Treat Every Day Like Christmas

A brief reminder: Hannah has a new address!
231 Oakview Dr.
Double Oak, Texas 75077
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Guys, I love Christmas. And this was kind of... the best yet. I got to focus entirely on the "reason for the season" as the catchy phrase goes. It was the most spiritual of all Christmases and I sailed on through without any homesickness at all. (thank goodness!!)

This week was also-- not surprisingly-- miracle week. We gained another solid investigator. his name is Zach and he's never felt loved in his life. He's been passed around from relative to relative until he finally landed in a member's home. They made him go to church and he's soaking up the spirit like a sponge. We taught him Saturday night and he is IN IT TO WIN IT. He loves church, loves the home he's in now. We've got a return appointment for tonight and we're probably going to invite him to baptism.... 5 bucks he says yes!! :D

We also taught a wonderful woman named Rhonda who was a former member!! Her life is basically Les MIserables in that everything bad happens right in a row. Almost without ceasing. Trials after trials. BUT. In that time, she has completely opened up! We taught her the Plan of Salvation on Sunday and every time we dropped a "bomb," she'd agree and say "yeah, that's what I'm talking about, I totally agree with ya, ah-huh!" She has a super boston accent. It's really fun teaching her. She asks US to pray! She understands prayer!! HALLELUJAH.

That's kind of the theme this week, actually. "HALLELUJAH!" I know why people are driven to those shouts of acclamation! And that's why I'm going to miss Christmas in the mission field. Hopefully, I will be able to stay as far out of the commercialism as I can, but there's nothing I can do to stop the rising tides of societal stress... But it's in those times that I think we are the most thankful for the peace we might be able to feel on Christmas Eve. Sister Heap and I were walking down the street on Christmas Eve... it was cold, everybody was getting fat (okay, we have been too...), families might have been fighting or watching Elf or enjoying some sort of chaos and we realized that we were some of the only people that were swept up in this kind of joy right then. It finally felt like peace on earth.

The wonderful thing about the gospel and about Christ is that it's timeless! It's not bound to any particular season! I hope every day feels like this. It probably won't, we get bad days. But I imagine that if we treated every day like we treat Christmas, we'd want to sing the song of redeeming love... forever. Because why stop after you die?

I think that's why Buddy the Elf is so happy. Christmas does that to you.

Love, Sister Gunson