Merry Christmas!

Family!

Merry Christmas!

Can you believe it is the holidays already! I can tell Mom would rather them be in a couple of weeks. Oh well. Just remember the reason for the season. He came to the Earth to bring PEACE so we might as well enjoy it now. Ha ha.

I love West Chester! The ward is phenomenal! The Sisters before did a wonderful job finding investigators so we have a good teaching pool. Sister Thacker still isn’t quite used to the snow, especially tracting in it!

We’re teaching some more Ghanaians! I love them! Kate’s good friend, Rosemary, was baptized earlier this year. And we are teaching Ernest, a friend of Kate and Martins, who hopefully will be baptized the beginning of the year. We had a lesson with him yesterday afternoon. He is reading the children’s Book of Mormon and he had some of the best questions! It’s amazing to be to see the fire of the Spirit touch the heart of those willing to hear our message. We’re also teaching Dennis, another Ghanaian, in his barbershop! Ha ha. You never know the experiences you’ll get.

The Holidays are such a special time of year. There is definitely a different Spirit in the air. I love how we go tracting and complete strangers will send us home with a bag full of Christmas treats! Mom, to answer your questions: We get a partial preparation day today and the other half on Christmas. We’ll be out working the rest of the week. The two of us are going to go around singing Christmas Carols and sharing a message about Jesus Christ. :) And I get to call you on Christmas! We’re planning on going over to the Peace’s at around 2. One of us will probably call at 2:00 and the other will call at 3:00. So it will be sometime in between 12:00-1:00 your time. Okay?

Can I just tell you… I love being on a mission! I love being able to truly feel the Spirit of Christmas EVERYDAY! Even though life sure can get tough the greatest blessing is knowing we have a Savior who knows how we feel and is there to succor us in our infirmities (Alma 7). It seems like the world is getting darker and darker but the Light of Christ can dispel even the darkest of days. I loved this quote by Elder Holland I read earlier this week:

“I know some of you truly feel at sea, in the most frightening sense of that term… It is not without recognition of life’s tempests but fully and directly because of them that I testify of God’s love and the Savior’s power to calm the storm… Christ knows better than all others that the trials of life can be very deep and we are not shallow people if we struggle with them. But… he rebukes faithlessness and he deplores pessimism. He expects us to believe!”

Life does get hard, but Heavenly Father didn’t send us here to fail. He didn’t send us here without help. We just have to believe: trust what he says! That is the greatest message Sister Thacker and I share everyday here. He’s there and He cares.
Another Sister we are working with is Betty. Betty Wise was baptized the end of November. I got to meet her this week and I was struck with the perfect understanding she had of the gospel. The Sisters had found her this summer and she quickly accepted the gospel because she recognized the Lord’s hand in it and she felt the Spirit as she studied. What a good example of faith!

One more quote. This one is by President Benson:

"The Lord testified, "I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me. And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross"
(3 Nephi).
And so He was. In Gethsemane and on Calvary, He worked out the infinite and eternal atonement. It was the greatest single act of love in recorded history. Thus He became our Redeemer-redeeming all of us from physical death, and redeeming those of us from spiritual death who will obey the laws and ordinances of the gospel.

What can we possibly give to the Lord? Considering all that He has done and is doing for us, there is something that we might give Him in return. Christ's great gift to us was His life and sacrifice. Should that not then be our small gift to Him-our lives and sacrifices, not only now, but in the future?"

I think we’re given the Christmas season to boost our determination to live this way for the rest of the year! Ha ha.

Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers! I feel them!

I love you! I’ll talk to you soon!

Merry Christmas!

Sister Painter