Pictures from a museum!
Merry Christmas! I love you all so much. The woman we live with bought us necklaces for Christmas from a little Native American lady who came selling jewelry to our door. It turns out that the little woman used to live here, this story reminded me of Mommy. But they had found this woman when she was young, rummaging through one of their closets. She was about the age of Sister Shumway's daughter. Anyway, it turned into this fiasco and they eventually ended up taking her in for quite a few years. She eventually joined the church but is no longer actively involved with it.
The house is ours this week since she went to be with some of her children in Eager for Christmas, but she left our necklaces under the tree along with a couple other presents and a sweet note.
Sister Jeffrey turned 21 this week! We celebrated by getting her some root beer and working hard on exchanges with Sister Brady and Sister Waite. I sang happy birthday to her 21 times. I sang it a couple times with the piano.
Sister Brady and I went and taught someone who lives down our street, a sweet woman and her mother. They are less active- the mother only because of her health. She has had four strokes in the past year or so. Her daughter takes care of her. But her faith is so strong. She just keeps saying "We just have to trust in the Lord". Her daughter has been less active since she was in high school. And the strokes are really trying her faith. Her mom gets cramps in her legs and wakes up in the night in extreme pain. The daughter cares for her and sometimes she just cries because there is very little she can do to make the pain stop, since they don't know why it's happening. We had visited them a couple times before, just shared quick scriptures, and a week ago I felt impressed to ask if they would listen to the lessons. They agreed. When I went with Sister Brady we had planned to teach the restoration. We never got past the first bullet point: God is your loving Heavenly Father.
I asked her "How do you know that God loves you?"
Instantly her eyes filled up with tears and she was silent for a few seconds.
"I've been thinking about that a lot this past week. And it's funny you ask that, because... I'm not sure he even does. I mean I know that He's there. But I have always struggled knowing that He loves me."
I read with her in Moses where Enoch asks "How is it that thou canst weep?"
I told her that I've had moments where I wonder the same thing, but I testified her that God does love her. That He knows her. That He isn't punishing her, but if she turns to Him then He can build her up. Her mother sat in a wheelchair in the corner, grinning from ear to ear as we testified of God's love. I looked her in the eye and told her that God sent us to here. That it wasn't planned for us to even come and teach her. We were initially there to check up on her mom and offer service, but God Himself was the one who prompted us to invite her to listen. He's reaching out to her. That's the message of Christmas. That's the point. That's what this is all about. God's love. He loves us infinitely. He loves us unconditionally. He loves us in the moments when we stray, and when we turn our back on Him, His arm is stretched out still. We were able to testify of the atonement of Jesus Christ- the very center of our message, and the very purpose of Christmas. Because God loves us He sent His son. That's not a fairytale, it's not just historical fact- it's eternal truth. Because of Christ we can overcome all. We can grow from our trails. We can turn ourselves around and act upon even the smallest fraction of faith, and the moment we do our lives can be flooded with the love of God. We begin to see small miracles. And the greatest miracle of all is that we can change, and become filled with hope.
Now, I don't know where things will go, if she will choose to act and come closer to Christ. I sense rebellion in her, she's been stubborn for quite some time. But I do know this:
God loves that woman. Immensely. He misses her. He wants her back home. He wants her happy. I know that because I can feel it in the room when we teach her. And this is why I'm doing this work, to do what He would have me do, to bring to pass the immortality, the eternal life, the great and marvelous work. This work is small simple miracles. It's small moments of a loving God reaching out to His children. And as much as I miss you all and wish to be with you and open u presents in our jammies, I know that there is nothing more I would rather be doing this Christmas than the very work of Christ.
I love you more than words can say,
I will see you Thursday.
- Sister Valdez
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