Christmas 2023

Tuesday- 

 About 80% of our lessons fell through which was so sad. However I had a great personal study on coming unto Christ. Moroni 10:32-33 

Omni 1:26 - good scriptures to ponder. We got to make Tamales with a member in our ward. It was super fun to learn from her. We stopped by a few referrals and none of them were home. We headed to the far side of our area that's all country, to visit some members and go to dinner. We had a fantastic meal at this cute BBQ grill place. I had the best sweet pork tacos. We finished the day with some good social media work. Nothing too eventful but a good day. 

Wednesday- 

Today was zone conference. The conference was filled with testimonies from the missionaries. The president picked one missionary from each district to come up. Lucky me I was the 3rd person. We had two minutes and were asked to share a scripture about coming unto Christ and why it's meaningful to you and then say a testimony on Christ. I was so nervous. I think I did okay but definitely didn't say what I really wanted to. I shared the scripture Moroni 10: 32-33 followed with some thoughts on the word come being an action word and a continuous process followed with a quick message with being saturated and immersed in the gospel finishing with the gratitude for the Savior and hope in one day being perfected. I would have liked to talk about much more or not at all lol. I don't do well in a time crunch. Everyone else did fantastic and the spirit was intense. I think just about everyone shed a few tears. We really are so fortunate as missionaries to dedicate this Christmas completely to the Savior. How fortunate are we all for a loving Heavenly Father who loved us so much he gave us his son. A savior who would set an example for us and be born knowing his life would end on the cross for us. We have a Savior who felt all that we would feel so he could help us in our trials and bring us back to our Father in Heaven. The Savior gave us everything. 

We finished zone conference with some games, food, and a white elephant exchange. We headed back to Solon for a meal at a member's house and then a lesson with Micheal. When we came to the church our member Casey was sitting in Micheals car chatting with him. It was quite a sight to behold. I admire this young man for creating and maintaining this relationship. Micheal shared a lot about not being able to forgive and not being able to feel forgiveness. We shared about the Saviors atonement and coming unto him. When we come unto him we learn of what he did for us and we desire to become like him. We change and partake of his atoning sacrifice. We talked about faith and repentance and how we can feel God's love. It was a very spiritual lesson and I think we all walked away with greater love in our lives. The love of God was strongly felt. 

Thursday- 

A baller day. We had to skip basketball with the relief society sadly to finally meet Tatum, our friend in person. It was worth it. Her life is so crazy and I just felt so awful. Again I talked the entire time, there's starting to be a pattern. I'm glad the lord feels my mouth or we'd just sit in silence. It really is pretty cool how words come out of my mouth that I don't even know and somehow it all makes sense. We went straight to another appointment to do service and a lesson for our friend Karen. She is a queen boss woman. She always gets us something and we always insist she shouldn't. She's so kind. Anywho important part she told us she knows the Book of Mormon is true and would like us to start teaching more ahahahshehhs. Exciting. After we had a phone lesson that was lovely and beautiful with a brand new friend. Fingers crossed she comes to church. We tried a new finding tactic: we drove around and unrolled the windows and invited people to church. Honestly is better than knocking because you talk to more people in a time period. Plus you drive away if they say no, not do a shameful walk to the next house. We had been fasting all day and it was finally time to go treat ourselves. We took ourselves to a Lil restaurant and it was very good. 

Friday-

So today was a slight train wreck. Started off with our friend Micheal being put on date for baptism during weekly planning. Then lead to Doug getting taken off date for his baptism. He needs more time to make changes in his life for his baptism. Old habits are hard. We went to the store to buy Christmas dinner and gifts for a friend we are teaching that is getting kicked out of her house and is a single mom. Picked up a few other things for others that are struggling. 

