Amy's Adventures in Ventura: December 2023

Merry Christmas!! Yesterday at church Marcos the cutest lil latino cowboy whose eyes literally twinkle said in perfect english- I feel so merry today

For our Christmas zone conference each district sang a song to reflect either a name or attribute of Christ we got assigned then each bore a lil testimony. It was very special . Then thanks to Pres and Sis Rodriguez we got to hit open this huge piñata lol it was wild.

We got to carol at an old folks home! And Charlotte who has short term memory loss was so confused how we all knew each other even tho we explained it like 7 times lol. BUT I got a pen pal!! Her names Nancy and she wants to email every week

This week our branch president quoted our dear Mother Teresa-"It's Christmas every time you let God love others through you." So me and my comp have been trying to let God love others by working through us. We took cookies and cards to any struggling families and it was so sweet to visit with them. We also gave some to our neighbors. Not all of them said oh I needed this so much youre angles, maybe they were having a perfectly good day, but it was so worth it for the people who said they had been needing a pick me up. Let God love others, through you.

Didn't feel a whole ton like Christmas today but heck I'm out here teaching about Jesus everyday so I can't complain!

Hugs and kisses and merry wishes

-jermy

Sooo many good things been happening here in the great simi valley.

-So like a month ago our mission had a "mission tour" where two members of the seventy came and toured our mission for 3 days and spoke to all of us. Suuuper motivating and powerful everyone was locked in. The 3rd day we had a leadership conference after with them and brought up a lot of problems in our mission bc its been burning in flames for a bit 😵‍💫

-For a service project at the YMC our zone unloaded 691 pretty decently sized christmas trees. Then they bought us chikfila. God bless America

- went to créche which means nativity in French? Maybe? And it was like 500 different nativity sets in the church to admire and there was a live Mary Joseph and baby jesus. That night I dreamed I had my own baby uh oh. No I'm not baby hungry

- we also got to go to "Night in bethlahem" which is a huge church parking lot turned into Bethlehem and you walk around and get bread and dradles and stuff. At the end there's a show of the nativity, it was BEAUTIFUL. I realized how real the people were walking to meet the Savior of the world, what a moment. Hna darrington balled lol either bc of the spirit or because she was sitting by our super hot friend Alejandro who all the hermanas are obsessed with lol.

- miracle time. At the beginning of the transfer a member asked us to get him in contact with the missionaries in Anaheim so they could all go give a blessing to this members cousin because his mom had cancer. Apparently this experience was so beautiful the mom wants to join the church and she wants all her kids to too!! Wow

- ALEJANDRO GOT BAPTIZED!! Thank you for all your prayers, he has such a bright spirit and his mom was so happy for him. After the baptism we had a lil going away party for hermana Darrington and Bagley

- Annual missionary Christmas dinner at the Batemans. Let's just say we had to go thru 2 gates to get to their house and the Rock's vacation house is down the street from them. Absolutely gorgeous veiw, and bro brateman he had a beautiful testimony abt missionary work.

- at a member dinner the granddaughter said the prayer and she said "please bless us to be as nice like Jesus is, to others and to ourselves. And that we can all be nice to jesus too."

How can you be nice to Jesus today?

- dropped off hermana bagley and darrington at the mission office and said our goodbyes.

I'm gonna miss the dynamic of us 4 hermanas, I was so lucky to live laugh and love with them fr.

- Friday we found out buhrley was leaving too so me and my new comp hermana bradford absorbed the other hermanas area. Wooo we have 8 recent converts to keep track of

- remember how I've gotten my warts frozen off like 3 times? This time I went and got 4 shots to numb that baby up and then they got lasered off yippee!

Sorry this was longish its been like a month. Here's a mesh of quotes from elder Hollands post and others.

"Mary was chosen by God to bear and raise the Christ child. She must've been so pure and faithful for our Father in Heaven to trust her with His Only Begotten Son.

Mary knew who her Son was and why she had to provide home and happiness for Him during His young life as He matured and prepared for a purpose no other being could accomplish — Atone for all mankind.

To mothers everywhere who sacrifice for their family, I wish to say in this Christmas season that your sacrifice is not unnoticed-not by the leaders of the Church and not by our Father in Heaven who seeks always the care of His children."

A special shoutout to all the moms out there (especially my own) during this busy Christmas time. Not all your sacrifices are seen, but they are by Heavenly Father and He appreciates you for them.

Mele Kalikimaka

-jermy