'Twas the Pday before Christmas

'Twas the Pday before Christmas.... Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope all is well and that you're all staying warm :) the weather has been dropping and it's starting to get freezing! Yikes. But no white Christmas so that's kinda lame but oh well, I'm still grateful for this wonderful season and the chance to reflect on Christ life and his sacrifice for us all. Also be prepare because I haven't emailed since last Saturday so.... Good luck. 

Saturday: We went to the temple with our less active!! Oh my what a special experience. She has really bad knees so we originally decided on her only doing confirmations but when she was watching everyone be baptized she wanted to do it so badly so she did some! We was beaming with happiness afterwards. Sister deuel I were also able to so a lot of family names so that was wonderful as well. Going to the temple with family names is such a different, sweeter experience knowing you're doing it to help someone within your own family. Then that night we went to a deaf party to try and find more deaf people! Sadly there were a lot of students there who were learning ASL and we were put on the table with them but we found a few people so it was worth it! And deaf parities are always a blast as well haha 

Sunday: We got a new ward mission leader so that's exciting! Hopefully we will work well with this new leader and we can continue to grow the work here in south shore. I also interpreted again in sacrament and after I do I always seem to remember how much I hate interpreting. Yep, hate it. Anyways moving on... We had dinner at a members and we are actually going there for Christmas breakfast, so stoked. But wait, afterwards we went to my family members church to watch their Christmas choir program. The music was very lovely, glad we were able to bring some Christmas cheer into our hearts. 

Monday: So we're having a Christmas Eve devotional for the entire mission and each zone practices a funny song to perform so we spent today preparing for that and we're going to slay dragons it's so cool. I'll try and send a video next week :) then we went and taught our investigator and had an amazing lesson on the restoration. Gives me chills every time. Then at the end of the night we went to our less actives house to watch meet the Mormon with them (or attempted to I should say). The kids were really distracted the entire time but their mom learned something so that's all that matters haha. 

Tuesday: We had district meeting and then tried to find our old woman investigator but she didn't answer :( were really worried about her because she was really sick and hen all of a sudden she hasn't been answering her door or phone. Pray for her everyone. Then we went to Brentwood to teach all our deaf people and it went really well. Oh my gosh, when we taught our recent convert I was nearly in tears. The gift of the Holy Ghost is real people. So real. He was a new person! Completely different, not only in his gospel knowledge but his testimony and his ASL skills improved dramatically. Then he brought up the priesthood and how that's his next goal. Excuse me while I weep from happiness.

Wednesday: This morning during studies we studied Spanish (ha ha yeah I know my Spanish missionary friends so funny to imagine) but really and it went really well. We can now get a referral for the Spanish missionaries. *high five* ¡yo hablo español! Then we went and volunteered at the ranch and there's nothing better than fresh manure and cleaning out chicken coops. :') but seriously it was a good time, and I love helping out that farm. We also taught our investigator and extended a baptism invitation which she almost accepted. She was so close!!!!! Ugh, next time for sure!! But we had a miracle happen. So it was super windy and freezing outside but we decided to go knocking and we found a golden street. Everyone was home and we showed the Christmas video to every person, taught three lessons, and now have three new investigators. Within an hour. Heavenly Father is too good to us sometimes.

Thursday: EXCHANGES! We had our exchange today with the sister training leaders but only for the day not an overnight one. I went to plainview with sister cook while sister Deuel stayed here with sister Robinson. Plainview was really cool because they only do ysa members so we taught a lot of people our age so that was different but really cool to see. We spent a lot of time knocking since all their appointments fell through but we still saw success. Also sister Deuel and I decided together as a companionship to move the deaf group from south shore to bay shore for the benefit of our deaf people and we could start only doing ASL and not English. And we got everyone approved today so now we're waiting for housing!! Ahh! Haha there's a joke in the mission with the ASL missionaries "yeah since I'm ASL I get to choose what areas I serve in" haha totally not true but I swear we always know what's coming next. Crazy to see what Happens. Who knows maybe one of us will still leave! 

Friday: Weekly planning, taught our investigator and her son was being all crazy when we were talking about the plan of salvation because I guess he died for a couple minutes last week. He had an overdose. Crazy stuff. But it's weird because when he was sharing his beliefs he actually believes a lot of the same as us just mixed with a few false doctrine. Interesting lesson.

Saturday: We went to mastic, Shirley, and mastic beach to find our less active members and invite everyone to our ward Christmas party!! :) always the best time. We also went down Main Street to find and find people but it was freezing outside so no one was out. Oh well. But we went to the ward Christmas party and a deaf person showed up! Our deaf members friend! So awesome. The party was a blast and we were combined with the Spanish branch so we had amazing food and a heck of a good time partying and dancing. Why was I not put in the Spanish program?! Just kidding deaf people are way cooler.

Sunday: Had church, and then went knocking for three hours. Not much luck, although we found one young man and he was interested so hopefully we can meet with him again after Christmas :) also during church we had a small testimony meeting and our less active we recently took to the temple got up and shared her testimony and sister Deuel and I were in tears. She just kept thanking us and telling us how grateful she was for us helping her and the ward lifting her up. Ugh stab in the feel goods, never mind president we don't want to move to bay shore anymore!!! 

Monday: We had a zone practice again for our devotional song and then we went to the ranch again. This time we got to work and feed all the animals, cleaned all the pens and cleaned up the ranch. Really good time. I also saw a llama so shout out to my Peruvian missionary homies (I would have taken a picture but I didn't have my camera, when I go back I will get one). So we're there basically all day but we did go help our relief society president with a few things for secret Santa for some struggling members in our ward. I love how caring this ward is and making sure everyone is taken care of for Christmas. It will be so hard leaving this area! We went to teach our less active and we invited him to be baptized but again we had a run in with him almost accepting but then rejecting. He said he wants to Learn more and to know for himself. Totally understandable.

Sorry my email was so long! It's been over a week since I've emailed!! Hope you all have a merry Christmas. Thank you everyone for your sweet letters and packages, you made being away from home much easier. I love you all and hope you all stay safe. Merry Christmas ❤️

Love, Sister Seay