Saturday- 

We did some lovely studying and social media at the church and it went crazy. We found a ton of new people to send to other missionaries. A cute lady from our ward brought us hot cooc bombs that you put in milk and some sweet Tamales. Stocked to try them. After we had lunch and created the yummiest meal. Lately I've been eating corn tortillas with cheese turkey and garlic thrown into the oven on broil topped with some ranch or chick fil a sauce. It's my new addiction. Anywho today we did it but with pizza sauce and pepperoni and it was THE BEST. I'd eat that over regular gluten free pizza. We then dashed over to a lesson with our cool friend Socrates and found out he has a whole family. Two daughters and a baby boy. Hehe family baptism. It was a wonderful lesson and he is committed to coming to church every week. He is our French friend and his English is improving but sometimes there's a bit of a barrier so it gets fun and he'll just say you don't understand and just laugh. Then we dashed over to Shawn's house and this man forgot and had to cancel. A real shame because he's great and has a family too ehhehehe. We thought knocking would be a good substitute so we went crazy. Found two really cool new friends and a few that could potentially be cool. Then we snuck into an apartment complex and left a billion church invites on doors. As we were leaving( like literally buckled into the car) I had the feeling we couldn't leave yet. So I said okay okay two more houses I swear then we can go. We'll nothing crazy came of it but we met this guy who seemed cool and then left a card at an unanswered door. Who knows what will come of it. This has happened several times this week. We will be driving and I'll get the most distinct feeling to pull over and go knock on a certain house. Pretty much nothing has ever come of it that I know of but who knows what could happen. I enjoy acting on the impulsive promptings. At this point we really had to dash to dinner. It was so lovely and their cute daughter got us a little present. It's a small world he actually knows my dad's brothers wife's brother Curtis. Kim if you read this and want to tell Curtis Brother Cannon said hello please do. I'll have to take a picture next time with him. Moving on we did some member stop bys and this sweet lady took a picture of me and my companion and sent it to our parents, wholesome. We topped the night off with about 40-50 calls and texts for church!!! 

Sunday- 

 CHRISTMAS EVE!!

At about 9:50 we get a text from one of our members picking up our friend that our friend is just now showering and they'll be late. At that same time we get a text from our other member picking up our other friend that she has come out three times and asked for just 10 more minutes and has now told him to just leave without her. Hahaha life as a missionary is fun. We had two friends make it to Church and it was beautiful! We had so many people attend that normally don't. So many that they had to rebless the sacrament bread. Some cute ward members brought us gifts how precious is that. We then had a little lunch and headed our for service and stopped by a few houses to drop off our Christmas presents for them. We got a little family Christmas Dinner who was being kicked out of their house and picked up a gift for them. Then as a district we helped a single lady in our ward with her house. My poor back may never recover. She was so grateful and it was a big help so that was really awesome to get a chance to do it. We then dashed on over to Dinner with the Stices. They're such a cute family and we ate some yummy meat. They sent us home with a gift card to Mitchell's, my favorite ice cream shop, sooo kind. We drove up to Kirtland to attend a Christmas devotional inside the Kirtland temple. This was such a cool experience hardly anyone can attend those things but Joe Jackson(stake mission leader?) Got all of our zone in. We listened to people from our church and two other churches' talk. A wonderful treat for us missionaries. Topped the night off with a mission devotional and slumber party in the living room! 

Merry Christmas Family and Friends- check out my Facebook for some Christmas messages!!! 

Week 16

Saturday- 

A miracle day. We had so so many people cancel on us but that night we called a bunch of people who were taught in the past and we found 6 new beautiful friends. A wonderful day. Poor old lady was on the ground outside and her son couldn't pick her up. We were able to help and it was a wonderful experience. Got wind that Elder Kearon was made an apostle and I was so pumped about this. I got to meet him a few months ago during stake conference. He spoke but then did a zone prayer with just us missionaries and it was beautiful, wonderful and amazing. I had guessed he would be the next apostle so way exciting to hear that from today. 

Sunday- 

About a minute after our morning meeting we got a call from someone we had called yesterday. They were taught in the past and were so excited to hear from us. Shortly after that, one of our other friends showed up. Kind of crazy. Well to sum up the day an old man kissed the side of my head. Sister Hoyt panicked and didn't know what to do. Sister Hoyt got voluntold to say the closing prayer in front of a giant audience and about threw up. 

Had a wonderful day. 

Monday- 

A good P day nothing super exciting other than we taught a guy and we were lovingly bold with him and it was wonderful

Tuesday- 

Nobody answered today. Knocked around In some gross wind. Got pranked by two middle school boys. Nothing eventful. A guy asked me and sis Heaton if we were twins. We got Chipotle. 

