Updates from Hermana Goudie: Feliz Navidad! :) Y Ano Nuevo!

I hope yall had a great Christmas :) Its always fun spending Christmas here as a missionary and sharing the good news of the gospel. The best part of it for me though is being able to Skype my family. Man can I just tell you that I have the best family in the world :)

So we were at the Mcarthurs house one night eating dinner and at the end I shared the scripture at the end. I read 2 Nephi 26:24 talking about the love of Christ and how he gave His life for us and then I passed out the He is the gift pass along cards to them. They have 2 little kids and I was passing each of them a card and when I did so I said, "I have some He is the Gift cards for yall" and both the little kids at the same time go, "GIFT CARDS?????" haha it was hilarious :) I had to apologize that I didnt get them gift cards but it was good reminder to me about what we should celebrate at Christmas which is the birth of Jesus Christ and that he is the greatest gift. Even greater than gift cards ;)

We also met this super cool guy, ben, this last week. He had been coming to church because a member invited him and the Elders said they were teaching him but I guess someone had told them to hold off a bit on him. But bro. plumb was insistent on someone teaching him and we told him we thought the elders were. Well we saw ben and church and I just had to go up and talk to him and when I did he was standing right next to bro. plumb and so he was like well ben, have you met the missionaries yet? and he was like nope. and then bro. plumb said well here they are. they would love to teach the gospel to you. just like that ;) oops. sorry elders. but right there and then I told him what we do as missionaries and how we help others come closer to Christ and make promises with God through baptism and he said he was interested and so we set up a time for the next day to meet. we met the next day at the church with the member who had initially invited him and taught him the restoration and committed him to baptism. it was awesome! He is getting baptized on the 17th :) super cool! I love being a misisonary. we told him to read and pray about the book of mormon and joseph smith and we met with him again last night at the plumbs with one of his friends that he went to school with who is a recent convert of the spanish elders and had a bomb lesson. bryant, the recent convert, bore testimony of the restoration to him and it was so neat to hear how simple and strong his testimony was. Sometimes I forget that it is just bearing testimony of the simple principles of the gospel of jesus christ that brings the spirit the most. but ben said he got an answer to his prayers about joseph smith and is still set to go for the 17th. I love russellville and the members. they help us out so much! :) We wouldnt have so much success here if it werent for the awesome amazing members.

Our district leader had us instruct at a district meeting this week about making the book of mormon personal. Well I figured to best way to do it was apply personal experiences so I used teaching gymnastics in the backyard with savanna to helping our investigators have personal experiences in the book of mormon. I promise it worked people. It might have been a far stretch but I think they got the point ;) So that was new and exciting ;)

On christmas eve we got a call from the plumbs saying that they have 200 gallons of milk they needed to get rid of! so we got stuck with 25 gallons and were las lecheras de la iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias for a day ;) the members of the spanish branch were very grateful for it :) it was a great way to share the gospel too. there was even a scripture to go along with it- 2 nephi 9:50 "buy milk without money and price" look it up peeps. its totally applies!

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!! man that was just a great day! We went to sis. ashleys for breakfast and she got us the cutest pj's and cards, then we stopped by sis. collins who gave us yummy lotion and quiche (I almost spelled it keesh on her thank you card...), then we went to Earls for a minute and he gave us a little gift and we gave him a mug with hot chocolate and told him he cant use it for coffee ;) I love that old man ;) he is so silly. then we went to the smiths and skyped mi familia which was the best part of the day :), then we had a dinner at their house, then went to Laporsias and got a cute christmas letter from Laraneesia, then went to Bishops, then to pres. hernandez, and our lesson cancelled on us, but we were super busy the rest of the time! I cant believe how much the same my family is but how parker seems so old and how rosie is talking so much! it was so good to talk to everyone :)

and then after all the fun, it was back to working... and we had to go on BIKES :( but good thing Erika gave us lovely leg warmers and my family gave me a nice new jacket and gloves so we are staying nice and warm :) Something funny that sis. stevens pointed out to me this week is that it would probably be best to tell people that we live on Boston and F street instead of the the other way around. I guess it isnt very missionary approriate to respond to the question where do yall live with "Oh we live on F 'n boston." I thought that was pretty funny ;)

Yesterday the Plumbs saved us from driving around in the cold. They had us over for lunch and a lesson with ben and bryant and then drove us around and introduced us to more of their friends who are ready to hear the gospel. I love that family :) We are pretty much going to be living at their place this week. They offered 3 different days with meals to teach investigators and recent converts in their home this week. So I am excited and forever grateful for their kindness and charity.

Well... the gospel is true. Read the Book of Mormon. Go to church. Say your prayers. I love you all!

Hermana Goudie

There was a live nativity on main street and they had CAMELS!

District Meeting! We did a white elephant. :)

Danielas eyes are closed but this little girl is stinkin adorable! These are some of our favorite investigators. This was at the Christmas Eve branch party.