"You're a mean one, Sister Muench!"

Sister Muench told me about how she and her brothers sing "you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch" to her dad but they would replace ‘Mr. Grinch’ with ‘Mr. Muench.’ So I've taken the liberty to randomly say "you're a mean one, Sister Muench" xD Yes, I think that I'm very funny :D Anyway, back to my weekly email...

Hello everyone!!! I love you!! Merry Christmas!!

I cannot wait to skype my family!!! 

Monday: Towards the end of the night I was stationed at the Christus at the front of the Visitor Center and I talked to this lady who was a non-member and gave her one of the stockings my mom made (she sent really cute little stockings for me to pass out that have a light the world card some candy and a testimony from some people in my ward in Draper) and she said that it meant so much to her especially because her husband had recently passed away etc. It was super nice to talk to her :) I love talking to people!!! It's so cool to see people come from all over to see the temple and the Christmas lights and to hear about their background and their life :) and I think we had a full moon today.. maybe it is tomorrow...

Tuesday: oh goodness... it was a very eventful day... so I started making minestrone soup last night but didn't have enough time to finish cooking it (the veggies weren't cooked all the way) before I went to the Visitors Center so I put it in the fridge. This morning I took out the pot and put it on the stove to finish cooking while I got ready and yes, I did stir it... but the food at the bottom still got burned and then I found out the next day when I tried a bite to see if it was salvageable. It wasn't. It was super bad because the whole thing tasted burned. So I had to throw a whole pot of soup away :'( and it made our apartment stink like smoke too.. and our clothes. and I didn't notice the smell on the clothes until half way to the Visitors Center. Luckily we weren't busy that day and my clothes mostly aired out by the end of the shift. Then we visited a less active who is the only member in her home (the mom) and we read 1st Nephi Chapter 1 and she really opened up to us. She said it was really hard to go to church alone and she said she'd try to come to church on Sunday (which she didn't :/) Then we went to see Helen Devore a really old lady who is very sick and finally got baptized after years and years. (Her children all are LDS and went on missions) and we're teaching her the lessons so she can go to the temple but we don't know if/when she'll be able to go :/ but we talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy (which was the theme for yesterday for the light the world calendar - I hope you all are participating ;)) Then we had dinner at the Brober's (Brother Broberg is the ward mission leader) and after we helped him and his family take treats to their neighbors and we got to talk to a Christian family who are non-members and gave them a light the world calendar and told them about the Christmas initiative.  Then we had a lesson with Tracy a recent convert who spoke with us on Sunday DEC 11. We taught her about the principles of Tithing and Fast Offerings. She is SO cute!! She's from Scotland so she has a Scottish accent :) and then we taught Tori another recent convert the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I also got my 12 days of Christmas package from my Phillips Grandparents with a story and present each day :) they are super cute!

Wednesday: So today wasn't necessarily as eventful as yesterday :) but while we were on our shift at the Visitors Center it got busy around 5:30 when our Christmas shift starts. We met a white lady from Zambia Africa and gave her a tour :) she filled out a referral for one of her co-workers! Oh yeah; actually as I'm going back through my journal to write this email it actually was eventful because I was boiling water to cook noodles and when I tried putting my shell noodles in 3 fell beneath the burner and Sister Muench said they'd be fine... but then they slowly turned black and burned and set of the smoke alarm.. so yeah... sister Muench must think I'm a terrible cook. At the Visitors Center we gave a tour to a group of Young Women and a group of primary kids and then a member girl and her non-member boyfriend. 

Thursday: ZONE CONFERENCE!!!! It was amazing! we talked about how to hear the Lord's voice, come unto Christ (and how) through 9 points: pray daily, scripture study, have faith in Christ, attend church to worship him, give service, be kind to others, forgive others, make and keep covenants and repent :) I challenge you all to think about what you can improve to hear the Lord's voice :) Then we talked about inspired questions, etc. and ate a wonderful lunch!! I finally got to experience being fed by Polynesians and they wanted to keep giving me more and more food... 0.0  But then we grabbed Chinese food for dinner before our shift at the Visitors Center and it was pouring rain when we got out of zone conference! Then we talked to this lady after the 8 pm performance and she is a non-member and filled out a referral card for her sister. I had an amazing experience chatting with a guy online who had fallen away from the church but now wanted to come back and was afraid to and I told him to not let fear hold him back from being happy and how through the Savior’s atonement we can be forgiven and helped him get info to go back to church :) 

Friday: Happy 1 month in the mission field!! We had Visitors Center training where we practiced our songs for our Christmas performance. We had cinnamon rolls and lots of yummy food! And I talked to this guy on the phone who sent in a referral to be taught by missionaries and he was so GOLDEN!!! So excited for him to be taught by missionaries :) he already wanted to be baptized into our church :) 

Saturday: Sister Muench fell off the treadmill this morning xD she's ok. Today was crazy!! We had over 2200 people today! I have to go but I love you!! Keep doing light the world!!! MERRY Christmas!!!