Wednesday- 

Our most beautiful lesson yet. The most important thing of the day was we taught our friend Micheal. He had attended church and a devotional. He was told about the Book of Mormon and got what we call the firehose summary of our beliefs in our church meeting. We were a little concerned that he got too much at once from everyone before we got the chance to teach him but this man came with beautiful questions and an earnest desire to learn. Sister Hoyt forgot her Bible and bom that's all marked up in the car and was left to use one at the church. She was a bit nervous but silly her she forgot how cool the lord is. Multiple times throughout the lesson she needed a scripture and a miracle occurred. The scripture verses would pop into her head. I'm telling all yall I do not have jack squat memorized but the Lord can do wonders. Our discussion went so beautifully at the end of it Micheal was already saying he knows this has to be the truth he's been missing. He wanted to come to church and meet again. Right after our lesson he joined the men who were playing pickleball! We had a recent member in our lessons and he snuck out of pickleball before we left and just asked how Long we had been out. He smiled and said it was the best lesson he had ever received or sat in on. Sis Hoyt was flabbergasted. This man is a literal king. He was 19 when he was baptized and now it's been a year and he still attends church every week by himself. He is powerful and he's over here giving crackhead sis hoyt a compliment. To say I was doubtful and honored would be an understatement. Anywho watching Micheal play pickleball for the first time was so precious. I can't wait to see him make convents with the lord. 

Thursday- 

Spit spiritual bars at our friend Anna left her with no counterarguments. Did some knocking. Did some teaching. Had a fancy dinner and felt so bad because it was expensive and a cute member insisted she pays. 

Friday- 

8:50 am a whole crowd of dudes showed up at our apartment to replace our furnace. No heads up nothing. So we had to take everything to the car to go to the church to do our mission morning call and weekly planning. Super grateful we were finally getting a new furnace though. Waking up to 52 degrees is not the funnest but good memory material. We had a powerful day. Would recommend it. 

Saturday- 

Had a fantastic day. Two of our friends came to our Christmas party and talked with all the members. We were able to teach them both! Doug is so pumped for his baptism!! Micheal is super interested in the church and coming to know if it's true. Knocked the most elect streets. Everyone was so nice, not one bad interaction. A few promising people. Made me actually enjoy knocking. Skipped lunch and took a nap instead was great. 

Sunday- 

Had three friends come to church!!! One was our French friend who now knows quite a bit of English. Keith came and Micheal. Micheal sobbed and had to step out of sacrament meeting. He then came in and hugged our member who has come to all his lessons and said it has clicked and its hitting home. Such a miracle. Found out we have to move Doug's baptism back a week. Super sad but it's okay. Socrates is wanting to be baptized!!!! Nothing super eventful happened today besides that. Ended the night with pizza hot chocolate and a Christmas devotional. 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHTS 

I was asked many common questions this week. There is one I want to focus on

  -Why do we have to follow the Word of wisdom to earn Gods love?

• I want to share a simple testimony on this question. God loves every one of us. It is because of that love he has given us the Word of Wisdom. Now one cup of coffee may not hurt you or one glass of wine. What does hurt you is not choosing Jesus. We give up things to show Jesus Christ we love him. That we are willing to put him above all our desires and to follow him even when we don't see the why behind what he asks. I invite you to ponder this for any of the commandments. If the Savior came down and asked you personally to give up ----- would you? If you think the commandments are followed to earn the Lords love I invite you to come to know your Savior and your loving Heavenly Father.

- Alma 27:8 "...... if the lord saith unto us go, we will go...."

• Alma 26:27, 37 " Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us....... " 

" Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen." 

The Lord knows YOU. He sees you, he knows your joys and he knows your sorrows. He will comfort us. He never promised immediate relief but that's because the gospel is not a finite game, this gospel is an infinite game. We are in it for the long haul. We play to progress, not to win and be done. We will find peace, comfort and joy in the Lord, yet our ultimate reward awaits us after this life. 

week 15 1/2

Tuesday- 

Some wild miracles today. A lady I taught the first week I got here called us. She wad always really interested but always busy and canceling so we broke up with her. Well she calls us and she goes sisters I miss you and I am ready to accept the gospel now… then she's like let me tell you about something I've been reading and she then starts quoting our prophet and his talk about thinking celestial. My mouth dropped to the floor. Tatum is going to enter into a covenant with the lord!!!

Following her call I got a message back on Facebook from a person I had messaged. Long story short they are meeting us this week and then coming to church on Sunday. Yayayayayay. 

Wednesday- buckle in 

The morning was a rude awakening. The apartment was 51 degrees and out heater was blowing out cold cold air. Around 8am we gave up and called the maintenance workers. He came in and looked at it and was like you do know you have to turn it on to have it work? It took all of me not to go nooo Really??? 

