Walk With Jesus, Dude: Christmas & Finding Joyce

This week has been a fun and tiring week! We had two parties on Christmas. One was hosted by one of our branch members for all the missionaries in the KL zone - the food was incredible. Haha, and the other was a Christmas party/farewell for one of the young men going on a mission this week. They were both so much fun! There was so much food I almost couldn't take it though. I started getting sick on Christmas, and the last two days I've kind of been out of commission from that; so no other news since then. :)

BUT the experience that's stuck out the most this week is our meeting with Joyce. She lives a few doors down from us and the sisters met her before I even got here, and we haven't seen her since then because she's been in China staying with her daughter. WELL, Saturday night we were calling through potentials, and we got a hold of Joyce. She said she had just gotten back to KL a few days before and was just then searching through everything trying to find our number right when we called her. She said she just felt like she needed to call us! So we met with her that night and found out a lot about her. She said that her Christian friend had prayed with her once, but she couldn't remember how but she really, really wanted to pray all the time, at work, at home, wherever. She told us about how her husband had died a few years ago and other struggles she was having. Through that we told her about the plan of salvation. As we shared this with her she said that when she'd first started talking to her, all she wanted to do was cry; but now all she felt was peace. It was a great teaching opportunity, and the spirit was very strong there. She recognizes that God has led her to us so that we can teach her these things. We're so excited for her to learn that through Jesus Christ her sadness and sorrows can be replaced with happiness and light.

My faith this week has grown as I spoke to my family and was able to see the difference in myself from the time I left for my mission to now. There have been innumerable things that have changed in me for the better over the last 6 months. When I prayed to know if I should go on a mission and got the answer that I should, I had no idea how impactfull and important an experience this would be. I still feel like I"m only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the impact this year and a half will have on me, and I'm more than excited to discover the rest.

I love you! I had so much fun talking with you all!