IT'S SO AMAZING I'M GONNA DIE!! 1/23/2017

Y'all this week has been one fabulous thing after another!

Of course there have been not so fabulous things, which we'll get to later, but the fabulous far outweighs the not fabulous.

First off, now this a secret, so don't tell anyone in the MJM area. ELDER HOLLAND IS COMING TO TALK TO US THIS SATURDAY!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!!

President Olson told us about it at Zone Conference on Thursday. He said there were two exciting things that would be taking place this week and coming up. The first was the announcement of the changes to the missionary schedule in order to allow for more sleep and recuperation for missionaries. The full details haven't been decided yet, but they are switching up a lot of the timing and elements during the day. I am excited to see how it works out. 

Then he said that an Apostle would be making an area visit this Saturday. He explained that they would be getting a commercial bus to take us up to Clinton Saturday morning around 5:45. Then he casually says "And the Apostle will be Elder Jeffery R. Holland." 

Whole room commences to fan girl squeal and jump around in their seats!

Elder Holland will be talking to us from 10-12 and taking a picture with us. We get to shake his hand and then head back to our areas. I AM SO EXCITED!!

Also in Zone Conference President Olson announced that the Clinton ward had split into the Clinton First and Clinton Second wards! 

Y'all! That was their goal from when Sister F and I got there! We promised them that if they worked hard and upped their missionary work as members, that it could happen. AND IT DID!!

God is amazing! The Clinton ward was working so hard to make it possible for the ward to split so that the stake could grow and there could be a temple in Mississippi. The Clinton ward has caught the vision! MISSIONARY WORK!!!

Christan, the most amazing person ever, is planning to get baptized this Friday. There is just one hang up that she is trying real hard to get resolved. Her stupid redneck family that can't stand that she is rising above and becoming better filed bogus charges against her for something that happened like 9 months ago. She has to go to Madison county and find out what she needs to do. It is a misdemeanor "nonauthorized vehicle" from when her aunt let her use her car, and then her family said she had stolen it. That is the only charge they could find to pin her with. We are praying hardcore that she just has to pay the $500 to get the charge dropped. 

She is so amazing!  

I have been sick the past 3 days. Congested, coughing and sick and tired. But since I am a missionary, I keep working. Biking around and kicking butt, or getting my butt kicked. Probably both. It has been real fun. 

Also, to calm anyone's fears, I am fine. So are all the other missionaries. The tornado that ripped through H-burg didn't hit us. Petal is pretty torn up, and H-burg is coping with the loss of 4 of their residents, but we are surviving. We went out yesterday to pass out "Mormon Helping Hands" flyers and survey the damage. Y'all it is crazy. These poor people! I will send pictures of where we went, which by the way, isn't even the worst of it. Look up Petal to see the full extent of the damage. 

I LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH!!

Another Day In The Day of A Mississippi Missionary 1/17/2017

It is humid and warm. Yes. It is January. And yes it is 70s most days. And yes, I wore short sleeves, a thin fabric skirt. And yes, I was sweating. 

One guy was even mowing his lawn, in true Southern January fashion.

So fun.

BUT...

On the plus side, I am a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that makes everythin better!

We have been teaching Christan Dammiens almost every day to prepare her for her scheduled baptismal date of January 28th. She is so excited and prepared. There is just her smoking habit that needs to be constantly maintained and kept away. She is doing well though. She may or may not have had a minor panic attack during Sacrament meeting because she was going strong on 5 hours without a cigarette. She made it through though. And is staying strong! 

I am absolutely in LOVE with her daughter Ava. She is 3 and is a sassy pants that always calls me
"turkey booty" but I still love her. She gets up real close to my face and whispers "I wuv you Mission-mary." 

heart melts. 

"I love you too crazy pants." 

If my children are anywhere close to as cute and adorable and sweet as Ava is, I will be winning at life. On top of it all, she is half black so she's got the nice darker skin and tight curls! LOVE IT!!!

I might have to sneak her in my suitcase and bring her home with me! Just don't be surprised if I do. 

Dianne showered me with gifts on Friday when we went to dinner and to teach her a lesson. She had bracelets, earrings, and a necklace to give me. They are from the thrift store her mom used to own, and she saw them and thought of me. She was beaming! 

