Happy New Years!!‏

"Humility is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of spiritual strength." I love that. Sometimes we think being dependent is a sign of weakness, (at least I do) however, as we are dependent on our Heavenly Father in our lives it truly is a sign of strength. My New Years Resolution is to be more humble and pray more sincerely. I encourage you all to make New Years Resolutions that are spiritual, and will help you grow.

This past week has been wonderful! Christmas was so fun to skype the family. Even though I sometimes think skype is awkward when you don't know what to say. but that is ok. I could probably just sit there and let you talk, but you all wanted the opposite. ha

So Saturday, Samantha was baptized and that was amazing!! She was so nervous but you can see the difference now. She wants to start to prepare for a mission now. She is only 16 but she made it one of her goals. For the baptism it was family only, and then lots of missionaries that have helped teach Samantha. Afterwards they took us all to dinner at one of the only restaurants in Greenfield call "three spoons" so that was the picture you saw mom. Miracles happen!! It is amazing to see how blessed I have been this past year as I prepared for a mission and now that I am here. Everything just has fallen into place how it was supposed to. I know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us and when we follow that plan we are going to find the most happiness...

Yesterday in Church The Elders and Us, gave the talks in Sacrament, about what inspired us to serve missions and what we had learned since we had been out. Everyone said they loved hearing from us. but i'm pretty sure my talk was jumbled. but I still get so nervous speaking that I don't even know what I said ha

Today we are going to be going to Bainbridge to get an Amish Pretzel sandwich! Yum im so excited it is like pure heaven to be with the Amish people! ha Oh and our landlord is putting hardwood floor in our dining room and kitchen today!! Yay!

Well I know that this is short but that is really about all that has happened especially since I talked to you just a half a week ago. Just a reminder Transfers is next week and so my P-day will be on the 8th and not on Monday!! Thank you to everyone who sent cards and packages. They were wonderful. I am working to write everyone back but it may take awhile. I did get a letter this week from Bob and Vicky West and the envelop was so torn up they had to rubber band it onto the card ha ha it was really funny to get. I love you all. I hope you had a Merry Christmas and that you have a Happy New Year.

Sister Zwahlen

Merry Christmas!

Because of Christmas this week, Ashley will not have a regular P-Day to write a letter.  She sends her love and a Merry Christmas wish to all.  She is so blessed and has received many letters, cards and packages from loved ones at home! Thanks to all for sending your love to her!  Merry Christmas!

Chester

Family and Friends,

"In a world ever more dangerous.. The Book of Mormon: Another Testiment of Jesus Christ has the nourishing power to heal starving spirits of the world." President Packer. As sister Love and I read 10 pages from the Book of Mormon, i had seen this in my own life, we may not have a lot to "heal" but it is making a HUGE difference in our relationship with each other and those we teach. I have also seen how the Book of Mormon helps those who are in a time of trial or in need of help in there life.  I was talking to Roy this week about what change he has seen in his life since he started reading the Book of Mormon and his response was that his life feels balanced. Simple but so true as we accept our Heavenly Fathers will our life is going to balance out and everything will work out for the good. 

Hello from a White day in Greenfield. It has been snowing all this last week. It is kind of fun. I like the snow, and we have enough miles on our car right now to drive so it isnt bad... when we run out of miles though.... uh that will be a sad day.

Last Monday, we were at the computer lab and I mentioned to Grandma my email to her that I was sitting next to a man who smelled like pickles and was talking to himself. (Im still working on the not judging people) Anyways. This man started talking to me and I was trying to help him put a picture on his computer from his phone. We he started asking what church we were from and asking where it was because he might like to come. Excellent, missionary dream come true... We got his address and gave him the address to the church and left. Well Later that day we got a call from our Branch President, telling us to stay away from him. Apparently, this guy went up to some people asking where the church was and saying  really vulgar things about me, and telling them how he was going to "get me". Needless to say we are not going to see him. And we went and found pepper spray, and there he was at the store we went to. Ahh scary, and now here I sit at the Library and who is sitting next to me? Him. Yes We call him Chester, because it was the scariest name I could come up with. But the reason I tell you this story is not to worry you. It was a testimony to me of how aware my Heavenly Father is of me. Turns out he walked up to random people to talk to and it was a husband of one of our members, so they knew how to warn us of what had happened. I am so grateful. We probably would have gone to visit him and we could have gotten our self in a really scary situation. I also was able to get a priesthood blessing from a member, for protection and comfort. I normally would have freaked out(and I might have for a couple hours) but I now feel very safe. I know it is because of the blessing and that I am being protected, not only from the Holy Ghost, but also from our members. Please pray for Sister Love and my safety, we could really use it:)

