December 16

Dear Family and Friends,

I had an awesome week! We were super busy teaching people and we had Christmas parties in both of our wards. It was also a really fun week. Hopefully next week will be the same.

Last Monday night we met with one of our relief society presidents and her family. We talked to them about the Gilbert temple open house and inviting friends to it. And they invited us over to eat with them on Christmas, so we're going to go there for at least part of the day. I'm really excited about it, they're an awesome family.

Tuesday we had a gift exchange with our zone, which was really fun. We all had someone else in the zone to get a gift for and it was secret, so we had to try and guess who had us. I got a stocking with a journal in it and some chocolate chip cookies. I really enjoyed it. Haha. And then later that day we met with the Brookharts, who are still loving coming back to church and going strong.

Wednesday was awesome. We got to go to the temple lights with Bethany that night. It was so much fun. She's so excited to be baptized and is already doing missionary work. She invited her nonmember friend to meet us there, so we got to talk to her a little bit too. And the lights were beautiful. The grounds aren't as big as Salt Lake, but they're still pretty amazing. And it was packed!

Friday we had a sisters meeting, which was pretty fun. We watched some cool videos and did some training. And then we had a clothing exchange, which was great. We have 44 sisters in the mission right now, so there were a lot of clothes. I found a few new skirts and a shirt, so I'm pretty excited about that. It's crazy how fast you get tired of your clothes as a missionary, but I guess that's what happens when you wear them every week. haha.

And then that night we had our ward Christmas party for Pecan Creek 2nd ward. It was in the brand new building that just opened in our area, and it was a lot of fun. We got to talk to almost everyone that came, and a lot of less active families came too. It was so great to have so many people there.

And then Saturday we helped Linda make Christmas cookies. That was a lot of fun, but also super tiring. I never thought baking would wear me out that much, but we did make like 10 dozen at least, so it makes sense. Haha.

And then that evening we had the ward Christmas party for Pecan Creek 1st ward. That was also really fun. There were a ton of people there. One of our less active members brought her husband and 3 sons that aren't members, so that was pretty cool. We got to talk to a lot of people there too. And then they sent us home with extra food, which is always nice. Haha.

And Sunday was crazy! We moved into our new church building, so there was the chaos of trying to figure out where all the classes met. But, the new building is super nice and we're all really grateful to be in it. We had our investigator Tisha come to church, which was amazing! She lives literally across the street from it, so she walked over. We sat with her and we think she really enjoyed it. Hopefully she'll keep coming. We also had President Hale, the 2nd counselor in the mission presidency, at both of our wards. That was cool. The only problem of the day was that our wards are already too big to fit into the chapel. It was packed, people were almost on top of each other, and still not everyone fit. They're working on coming up with a solution for next week.

Sunday night we went to a performance of Handel's Messiah, which was amazing. And then we waited for transfer calls, which is one of the most stressful things ever. We didn't hear anything until almost 11. Sister Carroll is being transfered and I'm staying here. I'm really sad to see her go, I've loved working with Sister Carroll and will miss her a lot. But I'm excited to still be in this area. I'll stay until at least the beginning of February, and at that point I'll have been here for 8 months! That's crazy! Haha.

And then this morning, actually like 30 minutes ago, President called and asked me to train a new missionary. I'm super nervous about it. But I also know that if President has asked me to do it, then the Lord knows I can do it and He will help me every step of the way.

This week should be really great. We have transfer meeting and our mission Christmas Party. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love and miss you all!

Love always,
Baylee