the opposite on Christ's day. To top off the rest of our evening, we went caroling with our district! It was so much fun. We got whole families to come to the door and watch us with smiling faces, which was unusual… hahaha, but it was awesome. We even got a whole family as new investigators! We had to drag the Elders out of a Bible bash, we sang to cars as they stopped to listen to our carols, and we received gifts and food from people at their doors! It was a great evening, as our hearts felt full from the Christmas spirit!
Love you all so much!!!
Love, Sister Marisa Teasdale
Input from Sister Halliday:
Miracle -- This week, when Sister Teasdale and I were deciding where to go "finding" one night, we were having the hardest time trying to figure out where we needed to go. We prayed fervently, and after much study and thought, we finally had a destination in mind! We went to an apartment complex that we both felt the Lord wanted us to go to that night. When we knocked on one of the doors, we met a man named Sterling. As we were talking to him and sharing the Christmas video, his roommate's wife walked up and we started talking to her. We showed her the video too, and she was in awe! She broke down in tears, just saying how much she needed that! Her mom passed away recently, so Christmas was really hard for her! And on top of that, she had a horrible day at work and just felt like giving up. We were able to share a chapter of the Book of Mormon that helped answer some of her questions, and we prayed with her! She said that she knew the Lord sent us there for her that night. We were able to find a time to come back and meet with her and Sterling! So cool!