December 8, 2014

Greetings!

 

What a happy Christmas week this has been! I'd forgotten how exhausting Christmas Lights are. I've never been so tired yet so happy. We've had so many small miracles happen while working at the lights. I have seen so many families from Vista Peaks it's not even funny. Our first night, the beehives found me and practically squished me on the ground. Needless to say that made my night. We've been setting goals for how many "He is the Gift" cards we want to send out and the number of meaningful conversations we want to have. We've only been working for three days, but we've almost met our goals every night. Setting goals really helps you stay focused at the lights. It's super easy to go into auto mode and forget that the people around you need what you have to offer. We've received a couple of referrals too and it's amazing to see that if you just talk with people the Lord will make up the rest. He makes things go naturally if you're trying. 

 

President Jenkins is a man with a vision. He's termed March as "Miracle March" because he wants to double the amount of last year's baptisms. We had about 50 last year, so his goal is to have 100. Pretty amazing. So he and the MLC this past week have been creating a vision, goals, and plans to make this happen. He know's that we can't do this without the members, so he sent out an email with the basic overview to the stake presidents who then sent it to the bishops who sent it to the ward council. Las Sendas is totally on board for the vision for the next 4 months! It was really cool as we explained what was going to happen and what we wanted to do how the Spirit touched the members hearts and helped them accept and want to help. Bishop Hurst heard about it before we did and quickly got the word out to the entire ward council. We visited our ward mission leader and he started to talk with us about it and we had no idea what he was talking about! I know that good things are going to be coming from this ward! Stonebridge isn't quite there yet, but at least Bishop Lingard knows about it. :) That's something, right? 

 

CRAZY STUFF!!! Mack has a stake calling!!!! He hasn't even been baptized a month and a half! He's the new stake sunday school secretary. He's going places...... It's amazing to see him and his wife grow. We were helping them put the information they had gathered and put in their "My Family" booklet into familysearch.org and they found 8 names that they're going to take to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so amazing. When they finished putting in the info and submitted the names, a red dot appeared. I knew that it meant that they had names ready for the temple. As I told them that their jaws dropped and the spirit came in like a ton of bricks. Miracles. We're going to get them to the temple in the next week or two. :)

 

Working with Sister Taylor is going well. She's very bold, which is really good. Someone has to keep the wards on their toes. :) I hope to learn a lot from her and make this transfer the best one yet! This is going to be the best week ever too! We get to go to the temple and have a mission Christmas party!!! WHHOOOOOOOH!!!!!! I can't wait! Last year's party was a blast, so we're going to see if they can measure up this year. :)

 

President Jenkins just loves us so much! To help us DISCOVER the gift, EMBRACE the gift, and SHARE the gift he's come up with a reading schedule like he did for Easter. The reading schedule is amazing. It's really helping me focus and have the Spirit of Christ with me. It's been a great enhancement to my studies. I've been reading the nativity story frequently in the Bible and Jesus the Christ as well. I've learned a lot from Jesus the Christ. It has helped me not get caught up in the many interpretations of the nativity and focus on what really matters most: the fact that we have a Savior. When I think about it, often times we get just as distracted with fanciful accounts of the nativity as we do with shopping. Anything can be turned into a distraction. Even the lights at the temple can be distracting if we don't constantly think about why they're there and why we even have this time of year.

 

I hope everyone has had the opportunity to watch "He is the Gift" because it's pretty amazing. Please share it. Keep the true Spirit of Christmas.... the Spirit of CHRIST.... alive in our hearts and help others discover it!

 

-Sister Dunn