Its almost Christmas!!‏

HELLO MY BEAUTIFUL FAMILY! Guess what! I will see your faces in 11 days :))))))))))

Man have I told yall how much I adore the Christmas season?

Dang its always been one of my favorite times of year. Christmas music, Christmas food, Christmas kindness, Christmas gifts, Christmas love, Christmas cheer its all amazing and I love it. 

But my absolute favorite thing about Christmas is the focus on Christ part. Keep Christ in Christmas right? Everyone remembers why we celebrate Christmas and what we can do to recenter our lives. Basically everyone tries to come closer to Christ! And heyo we can help over here! :) But really. It is so awesome to see everyone have a little bit more kindness, more compassion, and more Christ in their hearts to prepare for the Christmas season. Also everyone loves Christmas! 

Sister Hunter and I have switched up our finding tactics to fit in with this Christmas season. We have been CAROLING! Yay! It is so fun. I'll try to snap a picture next time we go but basically this is what we look like. 

Mission clothes - but not December clothes. Its more like June! It has been a wonderfully warm winter here. Heavenly Father is just telling me that He loves me because He knows I love it warm :) it has been about 70-80 degrees all day. usually 79 in the day and then it will go down to 72 at night. It is the most wonderful thing!

happy smiling faces :)

Sister Hunter's green Ukulele

Christmas music - we usually go with Silent Night or O Come All Ye Faithful

Can't forget our name tags! - Our name tags are most important after our voices! 

This is what happens. Its exactly like tracting but we sing instead! 

Walk up to the door, - Knock knock knock - waaaiiiit.. you see them through the windows, SMILE, and as soon as they are about to open the door we start singing! They can usually tell we are carolers because of our ukulele and music.

But when we start singing their faces really light up and they are so happy to have carolers singing to them on their porch. Caroling really spreads Christ's love and brings the Spirit of God and Christmas into homes. Its an incredible experience. While we are singing most people don't know what to do so they try to read our name tags. After we finish singing, the people clap and thank us and are just happy. 7 or 8 out of 10 will ask us what church we are from and they are the ones that start the conversation! Its amazing. We will have a really lovely pleasant conversation about the Christmas season or church. Then we will always share A Savior Is Born card with them and they are very friendly and not put off at all. Many of them say that they will watch the video. ITS MIRACULOUS AND SO UPLIFTING. It makes us so happy and its so fun. It really boosts our spirits. 

Its also super productive because after the holidays, we are planning to go back and follow up to see if they watched the video and if they have questions and interested in learning more. It is a wonderful tool. Also the videos the Church puts out are inspiring yea? Man. just amazing. 

I JUST LOVE CHRISTMASTIME

Dang something that was so fun this week was that we got to try LANDBOARDING. 

Sister Hunter and I had just finished meeting with someone and had an appointment in about 40 minutes with someone else that was really close in the area. We were driving and saw a store that said they sold BlueBell ice cream. 

Now you have to understand. This is a big deal because this would be most unusual. BlueBell ice cream is the most coveted ice cream in the south for its glorious taste and deliciousness. 

Buuuuuuuuut Bluebell ice cream is no longer sold in the Louisiana area because of serious health safety concerns with a batch of ice cream that had rodents gotten into it and gross stuff. So its not sold here. But this store said it was there so we had to stop!! They didn't sell it. It was an old poster. Such a let down. 

Buuuuuuuut there was a park right next to it! Abita Springs Park, its beautiful. So we went into there and we saw these men longboarding but they were like pushing themselves along with a plunger on an extremely long stick. So of course we had to talk to them to know what the heck they're doing. 

So we yell at them and they stop and they tell us they are LANDBOARDING and they ask us if we want to try.

UM OF COURSE. 

Dang so basically its paddleboarding on land. So longer than a longboard more like a surfboard then instead of pushing with your foot you push with a paddle with a rubber thing on the end! Its really fun! I loved it. I want to look it up when I get home. The guys were really cool to. We met Mark, TK, and Tad and they are in like 30's/40's. It was so cool to talk to them! They are just older chill surfer dudes from Louisiana. It was a great time. 

Land boarding with the plunger sticks

Mark's GoPro picture from Landboarding!

We also had our 2/3 Christmas party. It was the Stake Christmas party. Covington is in the Denham Springs Zone but New Orleans Stake. Soo guess what.

 YA GIRL GOT TO GO TO N'OLEANS. 


It was super cool! We are on the 'North Shore' (above Lake Pontchartrain) and so we have to cross a 26 mile bridge across the lake. It was beautiful and really made me miss the water and ocean. The stake party was just like a giant missionary reunion with members there! All the missionaries in the stake went and it was so fun. I met lots more missionaries and got to put faces to names. I made lots more missionary friends and its crazy to think that the friends I am making are the friends I will have for the rest of my mission. It is so fun to talk to all these people! Man the stake party was so fun.

At the Stake Christmas party. they had real animals everywhere!

But man I miss yall mucho during this season but its still a good time. Thank you for all the letters and pictures! I love it so much. Also I have gotten a couple Christmas cards from the Belnap clan and it makes me so so so happy! I have them pinned above my bed on my Christmas tree so I can look at them everyday. It makes me sooooo happy to start opening the 12 days of Christmas yesterday!!! I got stickers from Audge yesterday and I'm so excited to open them :)

GUYS 

Merry merry merry Christmas and I get to talk to you so soon :))))) I love yall so much! and hey send me letters! 

I LAVA YOUUU

Sister Sades



Trying Beignets for the first time at Cafe Du Monde!
(Me not Sister Hunter) Its just like mama's scones