Hey Everybody!!!

Hope yall are ready for Christmas and everyone has a Happy one! It's coming fast! Thank you all so much for all you do. Love yall!

The baptisms are coming along pretty well, one of our BCD's (baptismal commitment date) didn't come to church so we are still working with her on telling her parents who are very opposed to the LDS church. She will come along though. The others came, we taught one of them the Word of Wisdom and she was so willing to quit drinking tea. It was awesome!

Christmas Skype:

-I am hoping again this year we can skype, we have it set up to do it around 12:30 our time. So I think that would be 11:30 yalls time. We can't call a few nights before to figure it out so here is the plan, please let me know if there are any concerns with that.

Do you have any ties?:

-This saturday after doing the chaplain work we went and did some tracting as we were doing it we saw a yard sale and walked up to look for neat items. I went to the lady whose house it was and asked, "excuse me ma'am, do you have any ties?" .....she responded, "I am putting everything up right now, I can't talk"....with a puzzled look I asked, " So you are not selling anything right now?"....she said, "I am really busy trying to take care of all this, I can't talk."....understanding the whole time she thought I was trying to talk to her about the church. Finally, I came out and asked plainly something along the lines of.."I am trying to purchase ties, do you want my money?" Then she had her lightbulb moment and realized what I was asking and we got a really good deal on some nice ties. haha funny little experience! As we walked away I thought maybe she misunderstood me and thought I was asking for "tithes" haha Elder Franchino and I had a good laugh about it.

Surprise Christmas Basket:

-Our incredible relief society got us a basket full of goodies on Sunday. They had all come together to make it. We got soap, delicious bubble gum flavored toothpaste, candy, laser pointers!! Even a really nice "ALABAMA" t-shirt! Homemade fleece blankets, awesome stuff!! We were so stoaked! So grateful for super kind members. It is really true what my missionary trainer told me, "if you show them love, they will show you love"

-Sunday my heart was so full of tenderness and love for the whole ward. Something in my heart just opened and felt like it was all too big to fit in my little ole chest. I am so thankful to be here I love this ward, I love this work. I love the Lord. He is so good and so tender to us.

Blessing:

-Last night we went to see the "Awesome" Family again! Ahh!! I lvoe them they are so awesome!!! Sis. Awesome isn't feeling top notch and is going to the doctor Friday to get something checked out. She asked for a Priesthood blessing and Bro kelley our Ward mission leader gave it to her and we assisted. The Spirit was strong and the things said were very moving. It was another tender experience. I love that family so much, I can't wait to see them get sealed in the temple next year this time. It will be so incredibly special.

12 Days of Christmas:

-Little does Elder Franchino know....I have a surprise for him...I am putting together a 12 days of Christmas thing for him. I am really excited! Still trying to come up with some little goodies.

Christmas Party x2:

-This week we have our ward Christmas Party and also our Mission Christmas party. I am really looking forward to it all. It's going to be great! We will spend pretty much all day in Tallahassee.

Biking in Rain:

-So it is really warm here still, it is finally supposed to cool down but the last while has been really warm during the days. Like were talking 80 degrees. But Saturday we got caught in the rain about a mile and a half away from home. We came strapped though, we had coats, pancho's, umbrellas, etc. We were walking to the apartment and holding the bikes but decided to speed up the process by riding our bikes with our umbrellas. Actually it was really really fun!!! I still got totally soaked though!

BCD'S:

-We should have 2 on the 29th of December and another on the 5th of January! Yippee!!

Things are great, the Lord is good. I love yall!

-Elder West