Monday we had a sister activity. We made crepes, popcorn, and hot chocolate. We watched Mr. Crouger's Christmas! It was so much fun that the elders ended up crashing it and watching the movie with us. Then Sister Parcel and I went to dinner at Brother and Sister Powel's home. After dinner we went and read more of the Book of Mormon with Sean. Then we went to the Johnson's to keep working on the trailer for the family who lost their home in the Paradise fire. The mattresses were bad so we drove out to Sisters Hill's to get a new one. We got home just before bed. We played some super fun cards games with Sister williams and Sister Hart.
Tuesday was kind of crazy because on Monday Sister Parcel had left different random things at all of our appointments on Monday, so we were going on a scavenger hunt to try and find them. We went out tracting and we found Jean. He is an older gentlemen who invited us to come back. We are excited to see where it will go. Then we did a service project for Sister Powell. We put up tables and chairs for her activity day girls. Then we ended exchanges and all of us sisters had dinner at Subway, Then we had a lesson with Nathan and Sebastian. On Monday changed his baptismal date to Saturday so we are going to be finishing teaching him all of the lessons. Tonight we went over all of the baptismal interview questions and the ten commandments. Holy cow he is so ready and prepared to get baptized!
Wednesday we drove out to Trona to have a lesson with Jasmine. I just love her and her three little girls so so much. They are adorable and Jasmine just eats up the lessons like they are candy. We were teaching her the plan of salvation and her favorite part is the three degrees of glory. She said that she loves how God is loving enough to give us second chances. Then we drove home, had dinner, and went caroling with the youth. We got to go on a hay wagon and it was so so much fun. Sister Williams and I were the only ones singing though. After that we met Nathan at the church and he taught us what the gospel of Jesus Christ was. He made little steps out of paper that lead up to a picture of Jesus Christ. Each step had a word written on it, so it went faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. At each step he taught about what it was, then explain why it was important. The spirit was so strong and it was amazing to see how much knowledge and understanding he has. Then we taught him about tithing and how to use a tithing envelope. Juiliet Guzman shared a beautiful story about how she gained a testimony on tithing and again the spirit was very strong.
Thursday we drove up to Kern Valley to see Heather. She is doing amazing and so is her family. After visiting with Heather, we got dinner at Taco Bell then we drove back to Ridgecrest for a lesson with Nathan. On the way up to Ridgrest we got a text from a ward member saying that sisters can now wear pants!! Oh my heavens I was so excited!! I could not stop screaming and shouting for joy!!! whooooooo! Then on the way home our mission president called us and talked to us about it and said we could start wearing pants as of right now!!!!! whoooooooooo!!!!!!! When we got to our lesson with Nathan, Sister Calderon gave us money to buy our very first pair of pants! I don't know if I have ever been more excited in my life! Our last lesson with Nathan went amazing. We taught him about the importance of families and temples and about callings in the church. Nathan asked me to pray at his baptism and for Sister Wiliams and I to sing a musical number.... (yay)
Friday we had district counsel. Elders Hovenden and Riser taught us about how to be a more consecrated missionary. Then we had a role play on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Sister Williams and I got to role play together. She was going to teach the atonement to me first. Then I was going to teach it to her. As she was teaching me about Jesus Christ's love for me I was so overcome with the spirit that I started crying and couldn't stop and ended up running out of the room dramatically because I didn't want to be sobbing in front of my whole zone. Go me.... -_- The best part was when we came back in the room the elders were terrified of me and were giving me the most horrified looks on the planet so that was definitely fun. But honestly the atonement is such beautiful thing. Our big brother suffered in the garden for every single one of my sins and every single one of yours. He even suffered for the people who He knew would never accept Him. That's a whole lot of love. It's amazingly powerful and all you have to do to have that blessing is to come unto Christ. That's it, just come unto Him. It just is so incomprehensible. After district counsel we went over to Sister Shelby's and she gave us cute Christmas fuzzy socks and one of the ornament sleighs we helped her make. Then we went to the church and practiced our musical number before Nathan had his baptismal interview. Elders Riser and Hovendan came over to practice with us because Elder Hovendan can play the piano. Well when they were leaving, after we were done practicing, they stole Sister William's shoes and threw them into the men's bathroom so we had to go in there to get them and some member saw us coming back out.... awkward. 
