Hola family!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I am going to apologize for no pictures this week. Sister Stowers was having a rough week, so we spent most of the afternoon last Monday inside and didn't get to the beach until it was dark, but it was great! It was so peaceful and amazing being there. Today the other sisters in our zone are coming down for a special Christmas p-day. We will definitely take pictures and I promise to send them home next week.

I'm going to call at 7:00pm or around there, hopefully if my companions don't take the phones first. President said we could talk for 40-60 minutes. I'm excited to call. I didn't realize how much I am looking forward to talking with my own family until yesterday in church. I'm glad I have you as my family and you brought us up well to be somewhat normal and to realize the big picture of things.

We had an exciting week with several great investigators and potentials lined up for this week. There are some really great people here. I love it! Missionary work is awesome! We are spending Christmas Eve with one of our new investigators from the past week, and I can tell it will be amazing. He really is great. Here is a little snipet from my letter to President Summerhays this week:

Branda dropped her baptismal date because she didn't come to Church yesterday. We were a little worried about her, but we stopped by her house early last week and she told us she had been busy and had been hoping that we would come by. She still wants to be baptized. We had a really good lesson with her this week about the plan of salvation and she wants to know what the qualifications for each kingdom is specifically so that she knows what she needs to do in order to go to the Celestial Kingdom. My heart rejoiced when I heard her say that.

Manuel we met tracting. He was surprised to see us when we came back because he has been burnt by priests and other churches, but we taught him a good lesson one and he said that several times he felt like we were piercing his heart. He called us later that night and asked about the reading assignments we left for him. He also told us he would be at church with his kids and they came! He was worried and a little scared, but he told us he really enjoyed it. We are going to spend Christmas Eve with him helping him learn more. After Church he said he need all the information we could give him so that he could learn it all. Manuel is great!

One of the other new investigators we found is named Jason. He said that he had gone to Church in Chipley for about a year and was about to move out to Utah for a job, but instead came to Destin. He said his friends have joked about he he is going to become a member. We have a lesson with him tonight. And, we are planning on setting a baptismal date so he will be a member.

Sister Reeves came to church again, and we had a really good lesson with her. We taught lesson three and were somewhat worried because she had pretty emphatically told us she didn't want to be baptized. As we were teaching she didn't say anything about not getting baptized, and she she wants to understand more. I think that things are working slowly as we keep going over and sharing more with her.

I wish I could write all about it in these emails home, but I feel like Moroni in Ether 12. It is so hard to put it all into words, especially in emails. I can't wait to share everything when I get home. I'm sorry there isn't more to this email.

I love you all! To everyone I won't get to talk to on Christmas, I love you and hope you have a great Christmas. Before we all know it I won't have to write emails home and can call and share everything with you personally.

Love, Joanna