December 28th 2015

Hello everyone!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas and is getting ready to make some good goals for this New Year!

So first off my Christmas great we went to the beach and it was a cool 65 degrees basically all day which was super nice! we went with the elders to the beach to open Christmas presents it was really fun and nice and relaxing, then we went by a few members homes and got to skype which was awesome it was so fun to talk to you guys! I just miss and love you all so much!

We went to an awesome Christmas conf with the mission on Christmas Eve in Cambridge right by the temple. it was fun we watched videos that the mission made, and listened to our wonderful mission president he spoke on how to be consecrated to the Lord and how we have all eternity to enjoy ourselves so we need to work hard and do what we can to serve the Lord while we are here, it really made me have a desire to keep going especially when i felt a little home sick.

We also had a few trainings and one that really stuck out to me was about being transformational leaders. they taught us that its not just about teaching and baptizing but we are also here to help ourselves and our companions become converted. i really needed to hear this because i had been getting frustrated with my new comp because she has been serving in really slow areas and so she isn’t really used to working the way we do here and she wasn’t up to speed on the way things are done here but i realized through that training that i need to be more like our savior and be kind , caring and look out for her and her needs, and help her reach her potential.

This Sunday i gave a tlk in church on eternal life. i think it went really well... i wasn’t even nervous because there were only 30 people there. yup everyone is out of town or sick, so at the end of sacrament meeting president Abston (our bishop) got up and cancelled the rest of church! Everyone was shocked! It was pretty interesting but i think it was good there were a lot of people who were not feeling well and the classes would have been tiny!

well today we were running errands and sis Blackburn wanted to get some new running shoes so we went to the store and she was trying on shoes and then we went up to buy them and she didn’t have her wallet but she brought it into the store, we were the only ones in the store except while she was trying shoes on these two delivery men walked by... well we looked everywhere for the wallet but couldn’t find it so we think they might have taken it. so we have been calling people all day trying to cancel cards and stuff it’s kind of a pain, if those guys did steal it that would be super lame and karma is going to get to them! I mean stealing from a sister missionary... really... no cool

Well on a lighter note...

Key principle

One of my all-time favorite fables is about the wind and the sun

THE WIND and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger. Suddenly they saw a traveler coming down the road, and the Sun said: “I see a way to decide our dispute. Whichever of us can cause that traveler to take off his cloak shall be regarded as the stronger you begin.” So the Sun retired behind a cloud, and the Wind began to blow as hard as it could upon the traveler. But the harder he blew the more closely did the traveler wrap his cloak round him, till at last the Wind had to give up in despair. Then the Sun came out and shone in all his glory upon the traveler, who soon found it too hot to walk with his cloak on. KINDNESS AFFECTS MORE THAN SEVERITY

i think this is such a good reminder to spread sunshine and kill em with kindness.

Thank you all very much for your constant words of encouragement. It makes it so much easier to be here doing this work when i have support!

i love you all very much!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Also look up mystic pizza the movie it was filmed where i live!

And check out bostonmission.org 

Please let me know if anyone is not getting the emails and wants them

Emma good luck at your polo tournament this coming week!