I love her so much! She and I have formed a life long friendship! I plan to call her and check up on her once I am home. We will be besties! We ARE besties!

LOVE HER!!!

Sister Mitchell and I were asked to teach Gospel Principles on Sunday. I was preparing this week, when, Sister Karma Thompson called and asked us to teach Relief Society. So we made a deal. Sister Mitchell teach Gospel Principles, and I teach Relief Society. 

I had two days to prepare, only in personal study, but it turned out okay. It was lesson 2 in the Gordon B. Hinckley Teachings, Ensign to the Nations, A light to the world. 

I truly learned more than I think they did. That is usually how it works. 

I also got to see one of the past K▲'s who was in Purvis ward this week. She gave me a great big hug from Ashley and told me how proud Ash was of me. Meant a lot. 

In other news...

It has been 11 months since I began this wonderful journey. CRAZY!

Less than 7 months until I am set to walk down that escalator to your adoring faces!

But only 7 months left to do all the good I still want to do!! 

In interviews with President Olson this week I got to talk about what I was doing to make this time worth while. I told him about Dianne and the friendship I have formed with her. He was happy for me and advised me to "go forth and find more 'Diannes'" I am excited to make that happen. 

It is going to be amazing!

I am so grateful for this opportunity and the blessings and growth that are coming because of it!

Be Bap-tiized! 1/9/2017

DIANNE GOT BAPTIZED!!! 

AHHHHHH!!!  I am so excited for her!!!

She is so amazing! 

Ahem. Sorry. I will compose myself now. 

This week has been freezing cold. It was pouring rain and 30's on Wednesday and Thursday. Then a winter storm warning from Friday to Saturday which resulted in everything being closed down. The South literally shuts down at the sight of anything closely resembling snow. Like ice because of the freezing temperatures and rain. It was what I would call "bone cold" this weekend. Below 30* and humidity resulted in a cold that I have never felt before. By the grace of God, a previous Sister left a coat that I have been using, so I am still here to tell you about it. I have been wearing fleece lined tights, a pair of leggings, and three pairs of socks to keep from losing my toes. No joke. SO COLD!!

But not to worry. It will be in the high 70s by Wednesday. 

Southern weather. 

We have been teaching some interesting people lately. Two of the couples have very similar concerns that we are trying to figure out how to address. 

Couple One: Mary and Jacob Mitchell

-Active in their Pentecostal Apostolic church

-Don't believe in the need for the priesthood

-Believe VERY strongly in the speaking of tongues=receiving the Holy Ghost

-Think you should not wait to baptize someone that is willing (Jacob asked if we, hypothetically, could fill up his bathtub and baptize him right now. I just looked at him, and probably pulled a weird face. No Jacob. No I could not do that.)

-Don't believe in the Apostasy. And think it is offensive to use that word (since it resembles apostle/apostolic) 

Couple Two: Margaret and Jamal 

-Active in their Church of Christ

-Don't believe in the need for the priesthood (when the veil was rent it eliminated the need for priests to be "middle men" between the power of God and us....  )

-Don't agree with some of the Articles of Faith (we had a very in depth discussion about their opinions.)

-Believe that Christ's church was never lost, Satan just wants us to think it was

-Don't think we should wait to baptize someone that is willing

-Question the need for the Book of Mormon

The Mitchells have pretty much dropped us. Jacob is totally unwilling to read from the Book of Mormon, and Mary is just wanting to read it to see how it relates to her ancestry of Native Americans. We told them to call us if they have any questions. 

Margaret and Jamal want us to come back and talk some more about how our churches are similar and how we came to know what we know. 

Christan Damiens, our most progressing investigator, is on day 3 of the stop smoking workshop. She has completed twice before, but each time something (*cough* her baby daddy Tim) comes up and makes her stressed out. She feels her only outlet is smoking. But since the Lord works in mysterious ways, Tim (who by the way is very less active member and son of the Tacketts in our ward) is now in jail. He stole his sister's car (Karma Thompson) and Shan Thompson reported it. So he is in jail without bond, until his case gets heard. Which could be a while. Like one or two years. Which gives Christan a chance to focus on her and her daughter Ava, and the son that will be born in March. She is so amazing and has come so far. She showed us pictures of before she got pregnant and it was shocking. She was 80 pounds and hooked on all sorts of drugs. Now she is turning her life around and has a sincere desire to get baptized and be better for her children. She is incredible. I love her so much!

