December 21, 2015

Christmas is this week! Isn't that so crazy!? It came up so fast. I honestly have loved this years Christmas season!! We've been able to find so much success in missionary work! This last Sunday we had an amazing Christmas meeting! We were able to sing with our ward mission leader, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." SO FUN! My favorite musical numbers were done by the Primary! They sung "Picture A Stable" and "Christmas Bells" and they sounded super good! I love Christmas music!! Oh my goodness, this ward is amazing!! We have gotten so many Christmas gifts from members! I'll have to send a picture of our sweet stash! :) Everyone is so thoughtful. It kills me.  

ZONE CONFERENCE: Ah man!! You guys, it was amazing!! We were able to talk about Christmas and we sang lots of song!! I sang, a SATB "What Child is This" with 3 other missionaries it actually sounded pretty dang good!! And the pianist was amazing!! YAY. We had an amazing lunch! All of the instructions were so good. AHHH the spirit was just there so strong! I love missionary meetings! 

REVELATORY EXPERIENCE: So remember how recently our mission has been focusing on bringing questions to meetings so we can be in a better position to receive revelation? Well on Thursday morning I was trying to think of what questions I wanting to bring to the meeting. My first one I thought of was, "What can I do for Christ this Christmas?" Well, President Clayton started the meeting and wrote on the board, "What can I give to Christ this Christmas?" Oh my gosh. I was freaking out! And boy oh boy did I receive a perfect answer! He had us open up to 3 Nephi 18:24 "Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do." We talked about how becoming more like Christ and letting His light shine in us is a perfect gift for Him! President committed us to study chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel! (Christlike Attributes) SO I have been and I have been loving it! It was such a cool experience. 

DEPARTING TESTIMONY: Yep, I had to give it at the zone conference. It was super weird. I wanted to cry so bad. I got a shaky voice but unfortunately no tears. I mostly bore my testimony of the Atonement and how real it is. I shared some experiences of how I've been able to change and how people I've been able to teach have changed! I also bore my testimony about temples and talked about how it's a place that we can receive revelation! I talked about my temple trip less than 2 years ago where I first felt like I needed to go on a mission. And how much that one impression will change my life. I said lots of other stuff that I can't really remember but I was totally sad! That was my last zone conference. :( 

INSTRUCTION/AWKWARD MOMENT: We were asked to give a 20 min instruction on the Christmas Initiative at zone conference. We were excited about it and focused more on connecting the Christmas initiative to helping these people understand our unique message through the Book of Mormon. We played a game where everyone was searching the scriptures to find references of Christ's birth in the Book of Mormon. When they got one we gave them a candy, they read the scripture and we wrote it on the board so everyone would know where it was. Well an Elder found a verse and shouted out, "Jarom vs. 11." And I was like, "So, what chapter." He gave me a weird look and then I realized and said, "ohhhhh. There's just one chapter in Jarom... Awkward." BAHAHAHA Rookie Mistake right there. 

THE CLAYTONS ARE THE CUTEST: President Clayton found a reference so we gave him a candy. We went on with our instruction I noticed that President Clayton took a bite of the chocolate and gave the other half to Sister Clayton. HAHA Isn't that the cutest!? They are so amazing! 

CREEPER OF THE WEEK: I was on exchanges with Sister Clark and while we were nightly planning we got a call from an unknown number. We were planning so we just ignored it. The same number called again like 4 mins later and I thought it might be urgent so we answered it. After I said, "Hello, it's Sister Dayton and Sister Clark" the person just said, "Hey Sister Dayton! Do you know who this is?" Ummmm. NO, BUT YOU'RE CREEPY. So I was confused and thought it was a potential investigator. So I start looking through my planner to see if the number matches up with any. I said I was sorry but I didn't know who it was and when I asked for their name he responded, "Chris." OK I was trying so hard to think of a Chris that I had met recently. Well then he asked what side of the building our balcony is on. I was super confused and my companion was kind of getting nervous and said to hang up but then the call ended. STRANGE, right? Well, a couple mins later they called again. Chris eventually said his last name "WALDRON" BAHAHA I wanted to be extra obedient because I was on exchanges with a new missionary so we called our district leader so I could get permission to go down and say hello!! Well he had to call the zone leaders, who had to call the AP's, who had to call President. But about 20 mins later I got the OK to go down and say hello!! It was so fun to see Chris!! He was so nice to drive all the way from California to say hello! HAHA JK just from Burlington! But it was so nice of him to make the effort to come and wait paiently downstairs while we were getting permission!! Anyways, the creeper turned out to be not so creepy!  

THE SPIRIT GUIDES THE LESSON: We had planned to share the word of wisdom with a returning member but when we got there we started talking and our plans shifted gears. She started talking about how one of her friends father is really sick and about to pass away. So we started talking about the Spirit World, then the conversation moved to temple work and how important it is to go! Well, the whole lesson was just guided by the Spirit. It was so cool. After we left we were talking about how we had a thought come to mind and then the other person would say exactly what we were thinking! The returning member thanked us because she really felt the spirit during the lesson and the exciting thing is she has a date to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead! We're going to start working on her family history so she can take family names! AHHH She's awesome! 

EXCHANGES = NO SLEEP: Man. Yesterday Sister Arnold and I were so tired! We accidentally kept yawning in lessons and while we were contacting. SO BAD. But this week was so exhausting. We had zone conference and 3 exchanges! So after 10:30 when we're in bed we can totally talk. Well on each of my exchanges I was talking to the sister till aftermidnight. It was so fun in the moment and such a good time to really get to know the sisters but man, it hit hard on Sunday! That's for sure! Oh well! :)

Hey - we're totally skyping in like 4 days! YAHOO! I can't wait to see all of your faces! 

LOVE YOU ALL LIKE CRAZY!!