Sledding Christmas Eve

                                            Friends (Andy and Brock) from BYU visiting in Pocatello

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

We saw some Christmas miracles this week! A few days prior to Christmas, we were trying to see a girl named Graciela that we had met outside of her apartment.  When we knocked on her door, her roommate answered instead. Her roommate's name is Kiki and it turns out that she's from China!  She was the only one home and she let us inside.  We showed her the Christmas videos, and although she has no religious background at all, her Grandma in China is Christian, so she's heard about God and Jesus Christ.  The girl that we took with us invited Kiki to the church Christmas program, and Kiki accepted! So yesterday she came to church, and we sat by her and explained some of the things that were happening (the sacrament,etc).  She seemed to really enjoy it!  She accepted to learn more, so we look forward to meeting with her again!

We also had another miracle this week.  This was just the day before Christmas Eve.  It was in the middle of the afternoon, and we stopped the car on the side of a residential street in order to look at our map and figure out who we would try and see next.  I glanced up from the map and saw somebody bundled up and walking in the snow alone.  I didn't even think-----I just said almost automatically, "we need to talk to that person."  I got out of the car, Sister Gilbert following behind me, and we approached the person walking on the other side of the street.  He was a young man named Eric.  Eric told us that he was from California---he had just moved to Idaho that day.  We gave him a pass-along card about Christmas, and he seemed pleased, "Oh! Christan! I just accepted Jesus 2 or 3 years ago."  We talked with him a bit about that, and he accepted our invitation to come teach him about the Restored Gospel!  We are really excited about both of these miracles.  Christmas really is a wonderful time of year!  

We ate with several families and made homemade donuts with President and Sister Hancock! That was super fun.  Went sledding a bit, watch a movie with the zone, and played a very intense version of capture the flag. 

With the upcoming New Years, make it a time to give Christ His "birthday present".  For your New Years Resolutions, you can give Christ a gift by resolving to pray more.  Maybe you can make a resolution to be kinder to your neighbors and friends.  Perhaps you want to make it a goal to go to church, or to focus on the sacrament more as you attend meetings. Your New Years Resolution could be to say "thank you" more often, or even to spend more quality time with family members.  Whatever it is, dedicate this year of 2016 to the God who loves you more than words can describe. I LOVE YOU ALL!

God Bless,

Sister Moreland 

Guess who came home to Pocatello for the holidays?? Andy and Brock!  

Me and Sister Gilbert after sledding!

 

You will only understand if you are a Monty Python fan!

                                                           New Companion, Sister Gilbert

                                                                         First attempt at queso

MERRRRRRRRRRYYY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

New Companion!!

I can usually tell from the first few days what a companionship is going to be like. And I can already tell that it is going to be a fantastic transfer!

My new companion is Sister Gilbert.  She is from Huntington, Utah and has been out for 7 months. She's a brand new STL, so we've got a new STL training a brand new STL. So this should be fun.

I am excited to work with Sister Gilbert.  We've been sharing a lot of the goals that we have for this transfer and it's looking like we're on the same page--we want to be bold, fearless missionaries who are diligent workers.  Ahhh I'm so excited, Sister Gilbert is great. I don't know if I mentioned this in my last email, but she served in McAmmon while I served in Inkom.  The two towns are really close to each other, so us Inkom sisters would get rides form McAmmon sisters all the time, and vice versa.  So we got pretty tight there.  

All the ISU students are going home for Christmas break, which means, in terms of young single adults, Pocatello will be a ghost town for the next couple of weeks.  Most of our investigators are going out of town to see their families for Christmas.  One of our Investigators, Ali, is going back to his home country for the break. Please pray for him. 

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Yearrrrrr!! I can't wait to Skype y'all and see how you're doing.  Although I will miss hanging with the cousins, eating cottage cheese pie, making a gingerbread house, and going to the theater to see a movie on Christmas Day, I love Christmas in the mission field because of how exciting it is to 'announce' to everyone about the birth of the Savior.  It makes me feel like the angel announcing to the shepherds of the glorious news. Thing this year of what you can give Christ for His birthday.  I love you all so much!

Merry Christmas and God Bless,

Sister Moreland

we tried making homemade queso. Didn't really turn out, but it still tasted good. haha

Don't have a whole lot of time today!

Sister Green is entering the Mission Home today to go home!! So we've got to get a bunch of stuff ready, clean our apartment, which is destroyed right now, before my new companion comes.  Oh! My new companion! Her name is Sister Gilbert.  When I was serving in Inkom, she was in McAmmon, which is right next to Inkom so we saw each other on P-day every week, got rides from each other, etc.  She's from Utah and has been out for about 7 months. So I'm excited to get a companion that is right smack in the middle of her mission, I feel like that's when you're the most completely focused because you've been in the mission field for a while so you don't think about family or anything back home anymore, and you're not in that stage where you're starting to make preparations for coming home yet.  So I'm excited and ready to light the fire of missionary work!

Short and sweet one.  I love the Lord.  His Church is true! 

God Bless and Merry Christmas,

Sister Moreland

ps if you haven't seen the 2 min Xmas video yet, check it out here

It's commiiinnngggggggggggg!!!!!

Christmas.

It's coming.

Soon.

Get ready.

I'M SO EXCITED.

Alrighty here we go.  We had a Zone Conference.  It was full of slideshow goofy pictures, funny talent show shenanigans, and lots of Christmas excitement.  There, they introduced the website.  THE WEBSITE.  Christmas.mormon.org.  This website has a 2 minute video called "A Savior is Born" and it is absolutly wonderful.  I love the African kid.  That's probably my favorite part. He's just so passionate about it.  

So we got Christmas pass-along cards, like they give us every year, and we've been handing them out like candy.  Telling everybody about the good news!  Christmas!  A Savior is born! And not just any Savior, your Savior!  

To see what the world would be like without a Savior, check out this 2 minute video called Why We Need a Savior.

Yesterday we watched the Christmas Devotional Broadcast and that got me super excited about Christmas as well.  I love Christmas music.  It makes me so incredibly happy.

So last week, we went to contact a less active girl named Kate, and Kate didn't seem too excited to have us there.  Her roommate Alexis, however, is not a member of the church and seemed eager for us to return.  We went back yesterday and shared a brief message about the Book of Mormon.  She talked about how she was super open and willing to learn more.  We were doing cartwheels in our heads on the way out!  Miracle, my friends.  God lead us straight to Alexis, I'm sure of it. 

Once you watch the videos on Christmas.mormon.org, post it on facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, and any other social media you have! Spread this wonderful message of Christmas joy.

Merry Christmas and God Bless!

Sister Moreland