December 8 - 'Tis the Season!

Goooooooooooood morning!

It has been quite the festive, eventful week! I can't wait to tell you all about it. :)

You know how I told you about Belmont's extravagance? Well, these people are lovely and quite wealthy. They tend to make an event hard to forget. :) On the last night I spent with Sister Fernando, we went to the wreath-making activity. Turns out it's the biggest event of the year. Can you believe that? Wreath-making. It was a combined event for both wards, the building was decked to the nines with garland and lights and the nativity and huge wooden cutouts with lights behind them to look like silhouettes and trays and trays of delicious food. . . Also, the gym floor was completely covered in brown paper, and there must have been about 40 tables lined in there, with ribbons galore and most of all, pine branches.

So, I didn't realize this before, but wreath-making isn't decorating a wreath with a bow and pine-cones. No, it's taking a metal circle and a honking tree and cutting and binding until you have your own fat, jolly wreath. Georgia Sundahl and I made a beautiful one!!!! And poked ourselves a million times, but you know, it was worth it. :) The best part? There were about 50 non-members there! Talk about prime time for sharing the gospel!

The next day was transfer meeting. It's strange. Now Sister Platt, Sister Fernando, and Sister Standerfer are all in my zone. That's three companions. I'm really making my way through everyone. Haha. Transfer meeting was amazing, of course!!!! I cried so hard. For the first time ever, I had a companion go home. Two of them. Sister Hoellein and Sister Godoy. :'( Sister Hobbs went home, too, and a number of other sisters I've come to love. Their testimonies were touching. Then of course, President Packard stood and spoke. WOW. He told the story of the month of miracles from his point of view. There was hardly a dry eye by the time he was done. We all have a bigger sense of the Lord's vision for this mission. We're going to do great things here, because of Him. This is HIS work.

After I took millions of photos and ran around saying goodbye, I finally found my new companion! Sister Standerfer! She's amazing! I can't even tell you how amazing she is! She's from Snowflake, Arizona. She's happy and has a Disney Princess voice and she's so much fun. I am so blessed to be serving with someone so wonderful, especially for the holiday season! We're already the best of friends, and we've set a bunch of goals that we're determined to achieve!

Friday night we had an amazing experience attending the Messiah. Except here they do it differently. The soloists and orchestra practice for months, and everyone else just shows up! If you show up, you grab the music and you just sing. The people here in the Cambridge stake know how to sing. It was so much fun and so powerful and wonderful!!!!

SATURDAY, back to the extravagance, was 2 Christmas parties. I think they always celebrate here. We're constantly preparing for the next huge event. There was a party in the first ward and a party in the second. There was this big Nativity set, everyone dressed up like they were from Christ's time, and the Primary acted out the Christmas Story for us. :) :) It was so fun, and we were able to set goals and get to know the members better!

One last thing to tell you about. I hope you all got the chance to watch the Christmas devotional last night, because it was superb! We had the opportunity to see it at a member's home. The Boaz's are so fun! They have two little boys that just melt your heart. One of them, Ean, dragged most of his bedding out to the couch and spent the first 20 minutes constructing the perfect, most comfortable place to sit. Once he was finally situated, he hopped right back up and ran back to his room to grab more blankets. He promptly threw them on top of us, along with a good amount of squashy pillows so we could become comfortable, too. And then he made a final trip to his room to grab Sister Standerfer and I each a stuffed animal so we wouldn't be too lonely. It was the cutest thing! Children are so tender-hearted!

Alright, I'll stop telling you all the details! :) Thanks for everything. I love being a missionary! It's the best calling in the world!

Oooh, I have pivotal week this week. NINE MONTH MARK. Half-way, hump day! And my birthday! Should be fun! Shout out to STEPHEN, who is opening his MISSION CALL this week, too!!!!!!!!

Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Merkley
MBM Missionary