Christmas Lights

Oooh I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!  The lights are going up everywhere and you know whats funny?  People here hang up snowflakes.  Even though there's no snow.  Whats with that?  (Doesnt that just tell all of us that deep down, we know that Christmas should always have snow?)  My birthday is coming again, weird.  It doesn't even feel like my birthday.  I can't believe I'll be 26!! Sister Oliphant's birthday is on December 12th, day before mine!  We'll be sure to have a birthday party between the two of us! 

We went to the mall last week to return something and upon leaving the main hallway we hear "sisters!!  Sisters!"  I turn around to see a jolly Santa Clause.  He waves his hand at us, signaling that we should come talk to him and I shook my head no.  I'm sure all of you remember how uncomfortable I am around people in full-body costumes.  Ooooh no, I'm NOT going over there for Santa to make fun of the Mormons and make me sit on his lap.  Nope.  But then, he was so insistant "sisters, come here!!"  I didnt want to offend, and there were people all over the mall watching us, so we walked towards him and he met us half way.  He chatted with us and asked us how we were....he looked a little too "glowy" so I asked him if he was LDS.  We laughed at his reply all night: "Didn't you know Santa was a member of the CHURCH??"  haha.  So there you go.  Santa is real, and he's Mormon.  

This week, we had elder Porter of the Seventy come and train us as a mission.  It was really great, and I remembered that even just walking around with the spirit can sometimes touch people, when we don't even say anything!  We got to interpret for Sister Sellers, so we got to go to the meeting with elder Porter twice, which was cool.  I double felt the spirit.  haha.  We also had some crazy flooding lately down here.  The water has been pretty deep, and yesterday, there were a few wards who cancelled church because people needed to go home and take care of their houses.  The sisters we live with put on their jeans after sacrament meeting and went to go clear off tree branches and dry up all the water.  We're expecting more flooding this week, so we'll see how that goes!!  exciting stuff!

 Kathy is getting baptized this Saturday.  I'm pretty sure her conversion story is the craziest one I have for my whole mission.  I know I'll be friends with her for the rest of my life.  She was fired from her job last week, and isnt sure why she's having so many trials, but we all know why.  Darn satan.  BUT!  She is going forward with faith and getting baptized!!  (This is her 5th baptism, but the only one with authority!)  Dianne, on the other hand, is supposed to get baptized on December 9th.  Her family is extremely opposed to the LDS church, and they have given her a ton of crap about us.  They threatened Sister Sellers, and told us never to come back.  Some kind of crazy fight happened, and Dianne ended up stabbing her sister and some other guy.  Well....she went to jail.  So....we'll see when this baptism happens.  She only stayed in for a week, but I'm pretty sure she might need to postpone for a while.  At least she has a testimony to stand up for the church, but I'm not sure stabbing people is the best thing to do.  (The sister and the other guy are okay, I think they went to the hospital.  Just lots of blood.)

I love you all!!  Christmas is the best time ever!  

 Sister Wink