Little Dot's Grand Adventures: The impatient Whitney. . .

Christmas is in 3 days!

The most Christmassy thing I did: um well yesterday we had a great Christmas message. We shared He is the Gift and then had a discussion about how he truly is the ultimate gift. And how as we live the Gospel joyfully and remember Christ in our lives it becomes a part of who we are and through it we find our true selves, our divine nature, our individual worth.

Tell us about your lessons and/or spiritual experiences this week:

We have had great lessons with E and some of the members as we have meals with them. We've mostly have shared He is the Gift long with Alma 7:10-13.

10 And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions andtemptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succorhis people according to their infirmities.

13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.

14 Now I say unto you that ye must repent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness.

Any new investigators or potentials?

We have two new investigators and they are married and both from India. We are meeting with them today with E and we are going to talk to them about the Book of Mormon and testify of it.

We have found some potentials this week while tracting but no new gators. We gave one lesson to this guy and he had a lot of questions of the soul. We answered the ones we could and then the guy told us how we were so boxed in and how our minds were so small because of what we were forced to believe. He went off saying how he doesn't believe there is a God because of science and he doesn't believe Jesus Christ was the Son of God and how there was no possible way that that could be true. Right then I felt a strong prompting to share Alma 30:44 the last part:

"yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."

So I shared that and testified of how there is a God and He loved him. Everything truly does denote that there is a God. That even though he thinks that we don't know very much because of what we have been "forced to believe" I have found that my mind has been opened and I know way more than what I would have if I didn't have the knowledge that there is a God. I don't remember all I said but the Spirit was super strong.

How about food?

Sister Dawbin made us homemade Café Rio! I MISS CAFE RIO!!! So having homemade Cafe Rio was SOOOOOOOOO good!!!!!!!!!!! There is a Chipotle here and we went there on Saturday with the Senior Sisters but it still isn't the same.

Well we went to this dinner and they had this stuff called brown bread. Brown bread comes in a can just like raviolis come in a can. It is presliced and all you have to do is open the can, put it on a plate, and heat it up and it tastes worse than black licorice and it is super soggy. Some people really like it, but not me. I feel bad when I don’t like the food I am given and I try everything. Then we had Turkey pot pie at another member's home and it was FILLED with PEAS! (maybe she’ll grow to like peas by the time she comes home). And then she fed us some pumpkin bread with raisins in it. Then she fed us this dried apricot pie that she got out of her "Amish Cookbook". At another home we had ham and mashed potatoes with gravy (that was so good) they also gave us spiced crab apples, homemade pickled stuff, mixed veggies, and then this butternut squash thing that had the center taken out and had the liquid in the center that was syrup and brown sugar. It wasn’t my favorite.

Any more crazy snow storms?

It has been pretty cold but sunny. We have had a few days of rain.

Amazing moments?

I think the most inspiring moment/ amazing moment is just being able to feel the Spirit work through me and being able to truly be an instrument in His hands and be His mouth piece.

Are you getting closer to the ward members?

I love just being able to get to know the members and grow close to them and they begin to feel like family which makes sense, since we are all from the same heavenly family :)

Awkward and/or scary moments?

So while we were tracting yesterday, we walked down this long driveway to this house. We knocked on their door and waited for a long time but no one answered so we started walking back and saw this big patch of ice. So naturally we walked on it and were trying to brake it and well it broke and our feet went in pretty deep and we almost fell down so we were laughing about it when all of the sudden we here "Who are you? What do you want?" Well, turns out the lady at the house was home the whole time and was just avoiding us but when she heard us laughing she came out. But as soon as we said missionaries she hurried and went back inside.

We decided to go check out this less active before an appointment and when we were getting out of the car we saw one of our potentials pull up so we got to go talk to her and help her bring in her stuff.

Have you opened any of your gifts yet?

Just the muffin mix. Why? Well I picked it up and could tell it had something powdery in it and so I opened it to see what it was.

When she send pictures I noticed a brick of post its on her desk which looked suspiciously like the once that were wrapped as part of the package from her grandparents…

Okay, okay I might have opened Grandma Taylor's too... Thanks for all of the awesome stuff! I will put it to good use.

Has Sister Bee opened any of hers?

She has opened a few. There wasn't a wait til Christmas on it ;)

Oh I picked up the package from Grandma Shauna from the post office and when I got it the box had been opened. Yeah they left the little pink slip in the door and had us come pick it up and open it there to make sure the contents weren’t damaged. Thanks for the cute skirt and sweater! Also, Chad, Michele, Taylor and Kailee – Thanks for the book and chocolate!

This lady in our apartment complex has this huge collection of Christmas villages! The picture doesn’t even show half of it! It reminded me of Grandma Shauna.

How is my room looking?

Why would it look any different than when you left?

I don't know maybe Chel decided she needed another closet . (little does she know…)

I have been studying the Atonement a lot lately and the people involved and did you know that Pilate's wife pretty much asked him to let Jesus go and that she had a dream about him? Look up the song "Pilate's Wife" I think it is by the Nashville Tribute Band. Oh also by them look up the song "Soldier and Thief"

Merry Christmas!!!!!!
Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Pilate's Wife"

"Soldier and Thief" >Nashville Tribute Band

"Savior, Redeemer of My Soul"- Vocal Point