December 31, 2014 -- Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

Dear Family,

​P-day we stood in 3 states at one time. Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. It was pretty fun! 

Christmas eve and Christmas were GREAT!  It seems like yours was too!  For Christmas Eve we went caroling to less-actives and investigators for a couple of hours, then we had dinner with the Cosgriff family.  They have a bunch of little kids, and they wanted to read the Christmas story out of Luke, so I suggested they try the stuffed animal nativity.  They found it to be a good way to keep the kids entertained, but perhaps a bit irreverent.  The little boy was acting as Herod, and when the dad read the scripture about Herod's wicked decree, he yelled, "Destroy the Christ Child!"  So loud!  Haha it was pretty funny! That's him below :)

​Santa played Joseph!

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We woke up and had breakfast and opened presents (YOU ALL ARE THE BEST! My favorite gifts were the book from Tad Callister, the candy, the pajamas, and the clothes) with a darling family the Johnsons, then went home and did weekly planning, then skyped at the Staffords (SO FUN!) and played games with them (like baskethead, pictured below), then ate dinner with the Mills.  I absolutely loved it!  

Anyway!  The next day we had District Meeting and that was good, then afterward we were on our way to an appt and I felt the impression to go finding at an apt complex before we went to the appt.  We knocked a door and met a grouchy old lady, and were about to walk away, but then her next-door neighbor was walking out so we talked to her.  Her name was Miranda, she's 20, and she knew some LDS girls in high school, and she seemed really interested.  So we taught her a very thorough Restoration lesson on her porch (thank goodness it wasn't too cold) and committed her to read 3 Nephi 11.  We came the next day with a team-up and met her boyfriend David.  They're not married (yet:) but have been dating for many years, and they have a little baby together who is 3 months old.  So we started asking about her reading and she said, "I read 3 Nephi 11 three times, and I really liked it so I began at the Introduction and I'm already in 1 Nephi 10!"  In one day!  We asked her what she feels and she said she feels the Spirit strongly pulling her towards it.  Then we watched the Restoration DVD and she liked that as well.  After I thought we were about done, but Sister Loper, thank goodness, asked David what he thought of all this.  The room got really quiet and he looked hard at the ground, and said that he had a friend who years before had shared this with him.  He said he thought and prayed about it for 8 months, and then when his friend moved to UT he forgot about it.  As he spoke the spirit in the room was SO strong, it was like he knew it was true.  But he kept saying, "I just don't know though!"  And we told him that he CAN know by reading and praying, and so they agreed to do that.  It was so cool!  Sunday they couldn't come to church cause Miranda had to take a test, but she's been staying in touch with us so hopefully everything works out for Miranda and David! 

 Sunday I woke up with a bad cold, and I still have it a bit but it's ok!  We also taught Paige, and the lesson went well, she says she's continuing to read and pray.  She couldn't make it to church because of back pain which was a bummer (cause there will always be something!)

Also, Abe gave me testimonies to put in my Books of Mormon and I've given them to a few investigators and the Spirit comes strong whenever they pause to read them. It's super cool.  Thank you so much Abraham!

Thanks family for your love and encouragement -- it means the world!    

Love, Hermana Collier