I am still working on becoming better. The Lord is helping to see how I can change or improve to become more of what He wants me to be. I keep reading things about how much Satan wants to prevent us from becoming what we were pre mortally. As I read my patriarchal blessing, I am reminded of who I was and it makes me want to become that again. It is reassuring to know that Satan only tries this hard when there is something big at stake. I am doing what I can to not fall into his trap and to digress, but progress. Missionary service is such a blessing to help me with that. This will change how the rest of my life, and my future family's lives will be like. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here, doing the things I am doing. 

I love y'all so much!

Hello From Seattle from "The White Gladys Knight" 1/3/2017

Seriously y'all. It's been raining hard core for 3 days straight. 

Also, my new nickname in the Hburg zone is "The White Gladys Knight" 

I sang a solo for Zone Training Meeting last week and everyone loved it so.. new nickname!

These past two weeks have been filled with lots of deep thinking and self evaluation. As I thought about what my family said during our Skype on Christmas about how my companions have been and how I have been feeling, I realized something about the whole situation. I have been expecting to be miserable with some of the situations. And so I was. I have made myself miserable and looked for ways others were "trying" to offend me. And it has made me feel truly miserable and lonely thinking of how great it would be once X situation was over. 

As I was reading a talk this week, I came across a statement that made me really think. It talked about how some go through life looking to be offended. This sits on their skin, like boils just bound to be bumped. They get offended and further slip into a slump.

I realized how much I have been like that these past months. I had a rough patch during month 3 and though I claim to have "gotten over it" I haven't truly gotten over it. Sister Mitchell helped me to realize this as well. We were sitting one evening talking. It started out as a conversation about how sad and anxious she felt at getting close to going home. It then developed into a conversation about how I feel my mission is going. The incidents regarding Sister Carter, Sister Fa' ulao and others got brought up. I told her how much pain it caused me and how miserable I was feeling like no one wanted me here. I told her how I just needed to talk to someone about it. I haven't had anyone to talk to that I felt like I could just tell them how I felt and them not have any conflict of interest or have to worry about them thinking less of me for feeling that way, or that they would get me in trouble for how I felt. I kind of just spilled everything and she just sat and listened. Then she asked me something that I have tried to ignore. "Have you truly forgiven and moved on?" I realized that no. No I hadn't truly let it all go. I had forgiven, partially at least. But I was still holding onto the pain and the walls that I built were still up. We both sat down and wrote down any feelings, thoughts, concerns, past pains, whatever. Sister Mitchell had some things she was holding onto from the past with others as well. Then we burned them and let them go. 

I know it might sound ridiculous, but it felt so good.

While I was writing them down, I started writing how I felt the situations came to be. Then I began to realize, as the Spirit nudged at my heart, that I needed to be better too. I needed to let it go. I needed to see the weaknesses of others and realize that I had some as well. I am not perfect. No one is. 

Sister Mitchell and I then set goals to make ourselves better. Charity is the underlying focus of the three goals we set. I need to be better at having charity. 

I also need to be more positive and see the sunshine! I love this quote from President Hinckley in the RS lesson on Sunday. 

"I am asking that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. I am suggesting that as we go through life we “accentuate the positive.” I am asking that we look a little deeper for the good, that we still voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment virtue and effort."

and this one

“Cynics do not contribute, skeptics do not create, doubters do not achieve "

I think it is something we can all do. Stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight!

A positive attitude can change any experience into a positive one!

Along with the other deep learning I have experienced this week is the Gospel Principle lesson. We were talking about the Council in Heaven and how the war still rages today. Sister Abel said something I had never thought about. Those 1/3 of the hosts of Heaven that followed Satan didn't pass through the veil. They didn't need to. They weren't receiving a body. So they don't have the veil between their knowledge and memory of what went on. 

They knew us. We were their friends and associates. They knew our testimonies. Our desires. Our personality. And they still do. They know us. They remember us. And they are using that knowledge against us. 

It made me stop and think about what I could have been like then and how they are using it against me. How can I prevent them from having any success? I read my patriarchal blessing and thought about the insight it gives me into what I was like and how I still am like it today. I then thought about how great a mission I am on in this life to fulfill all that I promised to do. Sister Abel taught us about how the Saviour did all He promised He would do. Now it's our turn. 