Rather I explained that we turned it off because it's only blowing cold air making the apartment colder. He quickly came to the knowledge we were correct and said he'd make some calls. We left for a meeting. District council was profound. By some miracle our most amazing AP and most amazing ZL came to attend our district council. Purley random for them but for me it was not. I really had been feeling like I needed a blessing.When the Ap and zone leader came waltzing into the room the peace and assurance I felt confirmed that God knew what I needed. I was able to receive a beautiful blessing that said some pretty bold answers to my prayers. I was quite thrown off by how specific the blessing was. One specific thing that I will be holding onto is that the lord invites me to stay out here on the mission and to know brighter days are ahead. I had been praying so hard to know if this is truly where the lord needed me and if I should stay or not. Guess I'm holding on. Well shortly after disaster struck. Doug texted to cancel…. He leaves Thursday for Arizona and today he was supposed to fill out his baptismal calendar.

Anywho we went about our day and had some great calls and found two new friends to teach! We went to visit a lady who was taught in the past and she invited us to come back!!! Then we had someone call us and we set up a time to come do service and teach. On our way to a stop by there was a car stopped in the middle or the road and the doors left open. We slowed down and there was a lady on the side of the road. Again long story short we helped push her car because it ran out of gas and then I went and bought her gas so she could get home. We had to rush to the relief society dinner. It was such a good night. We chatted a lot with the sisters we sat by and at the end we heard some beautiful testimonies. The spirit in the room was so tender and so loving. Well we got called Doug and ran to his house at 8:30…… HES GETTING BAPTIZED ON DECEMBER 23RD!!! Woohoo he's so excited and already told his daughters. He insisted we text the bishop and everyone to tell them it was so fun. Then he goes “ Alexaaaa I'm getting baptized on December 23rd” it was so precious. Happiest moment of my life. I'll add the voice clip and pictures!!! 

Thursday- 

A lovely day. I woke up so dang tired but rolled out of bed onto my knees and began the day. Had a semi good personal study. Not my best work due to the lack of sleep. Then we ran our guts out at basketball with the relief society women. One of them played in college, 4 played in high school and then on a team. A few others that played occasionally and then there was me hahaha. I thought I was going to die. I managed to be the speediest and that's the only thing I had going for me. I made two beautiful shots and a ton of awful shots lol. I started to play soccer half way through and threw hips. Had to calm down so I didn't break any hips. Moving on. We ran to our apartment to shower and then run to service. We did service for this lady who use to be taught. We'll she was the most beautiful lady. She has the biggest heart. We put up her Christmas tree and then cleaned her walls. She told us her story and wanted us to come back to do a lesson!! She says I like to get all the sisters gifts everytime you come I have something for yall to show my appreciation. We tried to insist not to give us anything but she insisted she had to and didn't want to make us feel like she was taking advantage of us…. The most kind stubborn woman I've ever met….. well my mom and grandpa might top her. It's a close tie.

Gotta hurry this along anyways we had to change in the McDonald's bathroom and it was beyond nasty, the worst 4 minutes of my life. We got to see the most beautiful lady with the attack geese I have mentioned her in previous emails. We then went to see Robert, a man we taught about two weeks ago. He is wonderful and has been reading the Book of Mormon. Sadly he is going to Florida for like 4 months. We did some solid calls and set up some appointments. Keith called us for the 4th day in a row so we did a zoom Book of Mormon study. He cracks me up. We then knocked and planted some seeds. As we were driving away we passed a lady and I was like pull over!!!!! We unrolled the windows of the car and waited for the lady to catch up. I creepy yelled out the Window and once again long story short she wants to come to church but lives in cleveland ahhh. We keep finding people for the Cleveland elders they should reciprocate. 

Had a lovely member meal and had the most profound spiritual discussion. Got sent home with a whole box of gf dairy free ice cream popsicle thingys. At this point my cold has started to set in. I refused to go home so we did some more calls and planned out our Friday morning training for the whole mission. We have been given the “honor” of teaching the entire mission. Luckily spiritual revelation flowed and we filled up 5 pages worth of bullet point thoughts. I feel confident we were meant to give the training but I'm not necessarily enthusiastic about it considering I've began to sneeze and cough up a lung every two minutes. 

