"Hermana Andrews is a MACHINE!"
Hello to one and all! Happy December! I cannot believe that it is the Christmas season! Time is flying by way too quickly! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My Thanksgiving was awesome! We had two wonderful dinners and many opportunities to serve others! It was so much fun!
First of all, the week of Thanksgiving started out with a wonderful district meeting on gratitude and service. I shared how thankful I am for parents who helped me focus on all of my many blessings and told of how we always wrote a list of 100 things we are thankful for before we could write our Christmas list. Everyone loved the idea and many shared it with others later on in the week. Then we had time for everyone to bare their testimony. One elder, Elder Perez, went around and said something about everyone in the room. When he got to me he said, "I am thankful for Hermana Andrews. She is a machine." So that has been the running joke this week! I am a machine. I love it! I love that others notice that I mean business and that I work hard and get the job done. Then after our district meeting we helped sort out all of the Bishops Storehouse orders. It was wonderful to help out with this. It is great to see how the church will help those in need.
Tuesday night I went to bed thinking about what we could make to give to our members. When I woke up I had the idea to make turkey's out of paper bags. On Wednesday and Thursday we made over 20 of them. They turned out so cute and everyone loved them. All of the Elders make fun of me and say that I am such a school teacher but hey I am just using my talents to help me do this work.
On the morning of thanksgiving we went to help our mission nurse, Sister Stewart set up for the Nativity Festival this weekend. It was fun to help her and to be with all of the missionaries in Santa Rosa. Then we went home and made more Turkey's and got ready for the day. At 1 we had an amazing dinner/lunch at President and Sister Alba's. They invited all of the missionaries in Santa Rosa over which is about 40 people. It was all incredible. I wish I had taken pictures but it was just so crazy. The center pieces were so beautiful and the food was so good. We had stuffed mushrooms and a queso dip for appetizers and then a traditional thanksgiving dinner. For dessert there were many different types of pies but my favorite was the chocolate cream pie that President Alba made. It was so good! Sister Alba kept saying that she was so glad that she got to spoil us! She is so sweet. After dinner we just enjoyed visiting and some of the Elders and Sisters sang for us! It felt like being home! It was so nice. Then we were off to dinner number 2. It was at The Snyder's home they are friends of our branch President. Dinner was wonderful there as well. There were about 14 missionaries there and then Brother and Sister Snyder and their daughter and President and Sister Johnson and their son. It was a lot of fun. After dinner we played scripture taboo (Sisters against Elders) and sang Christmas songs. It was so fun and also felt like home. We then went and visited a few members and passed out paper turkey's. I really could not have asked for a better thanksgiving day. It was wonderful!
The other big thing that happened this week is that Elder Perez and Elder Francom (2 of the Spanish Elders) had a baptism. Juana Suarez and her 2 kids Karla who is 12 and Juan Antonio who is 10 were baptized. The father of the family has had all of the lessons but did not feel ready. It was amazing to see the spirit working on him. I really think that he will be baptized very soon. Hermana Whiteley and I had the privilege of doing the missionary moment after the baptism. We taught the Restoration and focused on the Book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong. I can't believe that I forgot to mention that the Hernandez family that we have been teaching for a while came to the baptism. They have been to several baptisms before but I think that they really felt the spirit and enjoyed it.
This week was wonderful. It was so good to feel so loved. We did not teach any lessons and we have had a few hard times but all is well. I know that everything happens for a reason! My faith is being tried but I am a machine so I will this battle! Also this week is transfers and I am not sure what will happen. Whatever happens is God's will.
Have an amazing week! Thank you for your prayers! I feel them!
Love you more than the beautiful fog here,
Hermana Hillary
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