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