Are we keeping our promises. Are we doing all that we said we would. How can we do better?

It makes me feel so powerful to know that I am working on limited knowledge, but that I have God and the Lord on my side. That 1/3 may have knowledge I don't, but in the end, the 2/3 is going to triumph. We are going to defeat them. I am so grateful for the knowledge I do have and the knowledge we have been given by prophets through the ages. You're going down you body-less spirits. You chose the wrong side. 

Go forth and fight!! 

Also. Not meant to be a side note. This is just the last thing I have to talk about. Dianne is getting baptized this Saturday! She and I are besties and she plans to continue talking to me long after I leave the area. I am going to give her my phone number so she can call me even when I'm home. 

She prayed the other night. A miracle, since she hasn't been willing to pray in front of us at all. Anyways, she prayed and said "thank you for the missionaries, especially this one (me) I love her so much God. Even when her bubbly personality is a lot, she is still amazing. Thank you for sending her to me." 

Literal tears were shed that night. I am so grateful for Dianne! 

She has come so far. She is a 30 year old mother. She has given birth to 5 children, only 4 are still living (one past away shortly after his birth in July) and she doesn't have custody of any of them. 

She spent time in prison for misdemeanors. She is a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. And on top of it all, she has severe anxiety and depression. But she is glowing now. She is so amazing! If all people could be like unto Dianne, the very foundations of hell would shake. Or something like that. 

Bottom line is that she is incredible. And we are best friends. 

​The wonderful non member couple that invited us to their family Christmas party. LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!! Robert and Tereasa Warren

Love being a missionary! And these wonderful pjs from Mom!

The beautiful turkey Brother Jarman smoked for Christmas. Glazed with maple syrup and butter.

I love you folks! So much!

Moses and the candy cane. 12/19/2016

Funny story courtesy of Janari (Ivory's daughter): "Once upon a time there was a man named Moses. Moses walked on the water. He was older so he had to use one of those candy canes things as he walked on water. *acts out Moses hobbling along with "candy cane" in hand to help him walk*  Moses woke up one morning and the sun was still sleeping, so he floated up and knocked on the sun to wake Jesus up." 

Ivory: "Do you think God sleeps? How would He see all of His children?"

Janari: "Mom. Why do you think the sky goes dark at night. Because God is sleeping. *dramatic eyeroll that reminded me of Mary*

Janari then offered to pray to open the lesson, which turned out to just be her singing a made up song about Moses and Jesus. We let it slide and made sure to say an actual prayer for closing! 

As some of you have heard from the Grovers, Sister Mitchell is my new companion. She has been out 17 months. I will be sending her home in 6 weeks. For those that have been reading since the beginning of this glorious experience I am having in Mississippi, you may recall her from an email in March regarding exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. I went with Sister Mitchell for a day. It was a good learning experience. She was also one of the blessed individuals involved in the May 2016 fiasco that almost killed me or got me sent home. I am now companions with her.

I'll let you do the math on that one. 

My goal this transfer is to remain positive and see the positive in every situation. It may be hard at times, and I may fail, but I am praying for The Lord's help in seeing how I can grow and learn from the experience. My bathroom mirror is now full of quotes including "Invictus", "You is kind. You is smart. You is important." "Find the good in every situation." and "illegitumus non carborundum" 

That last one is from Clint. Thank Clint. Still keeping me going! It makes me laugh whenever I read that letter. Thanks again for your support and advice. 

Tonight is planned to be a great night. The Grovers are inviting Travis Freeman (Nonmember) and Audrey Freeman (RC) over for a FHE nativity. And who is cooking the amazing food for this event you ask? Me. That would be me. I am making my famous Jalapeno Popper Chili. Partly because it is delicious and it will be a good dinner. But mostly because I have been craving it and Reo wanted me to cook, so I volunteered to make that. Audrey has arthritis which has caused her fingers to turn outward. This makes it so she can't cook very often. Travis, her husband, has been craving homemade food for a while. Sister Lindberg to the rescue!!

It is going to be great! 

In other news...

This coming Sunday is CHRISTMAS!!!! You know what that means?!?!?! I get to talk to my A1 Day 1's !!!!! So excited!! It will probably be around 5 or 6 my time. Be ready! 