This week we have been teaching a lady named Kara and her family, They are wonderful and I love them, There are like 12 people living in this house and it is so much fun to go there. And also we are teaching a 13 year old girl, who is going through a really hard time in her life right now. Oh and a miracle this week is we were able to get Samantha on date for this month! Yay we are so excited. She is the only one we have with a baptism date, but we are working on Kara and Gaby for January.

This week has been a really good one. Of course I cant remember what has happened but I remember it was good, and kind of scary ha, but thank you for the packages, I am loving the 12 days of Christmas, it is so fun to read a letter each day, Today was my favorite to read about John Zwahlen. I never really knew much about my ancestors and I never really felt a connection to them but today as I was reading his conversion story, I did. What a blessing and how grateful I am.

I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve a mission, I know that I was prepared for this time in my life. Some days I feel like I could be the Elders Mother, but I know that I needed to come at this time and not when I was 19 or even when I was 21. I love you all and I am so grateful to all of you! I love you and I pray for you.

Love ,

Sister Zwahlen

Happy Birthday Jesus

Our District!  Aren't we cute?!

“True happiness comes only by making others happy—the practical application of the Savior's doctrine of losing one's life to gain it. In short, the Christmas spirit is the Christ spirit, that makes our hearts glow in brotherly love and friendship and prompts us to kind deeds of service.”-David O McKay. This was said at the Christmas Devotional last night. May we all try to serve more and focus on others rather than ourselves. This Christmas season and throughout the year. I am grateful for my savior and his selfless example.

This week has been coooollld, brr. It has been so cold and icy. Everyone stays inside  and hates the missionaries when its cold out. ha ha Not really, but it has been one of those trial of our faith weeks. There is just something about the cold that makes every ones hearts harden, but the good news is that the Christmas Spirit unites people. Here in Greenfield they only plow the more major roads to all the other ones are icy and then there is a layer of snow on top of the ice. Its funny though because everyone here was panicking and going to the store because they heard they might get 3-9 inches of snow. I guess they dont normally get that much. but the Ice here IS bad, It coats everything. I cant tell you how many times I have had to scrap ice off of our car.

This week has been really fun though, We had our mission Christmas devotional/party, where Sister love and I shared our piano flute talents.but it was a lot of fun, we had a nice Christmas dinner and Christmas musical numbers, We also got letters from our parents!! Thank you mom and dad for the sweet letters.. Then we got little goody bags with snacks and more snacks. Afterwards, we got permission to go and see Grace at the hospital, she is doing so well, she is basically back to how she was before the accident, she was sitting up and talking!! She is a miracle, I cannot believe how good she is doing, they think that she will be coming home today!! Ahh I cant believe what a miracle it is to see her and to get to talk to her, and know that she went from "not going to make it through the night", to "she will have serious, permanent brain damage" to "Coming home as though she never left". That my friends and family is a testimony of prayer and fasting, it works!

Then on Saturday we had our branch Christmas party and it was just a dinner and it was fun. Everyone brought something to share and there was a lot of food. I ate way too much.. as always, but it was a really fun. We were visiting one of our older ladies who is a member and talking to her about the Christmas party and she asked us if we would sing Happy Birthday, and we were like "of course, whose birthday is it??" and she said "Jesus" uhh.. do you sing it like a normal happy birthday song. Yes. Awkward. I dont know if we should sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, Im not sure that is appropriate. ha ha we didnt end up singing it but it was funny. I had never actually heard someone sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

An update on Reynold, is he is still wonderful, but he wont come to church so, we have to stop seeing him so much!! It was quite sad but maybe without us he will realize what he needs to do in his life, or maybe he will never but he is an amazing and I know that he will accept this gospel one day, whether it is on this side of the veil or on the other side. 

