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| Merry Christmas from Sisters Liljenquist and Hudgens |
I love all the pictures you sent. I especially love
the one with Heidi crying where my stocking should be. I got the letters
from Sister Hansen. I loved all of them! Thank you so much!
Monday was good. We taught seminary in the morning,
cleaned, emailed, went shopping, someone took pictures of us in our Christmas
sweaters, we had to do something at the mission office, had dinner, she cut my
hair a little, and then we had a meeting with the elders. It was a busy
busy day!
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| Sis Liljenquist |
On Tuesday we made treats for our investigators at a
member's house. She is super pregnant and due any day now. As her
husband was walking out the door, he said "If she goes into labor, you
have to drive her to the hospital" We were kind of hoping she would,
but she never did. Darn. We got lots of treat plates made
though! We made brownies, snicker doodles, and caramel all from
scratch. We then visited a less active and that was good. We had
dinner with a fun family and we laughed and talked a lot. They invited us
over to their house on Christmas to open presents and have breakfast. It
is going to be fun. We then brought treats to one of our investigators
and she loved them.
On Wednesday we saw a less active lady and brought her a treat plate. She really liked the caramel. She doesn't have any teeth, but she said she could actually chew the caramel. We then got a call from the Ponderosa sisters. Sister Bates was sick and had been for a few days, so they asked if one of us could stay with her while the other went with Sister Jeppson to their appointments. I stayed with Sister Bates. She slept most of the afternoon. So what did I do? I made snowflakes and decorated their apartment. I didn't have a chance to decorate in the Woodlands, and the apartment was already decorated when I got here, so I needed to have some Christmas cheer. I also read in my Book of Mormon and wrote in my journal and got to actually cook something for dinner. It was great.
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| My awesome snowflake skills! |
On Thursday we went to the arboretum and weeded. Fun
stuff. Also got to have a great discussion about the origins of
Christmas. Look it up. We then went home and did weekly planning
until dinner. We went to a recent convert's house and as the message, we
showed her Mormon messages. Those are the best!! My new favorite TV
show. We then tried to track down a few of our people to give them their
treats. We met with a new investigator and she seems pretty solid. She
knows her Bible really well though! I had the hardest time getting out of
her complex though! It was night and a little sketchy, so Sister
Liljenquist said that President didn't want her backing when it is dark and
sketchy. So I did a lot of illegal backing. I went one way and it
didn't let out so I had to reverse. Then I tried the front gate and it
wouldn't open, so I had to reverse. Finally I found the right one!
I felt like a sinner for backing without someone directing me. Things like that
make me think I have been a missionary for way too long. It was fun
though.
Friday was Christmas conference!!! I was so
excited!!! The whole mission was there so I got to see everyone that I
love and haven't seen in a while. We started off with some talks by
President and Sister Mortensen and then we watched this Nativity movie.
It was like a real movie and they turned out the lights and it felt like a
theater. It felt really weird. It was a good movie though. Then we
had lunch and I got the letters y'all sent! They were great! Thank
you so much! Then we went back to the chapel, watched a slide show of
pictures of all the missionaries, had a sing along to various Christmas songs
and testimonies from departing missionaries. They had us sing "I'll
be home for Christmas" and "There's no place like home for the
holidays". I just glared at Sister Chappell and was like,
"Really? You are going to make 260 missionaries sing those
songs?" It was fine though. It was a great conference and then
at the end we got our packages. I am waiting for Christmas to open mine, but
several missionaries opened theirs already (my companion included). We
were there for almost another hour just talking and socializing. It was kind of
weird that President let us. I think it was his Christmas gift to us.
After the conference we headed home and then finished our weekly planning.
On Saturday was our ward Christmas party. We had a
breakfast with lots of fruit, sweet breads, and breakfast casseroles.
They had a little Nativity program and Sister Liljenquist and I sang "Angels
We Have Heard on High" (mostly her, I am not a great singer). I also
got attacked by a table as I was helping to put things away. A kid
dropped a table and it fell on me. So of course I let out a scream (I
wasn't hurt at all), but the guy that was in front of me just laughed at my
face. I am sure it was funny.
Then we tried by a few people, set an
return appointment with an investigator because at the time he was too high to
remember anything we would have taught him. We then made our treat run,
delivering treat plates until dinner. We had dinner at a family's house
that was having their Christmas party. So we all loaded up in a flat bed
trailer with a piano and drove around the neighborhood singing carols. It
was fun. Then we had chili and other goodies before going home.
On Saturday we had ward correlation at our acting ward
mission leader's house (he is the assistant, but our official one has
Alzheimer's, so the assistant does most of the work). We had correlation and he made
us chocolate chip pancakes. Made me feel like I was back home having pancakes
on a Sunday morning. We then went to church and had a nice Christmas
program.
We had to leave church a little early because we had to meet the
Ponderosa sisters again because Sister Bates was still sick. I went with Sister
Jeppson to a few appointments. We read the Book of Mormon with a recent
convert and her mom and then we went to see one of their investigators that
miscarried her triplets the day before. We just sat with her and held her
while she cried. She is so strong though!! She just kept saying
that she doesn't blame God and just wants to do His will. I was
amazed. She was sad of course, but she had so much hope. It was
wonderful. Then we switched and Sister Liljenquist went with Sister
Jeppson so she could go to some appointments. I just wrote more in my
journal and then we went home, and we forgot her phone there. That was
fun. We didn't have an alarm, but Sister Liljenquist and I were awake at
5:40 anyway, so when 6:30 hit she just made an alarm noise anyway. Fun
stuff.
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| Merry Christmas! |
Well, I am so excited to talk to y'all on Thursday, but
until then, Merry Christmas!
Sister Hudgens
