i don`t even know where to begin!
this week was so busy and so wonderful!
tuesday we had an exchange with the sisters from chapel hill. i got to go with sister rodriguez again and i forgot to take a picture, but it was awesome to spend the day with her! but what was not awesome was the food poisening that i had mondayto tuesday morning. poor sister rodriguez was a really good sport and we were able to go out and do some work that afternoon.
wednesday was my birthday! we went to a district meeting and then we went to panara for lunch. we couldn`t believe we found a panera in canada but we did and we had to go to it! after lunch we had some great lessons and that evening we went to my 5 year old best friend`s house for dinner. she was so excited! every 2 minutes it would be, "hey sister paine! happy birthday!" (she remembers my name now). they gave me birthday cupcakes and sang to me. and i again forgot to take a picture. when sister garcia and i left their house it had snowed a few inches during the hour we were there! so we braved the snow and finished our lessons that day. it was a wonderful day! thank you everyone who emailed me and wished me happy birthday!
thursday i went on an exchange with sister dampt and i got to go into fallowfield again! it was so fun to go and see everyone that i love! i got to see mavis and jackie and sister milks and the bleeks!! i was on a trio exchange with sister jex who is in a different ward, but her companion (who was my trainer sister clark) went home because she was done with her mission and now they are in a trio covering both areas. and it was SO COLD. it has been -32 degrees 4 times this past week with the wind! it`s terrible!
friday sister garcia and i met back up and that night we went to a live nativity that the stake puts on every year. it was so frigid! but it was fun to be there! we had some less active members attend and in investigator who tried to get there but couldn`t find it...
saturday we had a miracle! sister garcia met this man, winsky, on exchanges and he told her that he had already met the elders the week before on the street and they gave him a book of mormon and he read it, but that he didn`t give them his contact information. she had knocked on his apartment, so she fixed a return appointment. we came back on saturday and he told us he read the book of mormon and he knows it`s true, he loves joseph smith, and he knows one of our ward members! it was amazing!
sunday we had another miracle as we went caroling with our ward sunday night. the ward planned to stop by some of the less actives we can`t ever get in contact with, so we were excited to see them. we were able to set up some return appointments and the last house we went to go sing at ended up being the wrong people. it was the address we had for this inactive family, but they didn`t live there anymore. the family we sang to was so surprised and really happy. we were able to talk with them and they said they would be interested in coming to church and learning more! it was a sweet experience to go back and share with the ward members because they were instrumental in us meeting this family!
monday i had zone conference, which is why i am emailing today. it was a wonderful conference! we learned about setting goals and faith. as sister training leaders, we always have to give a training, but this time we got to do something really cool and facilitate a discussion with our zone where everyone shared miracles that they have seen in their areas. it was so spiritual. we also talked about christmas! i love this christmas season SO SO SO SO MUCH. as a gift from our mission president, every one of us got a star with a name of the Savior. mine says "Lamb of God" on it. sister phillips told us as she was preparing our gifts, she decided she would just randomly put a star in each bag, but as she read each missionary`s name, she said she got an impression as to which name she needed to give them. so every single missionary received the name of the Savior that Heavenly Father wanted them to have. it is so wonderful to know that i have a Heavenly Father who knows me perfectly. He knows each one of us perfectly.
i love my Savior. I love being on a mission and being able to tell everyone that they have a Savior who loves them, and to focus on why we really celebrate this season of Christmas. that it truly began with a little baby boy and a holy family in a humble stable. that we celebrate the birth of Christ because He saved us from death, sadness, weakness, and our sins. that`s why we celebrate Christmas.
i love you all! merry christmas! joyeux noël! bonne fête!
love,
soeur paine
pictures (i`ve come to realize all pictures on my mission are terrible, so whatever)
caroling with the ward, zone conference, birthday panera, us with the scotts at the live nativity, sister dampt, jex and i on our exchange
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