So this Email is a little later than usual because this morning we had a Mission Conference with Elder Kent F Richards of the 70. I will talk more about that later, It was amazing.
Christmas Eve we went to a care center and caroled to the people there, it was so much fun, not to mention I got to play the flute. I really kind of miss that.
It was so great to get to talk to the family on Christmas! I love you all and wish we had more time. The rest of our day was awesome, we got together as a zone and opened presents. The elders made spaghetti and as a joke they also made Elf spaghetti and we all had to try it. it was full of sugar and complete with maple syrup :D
We spent the rest of Christmas caroling and delivering cookies and cards to our investigators and our less actives. It was so much fun and amazing to see their faces light up.
On Friday we went over to Velma's and she wasnt home so we started walking down the street toward the park by our old apartment. We get stopped by a man driving and he asks us for a Book of Mormon, it turns out he is a member who drove truck and lost his scriptures. He is in our ward boundaries but hasn't been to church because of his job.. we found out that it had been about 3 years. Anyways we didn't actually have any books on us so we told him we would have one at church on sunday for him and then we got his address. He came to church! this is when we found out that it had been 3 years. I don't know what made him decide to come back, I think a lot of it had to do with being needed. He and his wife lived in the other ward and now are divorced, which is when he started driving truck and not coming. He was lost, but I am so excited for him to come back!
On Thursday we found out we would be having a mission conference today and that our P-day would be split up between today and tomorrow.
The Mission Conference was in Redlands and since I have been out over 12 weeks I get to drive now. Sis. Davis and I take turns but I got to drive there, Yay for California Freeways :D We even got to do some off roading in Redlands, that was fun. We basically go off roading every day here in Yucca though. The Elders told us about the road and that it would be a little scary. We got to the dirt road and it was pretty steep at first and we almost thought we were about to go off a cliff. After Sis. Davis checked it out and made sure it was an actual road we went down and then got right on the freeway. That was our little adventure for the day :D.
The conference was amazing though. I learned so much and it's going to be really hard to summarize, but Elder Richards talked about how we need to teach simply and to teach TRUTH. There are 4 Essential truths that our investigators need to understand, and if they don't understand these, then they can't understand the implied truths that go along with them. It was a great reminder that we need to keep things Simple. We need to take the time to listen to them. All I have to do is teach simply! He talked a lot about understanding and gave us lots of scriptures. Sister Richards talked to us for a while about why we are here. She gave an example from President Eyring's biography about "the redheads" and how the choices he made in his life were because of "the redheads". The redheads he talks about are his future children. I am here on a mission giving other families the opportunity to have the blessings of the Gospel and to benefit my future children. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of the gospel and how it has blessed my family and how it can continue to do so. President Van Cott talked to us about repentance. Repentance is "a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world." (BD Repentance). Those 3 things are related to Faith, Hope and Charity. When we have a "fresh view" of God we have Faith, when we have a "fresh view" of ourselves we have Hope, and when we have a "fresh view" of the world or others, we have Charity.
There were so many thoughts shared today, and I wish I could just write them all.
Thank you all so much for your love and support! I love you all and hope you have a fabulous New Year!
Love,
Sister Kellee Gardner
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