It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

 

Hello Family!!

I feel like I should be wishing you a Merry Christmas, and then I realize we haven't even had Thanksgiving yet...woops.

It is all Christmas here at Temple Square. The nativities are beginning to spring up, there are Christmas trees all around us and it snowed yesterday! Yes I survived the snow. Nothing has really stuck yet, on the way to the square yesterday morning there was a thin layer of snow/frost but that was about it. But while we had square in the afternoon yesterday it was snowing, it was so pretty when it fell between the temple and the lights, it just glowed and made the temple look really pretty!

We had our Christmas Training for Relief Society yesterday. That was fun. Our schedules will be changing the day after Thanksgiving because we begin the Holiday hours on the square. The biggest thing is that my P-day will no longer be in the evenings, it will be jumped to the mornings like normal missions? I don't know but I am excited, everything on the square changes for Christmas, there are more assignments to accommodate for the large amounts of people that will be on the square. There is one assignment that will be added this year because we have such an amazing and inspired mission president. President Poulsen wants sisters to be on the square caroling during the evenings. So fun! There will be three different locations where a district will be scheduled to stand and sing for about an hour. The assignment is called Sing and Smile. :) We are super excited for that, Sister Humble and I sing basically all the time. She has a tendency to put her conversation to the tune of a hymn, so fun!

Speaking of singing, Savior of the World also opens next week. I am so excited, and I am even more excited because Elder Clark, who I believe is the area authority over us or something, is doing all he can to involve the TMSQ (Temple Square) sisters. He has given us tickets so that we can attend and really know what it is so we can tell visitors and our investigators about it. And each performance will be opened by a companionship with a short introduction and a prayer, then at the end of the performance we will come back to greet the guests as they leave. Also they are now putting a referral card within the program that people can fill out if they want to learn more about the church or if they have a friend they want to refer. And we will be able to get all of those referrals. So exciting! I love how Christmas just opens up so many opportunities to share the gospel with people. I can't wait to see what miracles are awaiting this Christmas season.

Miracle:

1. such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.

2. a wonder; marvel.

Miracles do happen everyday, and it is so strengthening to witness and be a part of. The last two weeks of the Transfer, in relation to teaching, had been very slow. The square was dead, no one was calling in or coming on chat, and none of our investigators were answering their phones. It literally seemed like everyone had just jumped off the face of the earth. For the longest time we just couldn't understand it. Before the transfer President talked with us about 'slow seasons' and about how it was  normal to have a slow time every once in a while, but if it persisted then something needs to change. "If you keep doing the same thing every day and expect a different outcome, it will never happen. In order to get a different outcome you have to change something." So every single companionship study since the start of the transfer we talked about what we needed to change so that we could find people to teach. We made what we call a macro plan for all of our goals for the transfer and we have been very good everyday at working towards those goals but we were never able to find new people to teach. It was a very slow two weeks of us doing everything we could to teach people. So at the end of last week we came up with this project, the gratitude project. We challenged each other that we were going to go through the entire week and not ask Heavenly Father for anything, not one thing. Because really, we had been praying since the beginning of the transfer that we would be able to find new investigators, so Heavenly Father already knows what we want. So instead we decided to focus on what we already have and what we are grateful for. Let me say, in the beginning it was really hard. It's funny how used we get to just asking Heavenly Father for the things we need, not that we aren't grateful but maybe because it's more of just a habit.

It was such a cool experience, all week long we were able to receive revelation about the importance of gratitude. I mean when you think of it, you should be able to have a conversation with your Father without having to ask Him something. And even better we learned that gratitude is what heals everything, it cures pride, selfishness, and negativity. It just makes you a happier being. And since the beginning of the week when we started this the blessings have just come and we have seen miracles everywhere. Day 1 we found new investigators and were able to get them on date in that first contact. Day 2 and 3 we were able to get them to meet with the local missionaries and have their date confirmed and now we are helping them all get to church this weekend.

I now understand why and am so grateful that I had to give a talk on gratitude like a million times when I was back home, but I am even more grateful that I am now seeing the importance of gratitude in our lives and the power that comes from it.

The square is literally still dead and will probably be like that until the lights come on so I don't have really any stories of people who have come to visit us. I did get to give a tour to a guy's cutest nieces, they were 5 and 2 years old. The mother wasn't religious, but the uncle was a member and the little girls had started to ask questions about who Jesus was. So the mom allowed the uncle to bring them to TMSQ so they could learn about Him. It really felt like I was back in primary :) We took them to the New Testament paintings in the North Visitor Center and went through them and taught them about who Jesus was. It was super fun, we were able to turn it into a game where I had the girls guess who was Jesus in each painting we walked to. We ended by taking them up to see the Christus, when we got up to the top of the ramp where you can see Him the youngest said "it's Jesus! I really like Him" :) Yep I still love little ones.

For P-day today we had our zone activity and we did some exploring, we went to the cemetery where all the prophets are buried and looked around. We found John Taylor, President McKay, Hinckley, Joseph F. Smith and Fielding Smith. We also found Sister Monson and Mary Fielding Smith.

It was super fun and freezing, it started raining while we were there, I'm starting to see just how gray Utah is in the winter. Afterwards we drove to a really cozy cafe and got some hot coco and muffins. It was fun and tasty.

Yep, that was my day. I love you all and hope you are having fun where ever you might be. :)

XOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger