Macon, Georgia: Tis the week of Service!!

Dearest Family and Friends,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with lots of laughter, singing and eating! :)

This past week has been a week of mostly doing service! First off we went over and helped Sister Snow (a new convert) clean and decorate her apartment. She is a MAJOR pack-rat! She loves collecting pig things... so that was an adventure cleaning around them and removing some of them. Many are now sitting in boxes! Woot! We also helped her decorate for Christmas by putting up her tree, hanging pictures and tinsel and lights. It was a lot of fun working with Sister Pulsipher and Valery (a member). Also Sister Snow is a hoot and half! She has no teeth and can pull the funniest faces!

Another service that we did was with Miss. Mullen. She has been terribly sick with bronchitis the past week. When we were visiting/teaching her I felt like we should ask her if she would like a priesthood blessing. We first explained to her about receiving a blessing and she wanted to receive one, she knows this gospel is true but she is having a hard time living it. :( So we called the English Elders and they came over and gave her a blessing. She had great faith that she would be healed! She told us that when the Elders were giving her the blessing her hair felt on fire, like a good fire though. She then said that is started spreading all over her body and was very comfortable. (So cool right?!) We then explained more about the power of the priesthood and the Holy Ghost. She pretty much inhales everything we teach her and accepts it but she is just afraid to leave the life she has always know and also is concern about what her fiends in the other church will do. Our lesson with her on the Plan of Salvation went beautifully! The spirit was so strong and she knows this is true! The process is slowly moving forward... real slow though.

The ward put on a Live Nativity last Friday and they asked all the missionaries to help out. It was a lot of fun! We dressed up and sat outside in a make shift stable by the busy road that runs trough most of Beaufort. So many cars would honk as they drove by. I was the Angel! Until Elder McCullough (who was a wise man) asked to trade me, so I also got to be a wise man, lol. :) I look pretty sweet in my big turban hat tho! The next night was the ward Christmas party! We went early to help set up, decorate and cook. The party was a success! We had TONS of less active and non members there! Then on Sunday was the Christmas program. Sister Pulsipher, Me and the English Elders all sang in the choir. We sang about 10 songs and there was also readings. It was very beautiful. Debbie (the lady from last week who came cause of the tracking cards) came again! We were so happy cause all of last week when we tried to find her, we couldn't. She came up to us and asked why she hadn't heard from us? Then we find out that we had messed up and had the wrong numbers. lol. So we will be visiting her for sure this week!

I am loving it here! Beaufort is such a great ward! They are sure spoiling us and fattening us up! lol! :) Our little Christmas tree is bursting with things from our families and mostly from the ward member! They are all very good at embracing our investigators whenever we bring them to activities too!

Thank you everyone for your Christmas letter/packages! They really do mean a lot to me! :) I haven't really opened a lot of them yet cause I want to wait till Christmas morning! :)

Merry Christmas everyone, remember Christ is the reason! I love you all very much! :)

Love,

~ Sister Tara Willie