Cynnie is having a lot of health concerns right now so she isnt really progressing right now either. We will continue to see her, but she needs to show us that she is going to keep progressing. Basically this week has been a hard one. We dont have anyone to teach, so we are working on finding, which is slow going, but I am not worried, I know that we will be guided to who is prepared and ready to accept the gospel!

Yesterday we were at the Waltz home for dinner, and as we were leaving a bird flew right inside and into the living room!! We were all screaming and Brother Waltz was laughing and so we trapped him in a room and finally he flew out but that was a lot of fun and lots of laughs. The Waltz Family, is wonderful! I love them, being with them is like being home. So whenever we have bad days we go there and Sister Waltz feeds us chocolate and cheers us up. Also She is taking us to go and find some warm winter clothes, There is never enough layers here. You are always cold when you walk outside.

Well I dont know, this week has been really slow so I dont have much to say. I love you all, keep our mission in your prayers, so that we will be able to have 500+ baptisms this year. We are so close and with faith all things are possible. Have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Zwahlen

Beginning the Season with a BANG

"Regarding ones testimony, remember, that which one willingly shares he keeps, while that which he selfishly keeps he loses... Teach and testify there is no better combination." President Monson.
 I encourage you all to have the courage to testify, especially this holiday season, remember what it is really about. If Christ is the center of our message and our beliefs, shouldn't he also be the center of our lives and our actions? Yes is the correct answer in case you didn't know:)

So this week started out with a Bang... Literally. It has been the talk of the town and the concern of our members for us. We had a shooting two houses down from us, at 6:30 in the morning. We didnt hear it, but lucky for me I got to see them wheel the man that got shot into the ambulance.  Then today, at the same house we, saw the ambulance pull up and put another man in the ambulance, we dont know for sure why, but most likely  it was because  he overdosed on drugs, because of how he was acting on the little stretcher thing, we came to that conclusion. Drugs was the cause of both trips to our neighbors. It is really sad how many drugs are in this town and to make it worse the police force is really corrupt here so they dont really do anything about it. AND if they know you it is really easy to get away with things. Anyways it is sad but it was the exciting thing for the week.

This week we only got one member referral, because we didnt have time to ask for more, we had to contact the ones we already got. It has been a long week of trying to contact everyone. and we only contacted 20 this week, which really is a ton but not enough. We did have some awkward stories out of our contacting though. The first one, we had a lady answer the door and she was hiding behind the door and she said "Im sorry Im not dressed right now".. Oh ok awkward, then her dog ran out of the house and so we were trying to help her get her dog inside, and she couldnt come out because she wasnt dressed. Some people make me wonder, why would you even answer your door if you werent dressed?? I dont know it doesnt make sense. Then we were going to contact a lady, and as we pulled up to her house there were 3 people on the porch just watching us an as we got out and introduced our self and asked if Bea (that was the referrals name) they said "No, she died a couple months ago." Ahh ok well we are sorry, have a nice day. Ha no we didnt say that but it was awkward too. Oh the awkward moments of being a missionary:)

Thanksgiving was good, we saw lots of members but we didn't eat too much food. Which was fine since we eat to much every other day. but it was a lot of fun to meet members family's. and then on Saturday we had another Thanksgiving meal with another family so It was nice. Just think, just one more thanksgiving on my mission  ha ha Also we got to put up our stockings and Christmas tree this last week. They are so cute and our apartment is all festive and adorable.

This week we have a branch Christmas Party and also a mission Christmas talent show and guess who got roped into being part of the talent show. Yep this girl. Ew. ha I am playing the piano, sister Love is playing the flute and then two other sisters are singing. So at least the attention wont all me on me.

Missionary work is going, We are working hard to find someone to be baptized this month. We have a couple people who could be ready, we just have to ask them ha ha simple right??

Well I love you all, I hope you enjoy the fact that it is already December. Have a great week.

With love,

Sister Zwahlen