Can y’all believe Christmas is this week?? I’ve never had Christmas sneak up on me before, but this year it has! We have some fun plans though so I’m way excited. I’ll update you guys next week on that. 

Another transfer has come and gone and I am starting to worry about how fast time seems to be flying by. The first 9 months of my mission felt like a lifetime and now the time seems to just disappear. I think there are some pros and cons to that, but no doubt, I will miss this place when I finally leave.

So for my now 9th transfer, I have the same companion, but now we have been joined by a brand new missionary straight outta her home MTC! She is super chill, we like her a lot. She is actually my mission Granddaughter because my baby (trainee) is training her!

I’m lucky to have such awesome companions this transfer because I won’t lie, I had to say goodbye to some of my best friends on the mission who left Alliance this transfer and that has been super tough. Change is definitely a good thing, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be difficult. But I am excited for new experiences and to form new friendships! Everyone in my Zone is super awesome. It is gonna be a good transfer. 

So what did we do this week? Well, more service! It is rare to have a week when we don’t have a service project of some kind. We helped organize a food pantry thing and later in the week, we helped clean up an education center. 

We went caroling on main street this week as a zone and it was so fun! There was actually a man who proposed to his girlfriend while we were singing! It was so cute!

We had my very first baptism on the mission this week! She is this cute little 9-year-old who we have been teaching for awhile and it was the most beautiful service. We only had a few sets of missionaries, the Bishop, and her family there and it was so lovely. I got to speak about baptism and the spirit was so strong throughout the whole evening. Truly an amazing experience.

Here is the crazy part of all of this. The day before the baptism, we received a call from the mission nurse. I felt my heart drop when I saw her name pop up on the screen because I thought for sure it’d be for me and that something was very wrong. But when we answered the phone, she asked for our new companion. The mission nurse told her she had been exposed to someone with COVID and we all needed to be quarantined the next 2 weeks…

HOLD UP. WE HAVE A BAPTISM TOMORROW THAT WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR FOR MONTHS NOW AND NOT TO MENTION CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS COMING UP!! You can’t be SERIOUS!!!

I seriously started losing my mind. I jumped up from my chair and started freaking out. This baptism meant everything to us and there was no way we were about to miss it. It was then that Hall said- “Wait, I had COVID 3 weeks ago… shouldn’t I be immune still?” And then the mission nurse was just like- “…. never mind then! Y’all are good!” Can I just say, that was such a miracle!!! No doubt in my mind did God have His hand in that. It may have been hard for Sister Hall when she had the virus, but because she had it, we were able to have our baptism. God knew what was gonna happen and set things up so we could have our special day. Truly amazing. God is real. We should trust His plan for us. That is what I learned from all this. Things happen for a reason. 

I love you all! And I hope you all have a very merry Christmas! Please feel free to send me an email and let me know about your Christmas plans and traditions!
Scripture of the week: Read Luke 2 for Christmas!
Get Busy, Get Lost!-Sister Oldham