Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places: Week 77 - Florence, SC

Hello Family and Friends!

We meet once again on this stormy P-Day in Florence! You know, it's been a most interesting week! No complaints from me. Basically to sum everything up, we've been finding people to teach. It's hard to do during the holidays because all of the people who are interested are telling us to come after the holiday season. But we keep going! We are ready to find the elect!

Speaking of elect, Brother Owens is doing great! He's still ready to be baptized on January 17th! We've been doing "mini lessons" with him over the phone since he's in California until January 10th. He's so great! He forgot his Book of Mormon at home and so he ordered a new one to read while he was gone. He called us a few days ago and said "I got my Book of Mormon and it's from 1840! It was one of the last ones that Joseph Smith printed!" We're pretty sure it's one of the replicas but still! He just loves it! We're excited to keep working with him!

Christmas was pretty good! On Christmas Eve, we saw a few members and then we were on "lock down" where we were in from 5 pm to the end of the night. We had some good times with that! We watched "The Testaments" and also gargled "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains" with salt water because Sister Davis and I were starting to get sore throats. I recorded it for y'all to watch when I get home. It is hilarious!

We were booked with appointments with members on Christmas which was great! We started out with Skyping of course! It was great to see my family again! Then we went caroling to like all of the members in our area! It was so awesome! We really had a good Christmas overall!

Well, unfortunately Sister Gardner has been pretty sick these past few days so we've been staying in to help her recover. Hopefully she recovers soon! But here's a cool story! We went to CVS to ask a pharmacist what medicine would be best for Sister Gardner to take so she could get feeling better. When we went there, we saw Hana Jackson! Back story time! Sister Clinger and I met her there in mid-November while getting prescriptions for some medical conditions. While we were there, we found out that she was a less-active member living in my area in Marion! We got her information but we weren't able to visit with her before I got emergency transferred to Florence. She saw us and gave us a hug. She asked where we've been and I explained that I got ET'd. She was ok with it and we told her that the Marion Elders would go visit her soon. We'll probably go follow up with her at the CVS in a week or so to see if they've been able to see her though. She is so cool! I know that the church needs her in Marion!

I can't believe that it's the end of 2014. So many great things happened this past year! I'm looking forward to 2015 and for the new beginning that I'm about to have. I watched the "Because of Him" video (easter.mormon.org) yesterday and it talks about how it's all because of Jesus Christ that we have so many new opportunities. I know that because of Him, I get to have a fresh start, a clean slate. I don't have to worry about dwelling on the past! I can move forward. I will do as the Lord directs Lot and his family in the book of Genesis, "Look not behind thee" (Genesis 19:17). I hope that y'all will do the same in this new year!

I guess I'll talk to y'all next year! I love y'all! Have a safe New Years! Have a blessed week!

- Sister Amy Christensen