12/23/13 A few days before Christmas

I am not sure where to start. There has been a whole lot going on. First off, I am learning that living 24-7 with another person and having to make every decision collectively is a little bit harder than one would think. I am learning that I am stubborn, proud, impatient, and tend to think I know a whole lot more than I really do. Ha, I have got a lot of work to do but I am learning. My companion and I are very different in some ways and very similar in others but we have the same goal so things are good.

This week I had a few hard moments--what with Christmas coming up there have been a few times that I have really longed for home. But in reading a talk this week called the ¨4th Missionary¨ I decided that this Christmas I am going to give the Lord the best thing I can and the thing that He wants the most--my heart and my mind. I am going to enjoy my Christmas and the mission and not long to be home. Don´t get me wrong I would LOVE to be there. But for these next 2 Christmass I am going to give myself to the baby Jesus and really remember why we celebrate Christmas.
This week we officially lost contact with our old investigator. She will not answer her phone and we have now come to realize that she is almost always drinking. It has been really sad because she was doing so well and feeling so good and has fallen back to where she was before. It has been hard on my companion and I. We are sticking with small numbers and little visible results but we are trying. We still haven´t had anyone attend church since the one time we had an investigator come like a month or so ago. But, this week a less active member that we have visited several times this week showed up. I was so happy to see him I started to cry! It was such a blessing to see a little fruit of our labor. It was amazing to see somehow take a footstep to get a little closer to the Savior. With the Christmas season here I am realizing more and more that this work is so amazing and all about the Savior Jesus Christ. Without him men are just in a state of grossness. I remember this week I saw a group of teenagers who are probably 17 years old smoking, as well as dancing in the street drunk, in the early morning where they had probably stayed up all night drinking. I felt so bad for them. At such a young age their lives probably already feel so empty, groggy, meaningless and just gross. But then I realized that with the message of the gospel and because of the Savior Jesus Christ all of that can change. I realized that I feel meaning in my life through Him. That truly, the real happinesses that I feel always come from Him and I am so grateful. I am also so grateful for parents who lived th gospel in their youth and taught their children the gospel by word and example. This morning I was reading from the book ¨Jesus the Christ¨which is just phenomenal but read a little about the parents of Jesus Christ and thought about their worthiness and the HUGE role of parents in the lives of their children. I am SO grateful for my own parents who have always pointed me in the right direction and who always serve their children, sacrificing everything, and doing it with love. Thank you mom and dad! I love you very much :)

Also this week, my companion and I had 3 people in our area except baptsimal dates! I am not so sure they know what that entails yet. But still, that is something. I hope that we help them understand and that they will keep their desire to be baptized and come to the Lord. :)

Well, that´s about it. Merry, merry Christmas! May we all remember Christ more during this time of the year and celebrate the opportunity that we have to improve and return to live with our Heavenly Father one day because of Him. 

Love you all!

Hermana Kuhn

 

 

It took a while for Lindsey to get her package for Christmas.  She got it a few days before and sent these pictures of her opening it.  She got the decorations and put them up.  She also opened her birthday present.  Then she saved the gifts to open Christmas morning with her companion.

 
 



We sent her a necklace and earings for her birthday.  A gypsy asked her the day that she got them if she could have them.  Lindsey told her it was a present to her and didn't give them away.

 

 

Ward Christmas Party. Lindsey took some of the decorations that we sent her to help decorate the church (notice the tree and the nativity in the background).