Sweet Sixteen ( 12/8/2014)

Hello my dear family and friends once again!! How are you all? I hope that all is well and that you are all getting into the wonderful Christmas spirit. So something that I have realized on mission is that Christmas is my favorite holiday so hands down! I love it so much! I literally listen to Christmas music every single day and it just puts me into the best mood so I definitely offer that to anyone that has a bad day. Well this week has come and gone and now as I look towards a new one I have to admit that things have been a little difficult for me but I am trying my best to stay positive and upbeat. So this week kind of was a blur for me. Tuesday Sister Erickson called and took me and my companion to the doctor for a blood test to try to see what may be wrong with her. She has been having a few problems with her legs and feet and we haven’t really found a source yet. So we went to the doctor and of course the test came back negative so that means we don’t know what’s wrong. But they did give her new medicine to try so hopefully it proves helpful. So Wednesday for us what a little busier than usual! We went and saw the wonderful Shonga family, the family of the children we baptized and taught their family and the kids. I love them to death. Sister Shonga has definitely become my mom away from home. She takes care of us every day. So we have really been working hard on helping the girls we baptized, the two daughters, Christine and Emma, on their personal progress. They are doing so great. It’s only been like a month and we are almost done with the first value already. So it definitely makes me happy. I guess this week was hard on another note because of our two investigators that were baptized last week. They are struggling financially and it seems that Satan is really testing a lot of people in our branch. They have been taking care of chickens and trying to raise them but they didn’t have money for feed so the chickens started dying. It really discouraged Sister Meriam a lot and her family. We went and visited them and we taught them about testimonies and even about the importance of families. It was really great and Sister Miriam shared a powerful testimony. How it took her over 10 years to finally join the church and now she knows that it’s true. It was so sweet and powerful. So Saturday we got the opportunity to go as a district, 9 missionaries to help one of the members get her yard ready for planting. We had to clear the ground and then start digging! It was my first time using a hoe and I totally have bruises and sore muscles to prove it! But it was quite nice and I enjoyed it a lot. It’s always nice to help other people and to serve others. So after that we went with, Ustyne, the branch missionary that works with us to his house for lunch. His grandma is the Relief Society teacher and she invited us over for a wonderful lunch. She made nice nice food! Fried chicken of course and it was so great! She is the sweetest lady ever and then she even bought me and Sister M Chitenge’s. They were super nice and she is the sweetest lady I have ever met! So Saturday was also my daughter’s birthday! Sister Mbele finally hit nine months so shout out to her even though I already told her! I love her so much! It’s crazy to think that she has been here 9 months already, it makes me feel old J Yesterday as well was the last testimony Sunday for this year and the end of our wonderful week! Honestly I don’t think that my week was super spiritual and something specially stood out that happened but I can share that I had a testimony builder on repentance and also forgiveness this week. I don’t want to give specifics but this week I was definitely tried on those two things and I realize that forgiveness is just as much a big part of repentance as actually committing a sin and asking for forgiveness. I realize that sometimes people they hurt us and they do things to us maybe even on purpose to hurt us in some way. Sometimes it’s so hard to overcome that and to forgive them but at the end of the day we can’t withhold mercy and expect mercy. We can’t without forgiveness and expect God to forgive us. I definitely learned that this week and so I challenge everyone to work on those two things for this new upcoming year. Forgiving any who have wronged you and also repenting and drawing closer to Christ. He is our Master and our Creator. The Ruler of all. He forgives us every single time and he is the one person we are trying to be like. So I love you all lots and lots and lots! I hope you have a great week!