Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

This past week was so good! To start off, we had a really good lesson with our two progressing investigators, Barbara and Peyton Manley, last Monday night. We taught them about personal revelation, how to receive it and how to recognize it. We have been working with this family for about 4 months now. Their progress has been very slow, but looking back to when we first started teaching them, there is such a huge difference! The best part about this lesson was when Barbara told us that she knew that the Book of Mormon is true! And the way she received her answer was so unique, but so perfect for her. She told us that when she prayed to ask if the BOM was true, she didn't get an answer right away. But instead, she felt that she just needed to keep reading. So she did, and about a week later, as she was reading, she came to the realization that there is no way that the BOM can't be true! She explained it to us like this; The Book of Mormon has to be true, because why would so many people, so many families suffer war, tragedy, and heartache to preserve something so simple as a book (records). It was so cool to hear her say that!

We definitely are a lot less busier than we were when it was only 2 sisters in LaPine. It's hard because I don't know how to not be busy, so we've had to figure that out. We only have 3 investigators right now, the Manley's and Nick Williams. They're all ready to be baptized, they're just trying to work it all out. The Manley's are trying to plan their date around family flying in and the weather. But, they are looking at January 9th as a date, which would be super awesome because they would be confirmed on the tenth, which is when President Samuelian and his wife are speaking in our ward. It would be super awesome to do it at the same time! Nick is only held up because of his mom, and he's only 16 so we need her permission.

This week was the missionary Christmas concert! On Friday, the Bend and Redmond zones met together with President and Sister Samuelian to rehearse for a Christmas concert that we put on for our investigators and members. They also fed us a Christmas dinner, and the two zones performed skits. Afterwards, we were each given a stocking stuffed with a bunch of different things, a tshirt that has the OSM logo on the back, and a letter written to us from someone in our family. After all of that stuff, it was time for the concert! It was such a spiritual experience! President Samuelian had told us beforehand that we weren't really singing for the members, but that we were singing for God. He told us to pay special attention to how we felt and to the spirit that would be there. He told us that there would be angels present singing with us at the concert. And let me tell you, there were angels everywhere! For the closing song, the choir and the congregation stood and sang Silent Night, and I could barely keep it together! The spirit was so intense, and you could definitely feel the presence of others who were singing with us on the other side of the veil. Christmas in the mission field is the best!

Sunday was great as well! So about a month ago, the sisters and I found out that LaPine doesn't put on a Christmas program for the sacrament meeting. Unacceptable, right? So we decided to change that. We met with the ward chorister and planned out a Christmas program. We planned out what musical numbers we should have, who should perform them, and then also who we wanted to give short, spiritual thoughts. Then we called everyone, and thankfully, they all accepted! It was so neat, because we made sure to include everyone in the program. Primary, the youth, individual families. It was such a powerful sacrament meeting! I hope this becomes tradition for LaPine.

I hope all of you have a fantastic Christmas! Never forget the true meaning of Christmas!

I love you all!

"Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if we have room for Jesus." -Neil A. Maxwell

Love,
Sister Hanna