If you could all prepare a 1 minute speech about how amazing I am. Ash if could you do some slam poetry or something. Mom, you write a song. Dad if you could prepare a speech about how I am your favorite daughter. Ry, please illustrate for us all how I am your favorite sister. Em if you could write something really cute about how I am your inspiration. Aubs, please prepare a short, but detailed, talk about how I am your favorite person ever. And Mary, if you could please prepare with Portia to show your love for me through whatever means you see fit. 

Thanks. 

Relieved sigh. 12/12/16

Sister Wilson is departing. I hate to say it, but I am sort of relieved. She is a great missionary and will continue to do good things in another area, but I need my stress and anxiety level to go back to semi normal levels once again. So. Yeah. 

Christmas has started here in Purvis! My loving family has sent me my presents that now reside next to the cute little tree they sent me, decorated with ornaments they attached to kind things about me. Wonderful people. Y'all should really get to know them! 

So excited to see what they contain! The presents, not my family. 

Not a lot to say this week, but here are a couple highlights of the week:

-Dinner at the Slaughter's house. They are huge BYU fans, which is displayed in their son's name. Brigham Cougar Slaughter. Yep. You know you're big BYU fans when...

-Sister Wilson taking it upon herself to load the dishwasher and wash the dishes, even though we were out of dishwasher detergent.

​She used a whole 1/4 bottle of dish soap. So many bubbles! These pictures were taken before it got into the full cycle which resulted in bubbles across the whole kitchen floor. 

-Caroling last night with the ward. Or at least part of the ward.

We rode on a trailer pulled by Reo Grover on a tractor. So much fun! We went singing through the streets and up to houses, spreading Christmas cheer! Those who opened their doors thanked us for the singing and asked where we were from. One precious soul yelled "Hattiesburg." Face palm. The lady then said, "Oh. I thought you were from some kind of church." That brought the reply of "We're Mormons" Double face palm. Let's practice everyone. Where are we from? The Church of Jesus of Christ of Latter-day Saints. Good. 

We had a good laugh over that one. Reo Grover asked "Who said Hattiesburg?!" That would be your daughter in law Sir. 

It was a good experience! We had just tracted one of the neighborhoods 2 weeks ago, and only found one family willing to listen, but they are moving tomorrow. It was cool to see people open their doors to a message of The Saviour through song. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!

Well that is all for now folks! Love you!! 

Seriously?? 12/5/2016

Drama. *dramatic eyeroll and head shake*

I'm not even going to get into all the drama of this week, but just know that it involved lots of yelling by Sister Wilson, calls to the Sister Training Leaders, talking about our feelings, Sister Fa'ulao and Sister Elliott telling me what a trooper I was and 3 hours of talking to them, waiting for Sister Wilson to come out of the bathroom after her side wasn't taken by the STLs. 

So much fun. 

The Zone Leaders, District Leader, and Sister Training Leaders have all expressed their support of me and have given a lot of advice. Appartently the problems that are occuring are nothing new. Sister Wilson has had similar problems with her other companions and President Olson is keeping a close eye on her and knows what she is like. I am taking it with a grain of salt, since I was in a similar situation, but on the other side not too long ago. It is good to know however, that others see what is happening and see my efforts to make it work. I have cut back a little on the whole "Do whatever makes SW happy" act because it is making me miserable. That is making her mad. I sang hymns and skipped while we were tracting the other night. She asked me what was wrong. I told her I was fine! I was happy! 

That ticked her off for whatever reason and she started forcing herself to cry. Literally. *sigh* I just kept skipping and told her to let me know when she was ready to talk and that I loved her. She stomped home and called President. He didn't answer so she just stayed locked in her bathroom for 3 hours. I took advantage of that time to update the area book, watch The Testaments, and write in my journal. Then I went to bed. I called President the next day to get advice on how to address the situation and ask him about the whole SW in the bathroom for 3 hours with the phone. He said he would call her and talk to her. I just carried on and refused to give into her drama. She does things to get a reaction. No more. I am focusing on the work. Still love her and care about her, I'm just not going to react. 

