Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Dec. 10, 2013 No snow!

Ha ha we're practically in a tropical paradise!  Woot!  Not really, we were actually in Coos Bay the last three days which doesn't have the blessed Chetco Effect to keep it warm.  We had Stake Conference Saturday and Sunday then Zone Conference on Monday which is why I'm e-mailing on a Tuesday.  At Zone Conference we learned a lot, but then we had kind of a nice happy Christmas section where we watched most of The Christmas Oranges.  NEW FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIE.  We actually watched it last year too, but only the last bit.  It's a mormon movie not produced by the church, and I definitely recommend it. :D

This past week has been wonderful!  As you know, Maya and Renee are set to be baptized on the 14th, but we weren't sure they were going to be anywhere near ready.  Their hearts just didn't seem to be in the right place.  We decided however that we would push forward and do our best to have them ready, and we were praying for a miracle.  We taught them on Friday only a few hours before we were all going to go to the ward Christmas party.  The Spirit in that lesson was so strong, and as we taught, the change of heart we had been praying for was evident in what they said.  It was a Christmas miracle!  Certain complications mean that we'll have to move their baptism back (we haven't even told them yet, but we will tonight) but they are allowing the gospel to work in their lives, which is awesome to see.

The Ward Christmas party was a blast too!  Sis. Leavitt who organized it, had the ingenious idea to get Bro. Webster to have his middle school choir, Seabreeze, come perform in it.  So all the families of the choir kids came too!  So many nonmembers were in our building!  Maya was in the choir too, and a few potential investigator families we had been trying to work with were involved also.  Aside from that, a lot of ward members who don't make it to church so often were there, and we were scurrying around the whole time talking to everybody.

I have some more fun Brookings facts!  Brookings is the only spot on mainland U.S. soil that was attacked during WWII!  A Japanese bomber dropped a firebomb which didn't detonate the way it was supposed to, so it didn't cause the raging forest fire intended.  Somebody found the shell and reported it.  They chose Brookings because they thought it was the least defended section of the coast, but I'm sure it wasn't after that.  Also here in the area is one of only two places that the myrtlewood tree grows, the other place is Jerusalem.  So it's quite the tourist attraction with gift shops devoted entirely to stuff made out of myrtlewood.

I heard from the Zone Leaders that only 20% of the missionaries in our mission have been out for over a year.......  We're a really young mission!  But I feel really old....

Oh yeah, and did you change my Facebook login?  I might be needing it soon. ;3 i.e. that was most of what we talked about at Zone Conference and our mission has been selected to test out social media.  But it will roll out kind of slowly so I don't know when I'll use it for sure.

Love!

Elder Georgia!

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Dec. 2, 2013 "Thanks!"

So on Thanksgiving I played the violin a lot, we went to the beach and had dinner and hung out with ward members and a few investigators.  It was so much fun!

The Rushtons are awesome!  It was really weird to find out that they have the same first names as my parents....

I love Coconut lime bars!!!  I was just talking about how much I love them... and Christmas isn't Christmas without thumbprint cookies!

Hi to Mallory!  I would love to have her address!

Did you know we have a mission blog? It's oregoneugenemission.blogspot.com

We were on exchanges with the district leader, but since we're so far away from Coquille--their area--they both came down and we all worked in our area.  Afterwards we decided to eat lunch on the beach--because Coquille's beach isn't as cool I guess--when we ran into a family from our ward known as the Scofield's.  They took a picture of the four of us and we chatted for a bit then left.  Then on Sunday after church, Brother Scofield asked me, "You're from Virginia right?  Did you go to LDSHE?  Did you know Kate Wilson(I can't remember exactly what her name was but I think that's right, I remember her being on the youth conference board of executive youth or whatever)?"  And I was like uh... yeah?  She was on the beach with all their kids, but since I hadn't met the Scofield family as a whole yet, I didn't notice her.  But I definitely do know her.  Crazy!  I guess she's related to them and was visiting for Thanksgiving.  Brother Scofield said she was like, "I think I know him!" When she read my name tag, but she was too embarrassed to say anything.  Haha.

Also on Thanksgiving I found we have a line on Familysearch that goes all the way back to Adam and Eve! :D  We're related to them!

I'm really thankful for the gospel, for Jesus Christ who suffered all things so He could be a god of justice and mercy.  I'm grateful for prophets who teach us the way.  I'm grateful for my family, for Mom and Dad and Lindy and Nick and Adri and Luke and Seth (and Baby) and all my wonderful cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents.  You're all amazing, loving, awesome people!  I'm not thankful enough, but I am so thankful.  I'm thankful to be here in Oregon, and in Brookings.  I'm grateful for the experiences I've had so far and the people I've met.  I'm grateful for President and Sister Young, they are so good to us.  I thank my Heavenly Father for this life on earth and the opportunities we have to learn and grow, and to have the Holy Spirit so strongly in our lives because of the fulness of the gospel that we have.

Love you!

Thannk