HAPPY NEW YEAR

JANUARY 1, 2018

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!! Hope you guys all had a great time celebrating and what not. We just played a little Catan because we had to be in early. But it has been an AWESOME WEEK!! Sure, there was still highs and lows...  but i think i can say this is the first week that I feel like the numbers have actually matched how hard we've worked. We found 6 new investigators (3 of which were Muslim), had 5 people came to sacrament (the whole Xiong family came) and.... drum roll please.... SOMEONE IS ON DATE!!!!! SUPER EXCITING!!!! I'm so pumped!!! Her name is Allison Parks, and she is 9 years old, but her mom didn't want her to get baptized at 8 because she wanted her to learn and choose for herself. Allison is amazing and has wanted to get baptized for the past like 3 months, but it hasn't been planned because her parents are divorced, but now it's working out!! Feb. 3, and I am SO EXCITED FOR HER!!! Like, she LOVES the missionaries! She wants to be one when she grows up, and it's amazing. We gave her the kids picture BoM, like the one with like 50 chapters... and she read the whole thing in under a month!!! Like she is the most amazing little girl, except my sisters of course, but I'm so excited for her!!

Other exciting stuff, so this Saturday we have a meeting (hopefully) with Mai's parents, who are Old Culture, and hopefully will convert over!! Exciting, exciting stuff happening. This past week consisted mostly of just going to see people and having lessons and lots of finding time.

So the Muslims ... we just knocked on their door, the guy was super nice and let us in, and then we had a good talk. It was crazy. The lesson ended when their prayer clock was going off. They said we could come back though, so that's awesome. 

Also we had another lesson with the Thao kids, in the picture. They are amazing too, but probably moving to Texas soon, so that's kinda sad. The Thao kids are just some kids we've been going to see every week that are partial members, but their parents aren't active, but they believe in God so it's been awesome seeing them every week. 

The Xiong family attends the Hmong branch. Pheng and Mai speak Hmong but their kids don't. The Hmong branch combines primary with the Marysville ward so their kids have English primary, and they just sit there during Sacrament meeting.

Also, I don't know why but my back still bothers me more than it should. probably because we sit down so much. I'm trying to do my back exercises morning and night so hopefully that will help. 

I'm looking forward to the new year!! It should be great. Here are some of my new year's resolutions:

1. READ THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!! I'm actually pretty committed to this one. I love the Book of Mormon so so so much, like its so helpful for me in my life and it's what I'm telling people about, so my goal is to read it every day, even if not very much at a time. If you're looking for a good book, I highly recommend it, hahahaha.

2. GAIN 20 POUNDS (of good weight, like not fat but muscle). When I started the mission I was like 143. Then a few months ago I was like 152 or so. and this morning I was 144. So my weight fluctuates a lot and I don't have a very active lifestyle here, but I have 30 minutes every day so I'm gonna make the most of it and not eat very much sugar. I also can't really cook worth anything, so it's gonna be hard to eat healthy.

3. So this is pretty cool that I thought of, or at least I think it's cool. So in one the of books for missionaries, it talks about Jesus Christ and His attributes, and it lists 9 of them. So for the first 9 months of the year, I'm going to focus on 1 per month and develop that in myself each day, hopefully, until... well, until forever. But the goal is to become more like Christ :) Here's the list in the order I'm doing it: 

Jan: Diligence

Feb: Charity and Love

Mar: Hope

Apr: Faith 

May: Obedience

Jun: Humility

Jul: Patience

Aug: Virtue

Sep: Knowledge

So that will be lots of fun. I'm excited.

4. I wanna be better at following promptings. Like sometimes, I'll get the thought "hey, go talk to that guy" and I won't cuz I don't like just starting conversations, so I'm gonna get better at that and conversing with people. 

So yeah those are my goals. It should be a great new year as a missionary!! Sad I wont see you guys at all, but it's for a good cause!! Bye mom and dad, love you!!!