Sister Alex Hartvigsen--December 28, 2011

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Dear Family, I hope that you all had a wonderful Merry Christmas and are all gearing up for a fantastic New Year. It is so wierd to think that it is almost 2012. This year has been full of craziness and many fun adventures and has really flown by. It is weird to think that I will be home in 2012 ( so I'm not going to think about it. Gotta love denial right? ;) ) This last week has been so good. On Monday we had a lesson with a women and her sister we watched the Restoration dvd and talked about how we can go through the same process that Joseph Smith went through to get our answers. On Tuesday we had a lesson with a less active women we talked about 3 Nefi 1 and how the Lord will always answer our prayers as we put our trust in Him. We then went over to a less active family we shared with them DyC 25 and talked about the power of good music. We then sang several hymns with them. It was really good because even their kids participated ( usually they hide in their rooms when we come by) On Thursday we met with a recent convert and read with her and her family Luke 2 and talked about the gifts that they can give the Savior this Christmas. This week as we were going through a list of former investigators and less actives/ recent converts, we decided to visit one of the people that Sister B baptized when she first was in our area over a year ago. We knocked on the door of the apartment and a man came to the door. It turns out that the man who we were looking for had moved back to Mexico but this man who answered the door was interested in learning about our message. We set up an appointment to visit with him the next day and we brought a women from our ward with us. It was a good lesson and he committed to come to church this next week when the schedule changes to 10:30 ( he works at 12-8pm) He doesn't have much of a religious background so we have been studying PMG how to teach those without a Christian background. We are really excited to continue to teach them. On Friday we met again with the women and her sister and their families and taught them about faith from Alma 32. Their father, who has not shown any interest in the lessons participated with us and it was really good. Christmas Eve was really good. We attended the baptism of a 14 year old girl On Thursday she decided that she wanted to be baptized on 24 Dec. The service had such a sweet Spirit there. We went to a meeting/ Christmas Celebration at a church next to the Visitors Center. Because of the baptism, we made it there just as the celebration ended. They had been doing a celebration of different cultures of the sisters through dance. Sister Mc turned on some celtic river dancing type music. I slipped off my shoes and the next thing I knew I was dancing. I definately suprised a lot of people with my dancing skills and many told me that they had no idea I was so light on my feet. It was a lot of fun. I haven't danced in a long time. After we finished we went caroling to different assisted living homes with a family. One of the homes that we visited has a sister living there who was baptized a few months ago when she was 101 years old. It was so much fun to celebrate Christmas with them. It was really cool and you could tell that it really touched the residents who lived there. Music can have such a stong impact on our spirits. Our dinner for Chirstmas Eve cancelled because Hispanics celebrate Christmas on 24 and no one was willing to feed us that day. We were invited to eat with Sister N in her English area. I was really excited to eat American food. When we got there, we found out the that husband has a Brazilian mother, and went to a mission to Brazil and they eat Brazilian food for Christmas. It was a little ironic. But the food was SO GOOD. I am going to have to learn how to cook Latin food or else I am going to go into withdrawls when I go home. ;)
This week I have come across several references to being bold as I have studied the scriptures. Every time I saw it I marked it. As I was at the visitors center on Christmas Eve, I decided that I was going to be more bold than I have ever been. I try to keep a prayer in my heart at all times but I put a special focus on it that night as I prayed to be let to people that were prepared. As a result, I was able to speak to many people who shared names of friend who they want us to call. I was talking to a lady in front of the replica of Jerusalem and we started talking about the temple. I talked about the temple and how we have temples on the earth again so that Heavenly Father can bless us. I was very bold and promised her that if she would learn more about the gospel that the temple could bless her and her family as well. SHe accepted my invitation and filled out her info for the missionaries. IT was such a great week.
It was such a wonderful Christmas.
I hope that you have a wonderful New Year. I love you all.
Love Alex