Friday- 

Woke up sicker than a dog. Coughing a lung up, a wee bit of a fever at 101 and I said not today Satan. We gave a profound training that I only remember slightly but we got like 6 calls and texts that it was lovely, hope thats the truth. We then had a profound last mentor session. Did some fabulous weekly planning. Took loads of drugs. Then we went out knocking in the rain with a 101 fever. Slay girl boss move. We found 6 new lovely friends and my fever broke. The lord provided miracles. Let me expand on the new friends. Two almost got baptized but had an event happen that caused them to be busy and fall off the face of the planet. Well now they want to meet again and come back to church. I then found 4 new friends on social media and all wanted to learn about the Book of Mormon and asked me tons of questions and I set up calls with each of them. Then while knocking we found 2 more new friends that might come to church and then planted a bunch of seeds and left invites to Kirtland nativity exhibit!!!! At this point my body was screaming to go home so at 8:50 we got some dinner and I zonked out. Well I slept feeling like a Fat elephant was on my chest.  

Saturday- 

My chest pain has increased and the elephant has gotten fatter. I decided exercise might not be a good idea so I took a 15 minute nap in a kneeling position on the ground with my face smashed into the couch. Apparently my talent to fall asleep in any position has not changed. I just have to be tired enough. I decided to be stupid and go out knocking again for two hours. I have no self control. We talked to so many people. We knocked every single house that had a car outside and met the most lovely people. We met the cutest older couple that just moved from the Philippines. They had a little nativity outside and we approached them. Again long story short they are super excited to go to the Kirtland nativity exhibit and they showed their nativity to us up close because he made it from wood from the philippians and said the wood was way older than us combined. Him and his wife were so nice. We are per chance stopping by again next week hehehe. As we were walking I felt the most distinct promoting to stop and go back and knock a house. There was no car in the drive way but I figured why not. Well we met a fantastic man! We are also going back next week. Thennnnn there was a house that looked just like my grandparents house( My moms mom and dad) so I knew I was destined to knock it as well hahah. We met the nicest lady on the planet. She looked terrified but quickly opened up. We will also be going back to see her. At this point my body said please take a break so we decided to go do some member stop bys and just drop off our cute notes we wrote them. Side note I swear I stayed a safe distance away from everyone and wore gloves and did not cough to keep everyone safe :) 

Anywho, we had a delightful dinner with rambunctious kids. Both their kids are under the age of 8 but reminded me of my siblings over the age of 20 back home. I enjoyed the crazy and loudness. Nothing else significant happened. 

Sunday- 

My personal study was elite. A great way to start off the day. Church was really good minus our friends didn't pull up but Doug went to church down in Arizona!!!!! We got a new ward missionary who's amazing. I am still having some interesting chest pain. We did some finding and some member stop bys. Had an interesting member meal. Then met up with the stls to do training visits. I went to shaker with Sister Brown. I have such a love for Shaker I want to one day be STL there. My district leader was concerned and called the mission nurse to report me for my chest pain… how rude but so nice. She told me if it wasnt gone or at least better tomorrow I'd have to go in to be seen. Elders can be so dramatic jk it was probably needed. I was going to call her eventually. 

Monday- 

 Quick summary of today. Went to doctors. Got locked out of apartment. Had the yummiest lunch of my entire life consisting of corn tortillas cheese and turkey with some ranch and chick fil a sauce. I'd say they're in my top 5 for quick lunches. Anywho, we found 3 amazing families that all wanted to come to church and have us come back. I'm so jealous this isn't my area. Got some authentic Mexican food for dinner and then topped it off with ice cream. 

Wednesday- 

Wilden day. We wrapped large trees with Christmas lights and I think this is my calling in life. Mine looked real crisp. It was raining and hailing on us but I had the time of my life even if I was coughing up a lung and a half. My district leader might be one of my favorite people out here. Anywho, him and his companion who is also one of my favorite people came to a lesson with us and it was fantastic. All our other lessons canceled nothing significant happened besides dinner with the sweetest lady. She was talking about our last meal together except she didn't realize we were the same sisters and she went on and on about how they(us) were the sweetest and most fun. Made my heart sob. She might have fed me straight gluten but it was so worth it for her. It was time for pbz night and I had not a worry in the world about me and my comp. I knew we were staying together. Before we opened it we went and got ice cream as a district. My district leader bought lactose free ice cream and I'm a literal idiot and was like since when were you lactose intolerant??? He just looked at me and I was like ohhhh it's for me. Precious. We went to the church and listened to a talk and then opened PBZ and sure enough I was staying with my comp. My favorite stl sister williams was leaving and so was my district leader so I was a little sad but I was over joyed that I was staying.