Sister Tessa Bishop: LETTER 24: The one where Tessa carols with the angels

Belated Christmas wishes to you all, and happy new year (: It was the best week ever, I loooooove Christmas on the mission!! Here's a recap of the week...

STORIES

--Basically our Christmas Eve day consisted of taking around tons of cookies to tons of lucky recipients... it was a great reason to check up on potential investigators and other investigators and spread Christmas cheer (: Cookies do the job.

--We went caroling a lot this past week! It was one of my favorite things in the world. Christmas Eve we went as a district to carol outside of Walmart to all the last-minute Christmas shoppers. People were so kind to us, it was touching. They bought us water, clementines, candy canes, etc. and took videos and pictures of us. It was really neat, and felt great singing as the angels did, proclaiming Christ's birth

--Christmas day was simply amazing. We had brunch with the Matthews family, along with a Christmas program. Next we skyped our families and the Gardner's home, loved it! It was such a blessing and a joy to be able to see the people I love and hear their voices again. I cherished every second with them! Time flew by. Next we ate dinner with the Gardner's, they totally spoiled us. We went caroling again as a district at the movie theater for the rest of the night. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!

--We went on exchanges with the Seco Canyon sisters on Friday, I was with Sister Camargo in Wiley Canyon. We worked hard an saw miracles for sure, had a few golden people who said we could come back (:

--Mallory and Chad are so amazing, we were able to meet with them again this week. They are incredibly kind and we love them to death. Just moving right along with them!

--We talked in Sacrament meeting at church yesterday, that was nerve-wracking! But it went really well (: I spoke on finding joy in living the gospel...same topic as my farewell talk, I wasn't creative enough to think of another one haha (;

FUNNIES

--Elder Kim was cracking us up. While we were caroling, he handed out pictures of Christ to everyone. He would run after them and stuff, it was hilarious--he got really into it (:

--There's been a Nurf-gun craze spreading through the mission. Everyone's in nurf gun wars, it's never safe! We walked in to the sisters apartment and they thought we were the Elders and almost shot our eyes out! haha

--We decided to carol by ourselves at some people's doors. So the first door we knock on, the lady says we can sing a song--but we started like an octave too high haha and totally messed up the song. It was hilarious and embarrassing, so we decided to restart the song and after the first verse, she's like "one verse is enough..." haha whoops. (:

LESSONS LEARNED

--I've really just been working hard and growing in my knowledge and appreciation for Christ's sacrifice for us, the Atonement. I know the atonement is real. I know that because of His sacrifice for us, we can find strength in our lives, and most importantly--we can change! We can be made clean, made whole persons and return to live with God and our brother Jesus Christ. Christ has a perfect love for us, and He felt each of our pains because He loves us. The Atonement is just incredible and the bottom line is, it's real. We are never too far gone from God, He is always waiting for us with open arms. The atonement can and should be our main source of strength in our lives. We each need to learn to humble ourselves and accept and use the atonement in our lives. I don't think I'll ever be able to fully appreciate this sacrifice, but I know that I will work my hardest to express my love back to Christ by sharing the atonement with others. Sharing this hope and joy with them. I love it with my whole heart, and I love this gospel.

Hope you all have an amazing week celebrating the new year!! Thank you all for everything <3

-Sister Bishop

Pictures:

Brother Smith and his Christmas village! So fun. (:

Adrienne sitting, eating her chicken, and watching cartoons while we met with Bri. Haha she's so cute.

Just a few of the plates of Christmas cookies we delivered...

The bike Elders!

Christmas Eve we put our couch on the porch and I wore my awesome Christmas nightgown, courtesy of my mom (: We read Luke 2, the real Christmas story!