"I want to sit by you because I love you!"

Well I hope every one had a great Christmas!

We had a pretty busy day and it ended up being a really good day. We had Christmas dinner with this cute family who have three boys under the age of 4. They are a handful and it was so fun to go over there and play with their new Christmas toys. We played baseball and sword fighting and with some remote control trucks they got. When dinner time came, the little 4 year old boy named Zach told my companion not to sit there because he wanted me to sit next to him. He then looked at me with his big blue eyes and said, "I want to sit by you because I love you!" It was the cutest thing ever! 

We have been pretty busy over here. Last week we had gotten a call from a member in Wisconsin who said his coworker was moving to our area and was wondering if we could help them move in. The family ended up needing help Christmas eve so we got some missionaries and people from our ward and in an hour we were able to unload everything and get it into the house. It was great! We went over last night and explained to them what we do as missionaries and they said since they just moved here they are looking for a church to attend. We are now teaching them and they will be coming to church on Sunday! We are pretty excited about them.

We also have been teaching this other family for awhile. They have five kids and are really fun. We have had a hard time helping them really understand what our purpose is. It was funny because last week we were teaching the Plan of Salvation and I made this puzzle that explains it for their little kids, and I was having them help me with it, and the dad told me I should get the puzzle patented and sell it because it was a good way to explain it. Haha it was funny. But anyways we went over there a couple of days ago and really laid it on them. We were bold and told them that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, standing in His place, and that the message we bring can change their families lives if they allow it to and do the things we ask them to like read and pray to ask God if it is true. It got really quiet and the little girl named Destiny(9) said the prayer at the end and asked God to answer her questions and tell her if what she is learning is true, and then the dad Charles continued to say a silent prayer to himself after the daughter finished her prayer. They all were like I am going to read this book and I am going to bring it to work with me. They finally understood the importance of our message and we are excited to see if they have read and prayed and received an answer. 

That is what I love about being a missionary. We get to meet so many different people but they are all trying to find happiness and figure out their purpose. It is such a blessing to be able to bring the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to people who are searching for it, or maybe don't even realize they are looking for it. The gospel of Jesus Christ truly softens the heart of men and brings true joy into this life that is full of earthly struggles. May each of you take the time this week to continue to draw closer to the Savior and His teachings, and then try to share that knowledge and light with those around you!

I hope you have a great week!

Love y'all!

-Sister Micaela Rice

Surprise! Surprise! Merry Frickin Christmas!

Well it has been quite the week here! Let me tell ya!

First off it snowed and well....every thing and every one shut down....it was worse than when the Hurricane was coming straight for us! We got like maybe 4 inches of snow.....

We have been pretty busy here and trying to keep up with everything....

So my email caption comes from one of my favorite people I have ever met! We have a member here named Sister Smith who helps us out with basically any thing we need to do as missionaries. She is like the best teacher ever! She carries around all the pamphlets with her and is not afraid to open up her mouth when we are teaching lessons. We love her. She is quite the character and says the funnies things. Last week she got bit by a dog and it was pretty bad....when we asked her how the bite was she told us about how she is going to have to go to wound care every week for a while because of it and as she walked away she said, "Surprise! Surprise! Merry Frickin Christmas!" We just started laughing...that is now our go to line when things aren't going well for us....and this week there has been quite a bit of that.

It is all good though because no matter how bad a day is, I have many things to be grateful for, and especially the opportunity to testify of Jesus Christ during the Christmas season.

Plus it is pretty hard to stay down when your companion has the best attitude ever and laughs at anything....it  is pretty contagious and we find our self laughing a lot. 

We have lots to look forward about this week and we are trying to work hard and find those that are ready for our message.

One cool experience I had this week was being able to go with another sister in the mission to a lesson with this lady named Norma. She is amazing and really trying to learn if this is true....we were able to have a huge break through with her and we were all crying and we promised her if she would act in faith the Lord would provide a way for her situation to work out to where she will be able to get baptized. That woman is such a great example of having faith and I am excited to see her continue to grow in her testimony.

We also got to go around offering to rake leaves for people....it turned into one yard...because it takes A LOT of time with just two people...but it was still fun...and then we drove around with the rakes in our car for about a week because we kept forgetting to give them back hahaha.

Also we stopped to do some studying at a Mexican restaurant and just ordered a drink...the lady recognized our name tags and said she use to go to our church so we got her info to give to the missionaries in that area to hopefully get in contact with her....then she gave us chips and salsa for free! It was great! 

Well I hope yall are enjoying this Christmas season! I know I am! 

We have so much to be thankful for and so many things that we can do to help bring people closer to the Savior this season. Please be looking for ways to serve those around you and spread the joy!

Love,

Sister Micaela Rice