She reads out the scriptures to "discreetly" tell me off. Saturday was "One of you is a devil" and "Blessed be those who are persecuted for righteousness sake." She said it is really comforting to know that she will be blessed for being persecuted. And that it is a fact that there are devils out here on the mission. She told me that those who are, whoever they may be, *cough me* should plead for forgiveness. She says she prays they get struck down by God.  I just nod and say "Yeah. You're right. It is good to know that if you are actually doing what is righteous, then you will be blessed if you get persectued." 

It's actually kind of entertaining. President Olson knows what's up. I know. I am just carrying on. 

Highlight of this week:

Showing Eric Roberts up by putting the tramp together that he had been trying to get together for a week. We stopped by to see him and invite him back to church. He was baptized a little over 2 years ago and has gone less active. When we walked up he was in his car. He got out and said "Hey ladies." I asked if there was anything he needed help with. He told us about the tramp, but said he didn't want us to hurt ourselves. I chuckled and told him to go get the tramp. He walked inside and got it, it is a little exercise tramp. He hesistated and said he was protective of us and didn't want me to hurt my fingers. I said, "Eric! Bring the dang tramp outside so I can help you!"  He tried to put one of the springs in and hook it to the tramp part. No luck. 

I took the spring and pulled it together and put it in place. He looked at me like  and reached over and grabbed my bicep. He said "girl. what the...? You probably curl more than I do." 

This is a young man in the prime of his life, athletic build, always tellin us about the exercise he does. And I showed him up. I just kept hooking springs in. He eventually took over, so as to keep some of his dignity. I was dyin! 

He was dumbfounded as to how I could do it when he couldn't. So awesome! 

He was like "How strong ARE you?!" I told him that was for me to know and him to find out. Maybe. Hahaha. Funny guy! He paid me with a bar of soap because he said he had to give me something for putting his mom's birthday present together! So I have some Irish Spring soap now. It smells good. 

I finally got rid of the stye that was in my ey. Yep. Forgot to tell you about that last week. How I got rid of it will tell you just how ghetto we as missionary are. I woke up one morning with a bump in the corner of my eye. It really hurt and only got worse as the day went on. Then the next morning it was super red and sore. I called Sister Olson to ask for advice. No answer. So i thought about it. It itched so I thought about putting something on it to keep me from itching it. Didn't have any neosporin (my original plan) so I put the next best thing on it. Carmex. 

Yep. It worked surprisingly well. When Sister Olson finally called me back two days later, it was almost all gone. I just kept putting Carmex on it and it went away. ghetto missionary medical practices saves the day once again!

For service in honor of you folks this week I have done the following, whilst channeling my inner --------- (insert name here) and thinking about how you would act and serve. So here ya go!!

Mar Bear- thinking about your caring and loving nature and shared love for animals, I saved two little puppies from getting hit by a car. I might have bent the mission rules a little to pick them up and put the safely off the road. It made me happy to think about Mary doing the same and how cute you are as you serve and help God's creatures. Love you! 

Aubs- thinking about your cute beautiful smile and how happy it always makes me, I smiled at everyone I saw and made a special effort to make others see the light and joy I have because of this gospel, just like you. It made me smile more to think about you and your always bright smile! Love you! 

Em- thinking about your talent of writing and your kind words and encouragement that hang on my wall, I wrote notes of love and kindess to leave for people. It made me think of you as I wrote in my very best curly writing how much I love them, and how much I love you. 

Ry- thinking of your gentle strength and loving protection, I shared my not so powerful strength and helped Eric. I thought of you and how strong you are, not just physically, but spiritually. It made me happy to think of how caring and gentle you are and how much I love you and how you look out for me. I love you! 

Ash- thinking of how you always listen to me and care and help me, I listened to Sister Wilson and how she was feeling. I tried my best to be like you and just listen. It made me think of and appreciate the times we talked and spent valuable time together just listening to each other. I love you! 

Mom- thinking of your love and kindness for others, which is displayed at times in your baking sweet treats for others, I made cookies and took them to people to brighten their day. It made me grateful for what a loving and kind example that you are as a mother. I love you! 

Dad- thinking about how you always use your many talents and skills to bless the lives of so many around you, I shared my talents to help someone. I thought of how you always are helping with bikes, cars, yard work, and a multitude of other projects. Even when you don't want to or when you have things to do. You see a need, and you meet it, always with a smile on your face that shows others the true Christ like love and light you have. I love you! 

I love you! I hope you have a fabulous week full of Christmas spirit and joy!