Starting up the Christmas cheer

Hello, This week was pretty interesting; we were simultaneously busy yet not busy at all lol. We went to nearly every house we could and called a ton of numbers (thus busy), but a lot of people weren't home/didn't answer or our lessons fell through (thus not busy), so unfortunately, there probably isn't as many things that'll entertain you this time around haha. On Tuesday, we traveled to the northernmost part of our area (about a 30 minute bike ride lol). A guy Elder SC and I started to teach (Brutus) was working on his car, so he said to come back next Tuesday. Besides that, almost no one was home or answered their doors lol, but we were able to say a couple prayers, which was nice. Thankfully, a lot more people answered the doors or the phone on Wednesday haha. Most of them were busy, so we just scheduled another time to come back, but we were able to say some prayers again, which is always great. One of the ladies we met gave us a bunch of cookies, so I've been finishing those off all week haha. We also stopped by a member's house, and it was super awkward when she answered the door lol. I honestly had no idea what I was going to say or how I was going to say it, so we just introduced ourselves, had some awkward small talk, and we left haha. Afterwards, we met a guy who was picking up his kids and said a prayer with him, which he said he really needed at the moment. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get some contact information, but he did say that he hopes he runs into us again, so that was nice, I'm glad we could be there for that moment. We then stopped at the church right when the youth was gathering there for their activity making Gingerbread Nativities (or just any scene from Jesus's life) so we just decided to join them haha, it was fun. Not a whole lot happened on Thursday. We mainly just did some weekly planning, and made a lot of phone calls and texts and stop bys, but almost no one answered. We also went all the way back up to the northernmost neighborhood again because we found out that we had zone conference right when we planned to meet with Brutus, and because we didn't have his number, we decided to travel all the way back to his neighborhood (our legs are a bit sore lol). He wasn't home when we got there, so we just left a note, hopefully he'll see it. Friday was mostly the same, traveling around trying to contact people. In the evening, we had dinner with a family in the ward, which was nice. In our conversation afterwards, they started talking about exactly what I was already planning on sharing for a spiritual thought with them, so that was pretty neat, it's cool how the Spirit works like that haha. On Saturday, nearly all of our lessons fell through again haha, but it was a fun day. The ward had their Christmas party; they set up 5 nativity vignettes around the church building with different ward members as the "actors", and it was pretty well done, we had fun. Afterwards, we stopped by Justin, and talked with him briefly on his doorstep. He said that, unfortunately, he doesn't think Jaycci wants to meet with us anymore, she seems pretty set in her opinions/doubts right now no matter what he does to help her. Super sad, but he will keep trying to come to church and bring the kids as well when his work schedule permits, and hopefully it won't cause too much tension. Anyways, after that, we met with a woman (Kelly) who we gave a Book of Mormon a couple weeks ago. She's been reading it, but she's just had some family problems with covid, so she hasn't gone to church, and we haven't been able to meet with her too much. We had a good discussion though, and we offered to send her the zoom link for church....which I then forgot to do until there were about 10 minutes left in church 🤦‍♂️😂 whoops On Sunday, our sacrament attendance improved from last week: we had 1 person come instead of 0 haha! It was Nathan, the nephew of someone in the ward that he's staying with right now and who we're progressing towards baptism. We're meeting with him and his aunt/uncle this week, so that should be good. We also have yet to see or successfully contact Tyler in the past couple weeks to make sure he's ready for baptism, so....that's cool lol. After church, we made some calls, stopped by some houses and met some people that we were able to say a prayer with and that seemed open to us coming back again sometime (finally haha). After that, we helped one of our members drop off food that was donated at the Christmas party for a nearby Catholic church, and then we had dinner with her family. Sunday was also the Church's Christmas Devotional, so that was pretty neat. I really liked Elder Renlund's talk about building a relationship and sure testimony of Jesus Christ, and I loved his invitation to ask God yourself for the knowledge and assurance that Jesus Christ truly is the Son of God and was born in a humble manger all those years ago. My testimony of Jesus Christ and my relationship with Him has been something I've continually been trying to grow and develop, so that really stood out to me. I know that centering our lives on Jesus Christ is the best thing we can ever do in our lives, and I know that as we rely on Him and His grace, our weaknesses and imperfections will become stronger and our mistakes will be forgiven. I'd like to extend that same invitation to you to find out for yourself if Christ truly is the Son of God born over 2000 years ago and who suffered for you and me and to strengthen your own testimony of Him.

Anyways, I hope you all are having an amazing start to the Christmas season and that you enjoy the light and joy that comes as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. See you next time, Elder Enger P.S. Next week, we'll be visiting the temple on that Thursday, so my P-day next week will change from Monday to Thursday. Just in case anyone wonders why the email is coming much later than usual haha