Sister Kirsten Leslie: I Keep Getting Hit on the Head By Investigators Falling Out Of the Sky!

WOW! This seriously was one of the best weeks of my mission so far!

Monday wasn't all that exciting, it was P-day, but we had the YSA (Young Single Adult) Christmas party, so part of our P-Day was setting up for all that. So you know.

Tuesday was Christmas Eve. It was weird for me not to be going to the Christmas Eve breakfast and all that, but we did something AWESOME. All the Minot missionaries got together and we went caroling at one of the old folks home here in Minot for about an hour:

The eight who went caroling

It was so fun! Sister Jensen played the piano and the rest of us sang. The residents there loved it! They were smiling, some were singing along with us and some were constantly clapping. It was so cute. The elders' voices started going out like 20 minutes in, but they made it until the end. We moved around from lunch room to lunch room, and in one room Sister Jensen and I were the last to walk out, so we heard as we were walking out an older lady exclaim to her friend, "Did you see those cute men in suits? Mmm mmm!!" Haha oh man it was great! Elder Stewart blushed when we told him, but Elder Larsen took it as a compliment (those are the 2 elders we share the ward with). We went out to lunch with the sisters and then ended up going caroling with a bunch of families in the ward at another old folks home. It was fun there, too. We walked around and the people would come out of their rooms to hear us and they would request songs and sing them with us. It was great. From there, we went to Kaylee and Carl's, as they were having a Christmas party. We got to know a lot of their friends, some less actives, and some non-members. We went again to see the Christmas lights and it was super fun. After the party, we went home, made some Christmas treats and wrapped gifts for less-actives and our investigators (namely Joy to the World movies).

Wednesday was CHRISTMAS DAY! We woke up at 5:15 so we could have a half hour for opening presents and a hour for breakfast (Sister Osburn and Sister Saunders came over). It was AWESOME! Thank you to everyone who sent cards and gifts! I loved all of them and they will all be very useful to me. :) Breakfast with the sisters made it feel more Christmas-y. We did studies as normal, visited a less-active and then went to a member's house where we got to Skype home!! It was so weird to see my family, kinda felt like a movie. But at the same time it was so cool. Definitely the best part of the day! I can't wait until Mother's Day when we get to do it again! Man, it seriously was the best! I love you, family! After Skyping and Christmas dinner, we went to Kaylee and Carl's again, this time to watch Christmas movies with them and share a Christmas message with them. It went great! We went from there to a less-active family in the ward who is Liberian. They were having a big party, and Liberian music was playing, people were dancing, everyone was talking very fast, meaning that we couldn't understand if they were speaking English or Liberian (and, there are 16 dialects of Liberian, so it's insane. They all sound the same to me...)It was fun. The food was very spicy, but I got to dish up my plate this time, so I just got a little. I think I ate 1 bite of this potato stuff and that was enough for me. We were able to share a Christmas message with them too. We then went across the street to an Active family who had their less-active kids there, so we again shared a Christmas message. By this point, it was around 8:00 at night, so we went back to our apartment and highlighted and marked up our new ward list. It was a great day! Much busier that we were expecting, which is AWESOME!! Totally one of my favorite Christmases yet. :)

Thursday was another great day, just like the rest of the week. We did weekly planning, and then had an appointment with Alisha, our new investigator we got last week. It was really well! She took in all of our commitments and set up a return appointment with us. We hope to get her on date this week when we meet with her. We also got to go over and visit Faye again. Her son was there, so we shared a message with them about New Years Resolutions and Faith and Humility and Trust and all of that good stuff and it went great! We were able to really touch her heart. We love Faye a lot. That night, after dinner, we were able to go visit a less-active, part member family and it went well. The non-member invited us in right then to give us Oreo truffles and hot apple cider. It was nice to be able to chat with her and get to know her a little more. Her less-active husband got home from work when we were there and so we got to share a message with them! We have a return appointment this week.

Friday we were on exchanges, so I was with Sister Saunders in her area, which is the 3rd ward. We got to volunteer at the First Lutheran Soup kitchen, we went to district meeting (it's usually on Wednesdays but it was changed to Friday due to Christmas and skyping times and all that), which is always GREAT, and we got to try a few investigators and potentials. We were able to spend a lot of time tracting, which was nice because it was FORTY-THREE DEGREES POSITIVE! Snow was melting, and it was like spring. We weren't wearing coats. Ahh, it felt SO good! The first time we went tracting, we met Alex, who has building a snowman in his front yard. He;s around our age and we talked to him for 45 minutes. It was crazy. It didn't end up going anywhere, but it was a good discussion. After that, we went tracting in a different area and got to meet a lot of super nice people. We spent the rest of the day trying people, and it was fun! Sister Saunders is awesome. She's an Aggie, too, which just makes her that much cooler. Haha, but really though.

Saturday, we got to go to a baptism, we had our area call, we went out and tried a bunch of potentials and got 2 appointments this week from it, and we were able to meet with Karen again. We had a great discussion wit her and it was good. We were able to be bold with her, but we did so in a loving way. It was a great discussion with her. At dinner that night, we met a less-active, which is always great! And then we again got to meet with the less-active Liberian family. It was a miracle because we had made the goal to find 1 new investigator this past week, and we hadn't found them yet. At this appointment, we were able to meet her brother, and he wanted to learn more. We taught all 3 of them and then made a return appointment to meet with Vonny. We got the new investigator on our last appointment on Saturday night! The Lord hears us!

But the biggest miracle of them all came yesterday, on Sunday. Vonny ended up having to go somewhere, so we rescheduled the appointment, and at church, we were waiting for one investigator in particular, Alyssa, who we were supposed to teach right after church. Well, she wasn't there. I was so discouraged and was praying to know what to do, and I felt a lot of peace. I didn't understand that peace until we were in combined RS/EQ for 5th Sunday when I had the prompting th text Alyssa. I did, but there was no response. I then had the prompting to check to make sure her number was right in the phone, I did, and it was wrong. I texted the right number and she told us that her flight had been delayed and wasn't landing until the night. We made a appointment with her for this week. And right before church, the sisters gave us a referral for a guy who randomly showed up at church in their ward and wanted to be taught by missionaries. We went over last night after our dinner appointment to meet him, and he was an investigator in Dickinson before he moved here a month ago. His name is Jose, and he is super solid. He is so prepared and we made an appointment with him for tomorrow (we couldn't teach him then because we didn't have another girl with us). But we really feel like he could get baptized this transfer and we are so excited! The Lord blesses those who lose themselves in the work!!

I love you all! Get involved in missionary work! Do all you can to bring your friends and neighbors to the gospel! "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God; And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" (D&C 18:10, 15-16) I know that is true. It brings the most happiness we can have in this life!

sister leslie.