Christmas

I promised myself and others that this email was going to be better

than last weeks, which will be easy to fulfill since I am not going to

copy and paste my companions..... boy not worth the heat lol. I'm

kidding I love you all.

Oh boy I loved this week. It was like everything I could ask for and

more. So we met back with Jose on Monday with sister catherman and she

bore him a beautiful testimony about prayer and how we receive

answers. Jose has a lot to figure out in his life still, which is ok.

We told him that he is still welcome to skateboard in our parking lot.

On Tuesday we went to the temple! Finally! Finally, because it took us

forever to get there! Don't ask me why, twas a frustrating experience

BUT we got there and it was worth it :) we got to see the temple

lights and performance and build Richards testimony in prophets from

the wonderful sister missionaries at the temple. And what's even

better is that Richard has decided to go to the singles ward now! So

we are sad we won't be there for his baptism but we are excited for

him to meet new people ;)

We taught Black every night this week in preparation for his baptism

Christmas Eve! Oh my goodness y'all that was spectacular. I don't

think I could've asked for a bigger blessing than seeing someone who

I've taught be baptized and confirmed on Christmas Eve and Christmas.

What makes it better you ask? Neil Liu. I think I've mentioned Neil

only a couple hundred times to y'all. Neil is a recent convert as of

October and he is classmates with Black. Neil lives with our member

Sister Davis who is everything I want to be when I'm older. She asked

black one day if he would like to be baptized like Neil, and Black

said yes! So we have been teaching and Neil has been translating and

Sister Davis has been pushing us along. So this Saturday Neil baptized

his friend black :) they both were so happy and that was just one of

my many favorite gifts.

Oh ya cool side experience! We had asked Jessamyn, one of our recent

converts as of March to speak in Chinese at blacks baptism on Friday!

And she was freaking out just a little because she works night shifts

and she was working that night, but she still said she would do it!

She then told us that as soon as she accepted to speak, her boss

called her and said she didn't have to come in for another week! So

she had time to prepare her talk! Heavenly Father definitely watches

out for us once we apply our faith.

Now to what happens Christmas Day. We woke at our usual time and made

Sister Martin (the member we live with) French toast breakfast :). We

went to church, which I especially loved because our Ward showed off

its musical capability... it's funny though because as a congregation

we always sound a bit off.... BUT the last song we sang (angels we

have heard on high) we were all on key and sounded literally like

angels. I was so proud :') after church Sister Zollinger and I played

santa with Sister Martin and we dilivered Christmas cards and gifts.

THEN I SAW MY FAMILY AND YOU GUYS GUESS WHAT???? THEY ARE ALMOST ALL THAN ME. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT? WHY DID IT HAPPEN? Hahaha no no

worries, I love my family so much, it was so good to see them all

despite the heights. My mom and dad are the most loving and inspiring

people ever and I'm so grateful to have them as parents. After that

nice skype session with them, we went to the Regazzi's for dinner and

had delicious steak and potatoes.

So Sister Zollinger and I woke up this morning and we were super

disappointed because.... no more Christmas. What do we count down to

now? What do we look forward to? How else are we going to be able to

continually bring the Christmas spirit into our lives now after that

great Sha-bang? Well guess what! It's not over. Something that I'm

going to be doing to keep the light of Christ still continually

burning is using the light of the world challenge throughout the rest

of this year and the next. Picking one to do each day will increase my

faith, help me develop Christlike attributes, and help me lift others

even more. Really all it is is using the atonement. Christ's

atonement, his pure love for all of us is what can help us through

anything :)

Happy Christmas,

Sister Plumb