Murry Christmas!

Ladies and Gentlemen!

 

Christmas was the best! We had members take us in and take such good care of us! I can't believe how much kindness was shown to the missionaries! We were so blessed!

 

So on to my favorite part of Christmas...it had to be the phone call home. Who has the greatest family of all? This sister missionary does. I love you family and I care about you a lot! Thank you for talking to me :) haha mom and dad you are the best and you are honestly my best friends... I was thinking about that after I hung up the phone and something I remembered was from a really important and cool blessing that I got my senior year, which told me that my parents would be my best friends. It is true. Couldn't ask for better parents :)

 

This week I read over the conference talks from this past conference and the Sunday morning session is my favorite. It is so focused on the Atonment and how we can be made strong through it if we accept it in our lives. Then I read another talk about believing that Christ is our Savior. That He can and will make up the rest. I loved reading that because sometimes I stress about not being a good enough missionary.... ya it's real! haha but if I am really doing the best that I can, then Christ will make up the rest. A little while ago I told my mom that I couldn't make it to the Celestial Kingdom, I was just joking with her but it has been a real concern because I AM NOT PERFECT. But this talk helped me understand that I can't be "celestial material" unless I accept the Atonement into my life. We were given the gift to change and want to change and then after all we can do, we will be made perfect :)

 

I love you all. Especially you family:) You take care and I hope that you have a Happy New Year :)

 

Love, Alisha

#tistheseason

Hello:)

Everybody! I just want to pour out my heart and tell you how much I love my Heavenly Father. Missions are hard but I have this wonderful oppurtunity to grow every single day and boy at the being of the week did I grow! haha so to tell you a little bit more about my growth I will have to tell you about my downfall! I worry too much and this made my wonderful gift of anxiety come back...ya I don't have time for that as a missionary because I honestly felt trapped. It was really hard and I worried my companion a little because I cried a lot. But thanks to a lot of praying and a priesthood blessing I am doing so much better. I know that my Heavenly Father cares about me even when I am an anxious mess! So I just pray and pray and pray. I am very grateful for prayer :)

My week was great and we taught a lot of lessons. Another thing that I have learned is that I love people. (not everyone because you can't expect me to be perfect) haha some people just tug at my heart and I want to be their best friends for life #BBFL haha but really. We had a lesson with the R family yesterday (her brother died just a couple of weeks ago) and we just chatted with her and shared a spiritual thought. I really just felt so much love for her and her husband. They are genuine people and I hope that we can help them progress in the gospel.

Life is a marathon, not a sprint. In saying that, we must spiritually prepare ourselves for the road ahead. So strengthen those testimonies :) I love you all :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS :)

Love, Alisha

Merry Christmas from Sister Nielsen and Sister Neff!

Hello Everybody:)

 

We got transfer call last night and honestly I thought that we were all staying together, but they told us that Sister Petersen is leaving...as soon as we hung up the phone we all cried! That was rough. especially a week before Christmas! Boy, I love that Sister with all of my heart and I know that we were companions for a reason :) haha we are not the most lady-like sister missinoaries you will ever find but with her I gained a better understanding of putting your personality in missionary work :)

 

This week was wonderful :) I really learned the importance of effective studies and I have learned so much! I know that this gospel is true and when I learn more and more about it I just want to share it with people and just shake them!! This is what you need people! haha but I control myself! This week I studied about the Atonement and how we are "unconditionally" saved from physical death so we will all be resurrected, but we are "conditionally" saved from spiritual death. Those conditions are if we choose to have faith and accept Christ into our lives and to repent!

 

We get to do more service for the salvation army this week and I love it :) We get to put together presents for kids and it is just the best feeling ever :) I probably want to be Santa when I grow up :) haha

 

I love you all and I hope that you have a great week :) Really, you all are the best :) It's such a blessing that I have you all in my life :)

 

Love, Alisha

SNOW!

Alright folks! We got a lot of snow! Due to the weather we were grounded a lot this week and that makes doing the work hard. Also, on top of that we were in the car the other day and the Elders were driving and they were going too fast and took a turn which spun us and we ran into a curb pretty hard. That was no fun but we are lucky that no one got really hurt and that there wasn't anyone really close by. But due to hitting the curb it messed up our tire pretty bad and now we don't have a car to drive. So walking will be the way of transportation until it gets fixed! Hopefully it warms up soon!

 

One day while we were grounded we looked in our area book and decided to call formers! We got 3 appointments set up! WOOO! One of the appointments was yesterday and it was with a Nigerian family and there were about 10 people living in one house! Crazy! They had 3 little girls and they were amazed with my hair! haha I was sitting on the ground and they would slowly walk up to me and touch it and run away! haha I guess they havent seen blonde hair a whole lot! haha it made me laugh and they were cute! Hopefully we will get back to teach them, they said they were super busy due to school! No one is too busy for the gospel bros! haha

 

I am almost finished with Numbers in the Old Testament and oh goodness, it is hard to understand. it is like really a rule book. haha I am almost through the real tough part but I am learning so much. My whole mission has taught me a lot and I am grateful for that!

 

Stay warm peeps:)

 

Love, Alisha

Thanksgiving!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was a little crazy but the spirit of it was great! haha We started the day off with our studies and then we went to the church to prepare our Thanksgiving lunch. We were there three hours early because our ward mission leader wanted evrything to be done. So with 11 missionaries it took us about 20 minutes to set everything up and for the rest of the time we just talked and had a good time.

 

Anywho, the lunch went great and we had P (our investigator) come and she loved it! she has been progressing a lot and hopefully her court case wont affect her decision to be baptised. She is wonderful.

 

After, all the missionaries played volleyball and basketball and that was so much fun! oh goodness thank you for holidays! The other missionaries in our district are pretty cool and we always have a lot of fun!

 

All of November I made an effort with my personal prayers and I said them out loud every night in my bathroom. I just know that Heavenly Father is there listening (because I mean I wouldn't be praying to my bathtub in there haha) But I know that He really cares about what we are doing and what is going on. I mean I have a lot of things going on and I am a mess most of the time, but I know that He cares about what I have to say. I love my Heavenly Father because sometimes He is the only person I can talk to. I love this gospel-the end. haha

 

I would like to give a shout out to my brother Austin who is turning 15 today! I love you little fella:)

 

Sorry that this letter is a mess. I am a mess. haha everything is going to be fine.

 

I love you all and I hope that you have a great week:)

 

Love, Alisha