Post #49

December 31, 2012

Hope everyone's Christmas was great! And Happy New Year! I will be bringing it in by working in the visitors' center and then going to bed by 11:30 :] Yayy for being obedient :]

I LOVED seeing all the pictures from the wedding. I'll look forward to seeing more... of the family :] But Julie and Ryan looked so great! Congratulations!

This week has been insane. Insane. Well So cool that I got to talk to some of the family. It was weird how it didn't really effect me very much. I guess it's a blessing from God. Or I'm just a lot more focused than I was 8 months ago. But I didn't really think about it very much before. Not really very much afterwards. It was great to talk to you. And even though I miss you guys so much... I don't feel homesick one bit. Actually the opposite. I am realizing I have like 5 months left and I never want to stop being a missionary. I love it so much! We had a miracle on Saturday!!! Juanita--the one that I taught in Mesa Grande from June until I left--was baptized!! A super huge miracle because she has been ready for so long. And I had set so many dates with her but she just didn't ever follow through. Right before I left a week and a half ago Sister Sanchez and I set the date of December 29th with her. And apparently even the morning of she wasn't sure. But she did it!!! And I'm so excited for her. I'm so proud of Sister Sanchez. I saw her at a sisters' activity this morning and she is doing so good. She's such a great missionary.

On Christmas Eve night I started getting a sore throat (I don't know if you remember me saying when we skyped that I wasn't feeling too good). Well it got worse as the days went on. And so there were like 3 nights at the VC when I didn't work the whole night--I just felt so sick. But it was actually really nice to have it be during the Christmas lights because we would work super hard in our area and then when we got to the VC I would crash--I couldn't do any more. But Sister Valladares could keep working and I didn't have to slow her down! But I'm starting to feel better now which is nice because I hate being sick as a missionary! Tonight is our last night in the VC. Tomorrow full-field starts and I'm so excited! I'll be full-field until the first week of February!

Christmas Day our entire zone went to President Castañeda's house which was super fun! The food was good and they had a cactus Christmas tree which was super fun to take pictures with! haha.

On Wednesday we got a call from President Ellsworth. He had a referral for us-a girl named Haley that was in a hospital in our area. She's English speaking but gave us permission to teach her because she wants sisters! And she is SO awesome. She's been like the highlight of our week (maybe the transfer :] ) She's been in the hospital for like a month and has a least 4 weeks left. She has a fungal infection in her heart? I'm not sure exactly but it's a pretty serious condition. But right now she is responding well to the treatments. She's 21. Doesn't have family in Arizona. Her mom lives in Idaho and has come down to visit her once since she's been in the hospital. But she's so sweet. And I love teaching her. She's always so excited when we come by because she doesn't have anyone else that visits her. And we're working with the local YSA ward and helping her to meet some of the girls from the RS there. It's just so incredible how God has blessed me with such a huge love for her. I don't know. The moment that I met her I just loved her so much. And I'm just so scared that when her four weeks are up they are going to send her to a rehab facility that is in Chandler (out of the mission!!)

Well I hope that everyone is doing so well! I love you all so much!

Have a great week!

Love

Holly