The little Drummer Boy

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone is having a great Christmas season and enjoying winter. It's relatively cold here. It's staying around 32 degrees in the day. We got some rain but haven't got any snow yet. Lincoln got a lot of rain on Saturday though. Anyways... so last week was a pretty good week. First of all I told you about Jackie, the young single mother we tracked into last week. Well... SHE'S GOLDEN! She went to church last Sunday and we've met with her everyday this week. She has so many questions, but she's accepted that it is true and she's being baptized on the 17th! She even came to church again. She already told her boyfriend that they would be living the law of chastity before we even taught it to her. And although we haven't taught her the Word of Wisdom yet, she already lives it! It was so crazy because when she first let us in she was really hesitent and quiet. But she's opened up a ton, and now we're all best friends. Haha, it's pretty crazy. We also have this other investigator Tina who found the church on mormon.org. It's kind of a long story but basically she chatted with the Sisters in the Trail Center to learn the gospel and get into the church. They didn't even know she lived in the same mission. So I hadn't met her yet because she had been sick so I got to meet her last Saturday. She is super awesome. She's about 50 years old and used to be a gypsie. She's been living with her boyfriend for 14 years and we taught her the law of chastity. So now she's going to get married on the 29th and she'll be baptized the 21st of January. There's awesome things going on here. There are also a lot of people going through really hard times who really look up to us. It's really hard because I've never really been through anything and I'm only 20 years old. But we try to help them the best that we can, even if it's just being there so that they have someone to talk to. Friday I was in Lincoln on an exchange while Elder Bell went to a leadership training up in Omaha. It was fun to meet some of the Elders serving up there and work that area for the day. I even met two people from Africa! All in all it was a great week.
So spiritual thought of the week. I guess since it's Christmas I'll give one about that. So one of my favorite Christmas songs is the Little Drummer Boy (especially the Josh Groban version). Anyways the message is that sometimes we feel like we have nothing to give to the Lord. Sometimes it feels like there are so many people better than us and that what we have to give is nothing compared to the things others are able to give. But it makes me think of the parable of the talents. We all have talents, whether it's five or three or one. In the parable the important part is not how many talents we start out with, but that we are trying our hardest to improve our talents and gain even more. Sometimes we have talents that we don't think we have, but when we strive to improve we gain even more. And that's the story of the Little Drummer Boy. Even though he did not have much in the way of wordly wealth, he still was able to play his drum for Christ because that was his talent. So let us during this Christmas season strive to share our talents with others. Everyone has some, whether it's music, dance, decorating, making things, baking treats, or the one we all have time. Sometimes the best thing you can share is your time. Everyone needs a friend, and everyone needs a friend who will listen and who will help. I love you all and hope you have a great week and a Merry Christmas.

Godspeed,
Edler Chandler Kendall