Nathan passed his interview with Elder Kay. And he did amazing!! He's just so prepared and so so ready for his baptism! Then for dinner Brother and Sister Gartner bought us and pizza, salad and some mint oreos. Then we stayed in and finally finished our studies and did some more planning.
Saturday morning was Nathan's baptism! He was so so excited to get baptized. Sister Calderon talked on baptism and Kayla Calderon talked on the gift of the Holy Ghost. The spirit was so strong and everyone was extremely touched. After the talks Sister Williams and I sang "I Feel my Savior's Love". I sang the first verse, she sang the second verse, and then we sang the third verse together. It was one of the scariest things I have ever done! I was so nervous and so worried about it. But I started my verse out strong and it was going well when all of a sudden the pianist started playing the wrong notes which threw me off and threw him off... but Sister Williams saved us all by singing so I could find my place again. I honestly almost started laughing because I was so worried I'd mess up, and when it actually happened, it wasn't as big of a deal as I thought. Anyway... so the rest of the song went amazing, and the spirit grew even stronger, and then we got to watch our Nathan get baptized. Wow the pure look of joy on his face was such an amazing sight to see. Wow.... what a blessing to be a part of. After the baptism we went home, made lunch, and then we helped Sister Calderon and Sister Stahli take out Christmas bouquets to some of the women in our ward. Sister Williams started to feel really sick so we ended up going home and letting her rest.
Sunday Nathan got the gift of the Holy Ghost and he was so so happy. He felt the spirit so strong and was so happy to finally be a member of the church.
Dec 24-30
Monday was Christmas Eve and we played basketball and chair football as a zone. Then we went to the Jensen's house to celebrate with them. We played out the nativity and Sister Williams and I got to be wise men. We even had a Samuel the Lamanite proclaim to us about Jesus's birth and shot Nerf gun bullets at him. I had so much fun! We had to be in by 6:00pm so we played card games and unwrapped one present each.
Tuesday was Christmas morning! We went to the church and then we all made breakfast together as a zone and unwrapped our presents together. Then we went and Skyped with our families!!! We skyped at the Barro's house with all of their super cute kids. Can I just say that I have the cutest family on the planet and I made history by skyping home in pants! Then we went for dinner at the Sisco's house! After dinner we went around and skyped as a zone. It was so much fun and such a cool opportunity because we got to just have fun together and see who everyone was teaching.
Wednesday we went up to Trona and taught Jasmine the gospel of Jesus Christ. She loved it so much, and is really improving in her knowledge of the gospel. Then we had ward correlation.
Thursday was weekly planning. Then we planned a little of Phyllis's baptism for Saturday Then we went and visited Carmen and helped her set her TV up so that she could hear it a little better. After we left Carmen's house we stopped-by Sister Hannah and her mom.
Friday we had district counsel. Then we did our studies and I can't really remember what else.
Saturday was Phyliss's baptism! We got there early and filled up the font and got everything ready. Phyliss was late to the baptism, but when she finally got there we hurried and skyped her elders in and we had a beautiful baptismal service. I was asked to speak on baptism and Sister McDonald spoke on the Holy Ghost. After the baptism we needed to try and find a ride for Jasmine so that she could go to church.... we called almost half the ward before we were able to get a hold of Sister Hannah who was very very willing to go and pick her up!!! Yaya that women is a blessing.
Sunday we drove out to Trona with Sister Hannah to go pick up Jasmine. She really loved being at church! She said that she felt like she was finally at a place where no one was judging her. After church Sister Hannah took all of us over to her house and fed us homemade tamales. Then she drove us back to Trona. Phyliss also was able to get the gift of the Holy Ghost today as well.
Love Sister Howard
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