So maybe those things don't sound related, but
have patience and all shall be made clear. The good news this week: the
Christmas cheer that went on holiday last week returned in time for us to
assemble cute 12 Days of Christmas Countdowns for all of our sisters, to have
an awesome Christmas conference in our mission, and to play a part in our
ward's elaborate Christmas activity where approximately 4.2 million visitors
showed up. Okay, not that many, but close.
Christmas
Cheer
I know, you wanted to hear about the beer pong
door first, but we're starting backwards this time. Just to keep you on your
toes.
And because Christmas is great!
So we had our Christmas conference where the
whole east half of our mission came together and that was grand. Not only did we
have many a' magical musical numbers by various talented missionaries, but we
also watched 17 Miracles together. Which in case you forgot, is the
first movie I've seen in almost a year. I may or may not have cried through the
entire movie. Before it even got sad or intense. Because my heart just felt so
full and it was like I couldn't breathe and I'm not sure if that is normal when
you watch movies to feel so deeply and I just forgot what it was like or maybe
I was just so touched by stories of love and faith and sacrifice and felt
blessed to give my small sacrifice. It wasn't even a Christmas movie, but we
were all so grateful to receive this treat that uplifted and inspired us and
helped us be grateful for all we have and can do and give.
The other good Christmas cheer came from our ward
Christmas activity, which was super sweet. Our ward worked really hard to set
up a mini Christmas market INSIDE our church with food and gifts and then they
had this really great nativity program. Oh my gosh it was so much and everyone
was so stressed but it was so good and so many people came, like our Vietnamese
girl Nga and her two little sisters. It was their first time EVER seeing the
nativity and we were so glad they got to come.
Wedding
Bells Are Ringing...
Okay, actually they were Christmas bells
disguised as wedding bells, meaning all of the sister missionaries wore wedding
dresses as we played our role as angels in the nativity. And by all of us, I
mean Sister Kriser got to wear a sheet that made her kind of look like a
priestess, but the rest of us definitely looked like brides. And let me tell
you, it was a stressful wedding day. I had to accompany a musical number that
I'd only practiced once and it was a little rough and then right before the
nativity performance, my dress's zipper broke and we also had people that we
wanted to talk to but you can't really talk to be people and have it be normal
when you are wearing a wedding dress or now an unzipped wedding dress that we
pinned together with one precious safety pin and a white sash. So I ended up
accompanying still in the wedding dress with one pin and singing a bunch of
angelic choruses and greeting a few people before running away like the runaway
bride I wanted to be and putting on my normal missionary attire.
Whew.
Never thought I'd wear my first wedding dress on
my mission.
How
Greifswald stole Christmas
Okay, more lies. They didn't steal Christmas. I'm
just not that witty anymore, but I am accepting suggestions for more clever
ways to write about...things. The Greifswald sisters came down right before our
mission conference to go on exchanges and it was good. We received a huge
Albanian baked bread-frit thing filled with cheese that was delicious while we
tried to stop by and see people and had a good time talking about how to
overcome hard things on a mission. I was with Sister Schmidt, who I was in the
MTC with and who came over with me, so that was fun. It was interesting to see
where we've been and what new challenges we've encountered and how you get off
the swing when you have to sit down to cry for a bit. I think it's just kind of
a hard time for missionaries all over.
Behind the
Beer Pong Door
It is not the title of a game or book, but I'm
considering using it someday for some sort of something. On Saturday, we
knocked on doors at a student housing place near our church to invite them to
our Christmas activity and we came across a door that was decorated with all
sorts of pictures and quotes about alcohol and we hesitated knocking, but went
ahead anyways, interested in seeing who was behind the beer pong door. A
surprisingly normal looking man opened the door and asked if we were Mormons
and said he actually already had a Book of Mormon, but he hadn't read and
wouldn't mind learning more. So that was sweet. Except he wasn't there when we
went back later. Lame. But we shall find him because we know where he lives and
he already had a book.
What I
didn't know about missionary work before I went on a mission:
A lot.
For some reason I thought that missionaries just
ate with ward members and taught the ward members’ friends and always had
regular appointments with people who had been learning about the church and had
a desire to learn and would probably join the church eventually and the hardest
thing would be getting along with a companion.
All false.
Because appointments fall out all over the place
and we have so many cool finding experiences and then we seem to never get more
than a first appointment, if that, even though we are constantly trying new things,
and then we just talk to people or do a lot of travel to try to visit
other people and it's just different and I will never have a life like this
again.
But it's good. And Christmas is going to be bomb.
We are so stoked. Because that's how we live life. Stoked.
Joy to the world!
-- Sister Claire Michelle Woodward
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