The best Christmas of my life!

The Best Christmas of my life!                                                           December 30, 2013

 Feliz Natal! Feliz Ano Novo! Seja feliz!

 So this past week was my first Christmas away from home. Mom, don’t cry when I say this, but it was honestly the best Christmas I have ever had! Seriously. The members in this area are absolutely incredible, and showered us with presents and chocolate and hugs! We had a zone Christmas dinner in the house of the Stake Presidente which was a BLAST! Then talking with my family!!!!!! And then, we got to go straight to work on Christmas. We ran around like little Santa elves to all of our recent converts from the past month, bringing them pictures of their baptisms and some really beautiful pictures of Christ in picture frames to stick up in their home. It was so special, to individually choose the Christ pictures for each person. A picture of Christ with the lamb for our lost sheep who is starting to feel loved again. A picture of Christ blessing the little children for the primary girl who got baptized. A picture of the Second Coming for the guy who loves talking about Julgamento Final and the Celestial Kingdom. And so on. Seriously, I will always remember that day. I just love these people so much! Finished off the day with a pizza party. It was great :)

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, however, This weekend was interesting because it was (1) dang hot - the hottest so far! and (2) we had no running water....yeah. It kind of felt like Girls Camp. Ya know, brushing teeth using a water bottle and so on and so forth. It got old pretty quickly BUT the water came back this morning in a giant explosion! Like, the tap broke and it was like Yellowstone! Made for an interesting start to the day.

Probably the highlight of everything was Antonio (yes, I realize I talk about him all the time but its cause he is AWESOME!) He got set apart as a counselor in the YMs presidency yesterday! Not gonna lie, I cried. No shame.Helping someone get baptized is one of the greatest feelings in the world. Watching them grow and help other people in the Church and staying strong and faithful - that is probably the best feeling in the world. I think of my life and what I’ve left behind, and then I look at the changes in my investigators and I am just filled with gratitude that the Lord has counted me worthy to be an instrument in His hands. What I have given up is so little in comparison to who I am helping, and how their lives have changed.

Basically, I love my life and (even though I miss my family a lot!) there is no where I would rather have been this past Christmas :)

Happy New Year! Don’t forget those goals!

 Love always,

Sister Carroll