Yep, it was Christmas.

First of all, I would like to tell everyone that I ran over my first animal this week in the car and it was a possum. Opossum? Whatever it is, I hit it. (PS--roadkill is literally EVERYWHERE here so I'm shocked I didn't hit anything ever prior to this.)

It was so AWESOME to talk to y'all on Christmas! Ellie looks like 25 without braces so that's weird and Bailey looks the same (sorry Bai). Can't even imagine what y'all will look like in 14 more months!

Okay Georgia is so weird because in Utah we get HEAPS of snow, but here we get heaps of rain that nearly kill me when we are driving down the roads. It literally comes down in buckets so hard (not an exaggeration), I've never seen anything like it. There were major flood warnings this week!

We officially got to meet Helen Samuel (the Samuel's long lost daughter in Idaho) who we've been told for the last 3 months looks and acts exactly like Sister Russell. They are definitely twins!

Christmas Eve was the BEST! The Cahill's (Snellville Ward Bishop) spoiled us rotten... Actually the Snellville ward in general spoiled us rotten this Christmas. We have an entire 3'x3' cabinet in our kitchen filled to the brim with sweets and treats and candy and now i just want to throw up and pull out all my teeth. 

Christmas Day was killer... Obvi we got to Skype :) and then we went with the Elders and Kate to the hospital to go carol to the patients there! This was by far the most rewarding Christmas activity i think I've ever done. We met so many awesome people who were so grateful to have visitors on Christmas... One man in particular sat and cried at his father's bedside as we sang "Silent Night" to them and afterward he looked up at us with tears streaming down his face and said "Thank you so much, you really have no idea how much this means to us." We had the opportunity to pray with them right there in the room and the spirit was so strong! it was by far one of the most powerful experiences I've had on a mission yet. I'm thankful for the power of song and the power of the spirit!

*Side note: saw the most McDreamy of all McDreamies doctor....not important*

Later Christmas night, we had a lesson  scheduled with a J-Dub (because they are strange and don't celebrate Christmas.. or any holiday for that matter) but unfortunately it fell through :( #classic

Since we have less than 30 miles left for the last 5 days of the month on our car, we trekked it up so much the day after Christmas. it was about 80 degrees and the most humid day I've seen yet THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. It was so hot. But while we were out walking around, we met a young man named Terry who was playing basketball. We stopped to talk to him a little bit about what missionaries do and asked if we could share a message with him. He told us that he's the only Christian in a family full of Muslims and he just moved here a month ago from New Jersey so it's been a tough adjustment. He feels very alone in his family with his Christian beliefs and had so many questions about our purpose here on earth and where we are going after this life. It was so cool to testify to him that we knew the answers to those questions and they could also be answered in the Book of Mormon. We got his number and gave him Alma 34 to read from the Book of Mormon and Sister Russell gave him her Bible so he could cross reference and stuff since he only has the Quran laying around at home. Well we invited him to church, found him a ride and got a solid commitment from him to come the next morning! Buttttt.... when we called to confirm that night, a very VERY unfriendly man answered the phone that was definitely not Terry. So we now have no way to contact Terry and Sister Russell's bible was stolen. :( Moral of the story: don't give away your bibles to rando's off the skreet. 

****Skreet (n): a word used in a Southern English dialect to describe the pavement on which one drives. (Other words used in the same dialect include skrong, axe (ask) and skrengf.)****

Sunday was great! SHENELLE IS OFFICIALLY ON DATE FOR JANUARY 16TH!!!! Prayer works guys.

Okay that's all we got this week... hope y'all had a merry Christmas, and have a happy new year!
Make good resolutions and strive to be better this year than you were last year!

xo,

Sister Lawson