12-21

Dearest Family and Friends,MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Oh my gosh - this month has flown by sooo fast!! Already the 21st of December... Christmas Eve's Eve Eve Eve!! WOW! I hope you have all had a great month and the seasons caoticness hasn't dampered the spirits. Myself & Elder Cason went shopping today at Walmart and it was CRAZY! My mind was like AHHHHH, get me out of this store! There were so many people (don't people know that only missionaries shop on Mondays?! Oh, maybe that's why everyone was there..) goll. So this week was filled with exchanges between me & my district. First on tuesday I went with Elder Ross. Well this exchange was something a little different than what I had ever been on before. Elder Ross is deaf. He could just hear barely in his left ear and so the exchange was rather quiet - but really benificial to me. Sometimes it takes looking at someone without something to be thankful for the things you have! Sign language is so awesome to look at - wickedly fast! [hah, do you like my Harry Potter word.. mauahaha - oh, I saw the dvd on the shelf ..AHHH.. jk i'm good with it]Next I went with Elder Proffit. We had a great day in which we had a lesson with one of our investigators Keith. Right before the lesson me and E. Proffit were talking and we decided to just commit him for baptism. Also being a little different than any other investigator, Keith is a paraplegic (his arms don't function) & he has to be hooked up to his oxygen system 24/7. He is so humble that when we committed him he said "well I feel the spirit and I will pray - and if God says so, I will do." How Nephi-like!My last exchange for my district was with Elder Blackett. We had some pretty awesome experiences! we first went to visit a less active and when we knocked on the door there was no answer so we turned around and right next door and man and his wife was pulling out of the parking lot and so we ran over and caught them. At first they told us that we needed to look and read into our scriptures more.. we talked for like 20 minutes about scripture and then myself and Elder Blackett got bold and the spirit just took off. We shared with them about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and comfounded them! At the end we asked if they wanted to take a Book of Mormon.. they nodded there heads up and down and said.."yahhhh". Afterward me and E. Blackett were talking and we found out in the middle of the conversation when it wasn't getting anywhere we both said a prayer that the spirit would be there and that they would except! 10 minutes later we were tracting on another street and a guy answered the door and asked us to hold on for a second.. seconds later he brought out his bible (and we all know what this meant... BIBLE BASH) well we answered his questions and comfounded again and he let us in excepted everything we said and we knelt and prayed with him and he invited us to come back! That night we went up to this park and walked up a hill and saw a young boy and girl probably in their early 20's looking at the view of the city lights. We talked with them and they both got kicked out of their churches. After hearing a lesson they too excepted a Book of Mormon! Wow! What a great day and testimony builder!Oh before I forget.. Happy Birthday Maggie McBride! I love you so so much! Happy 8th birthday! I can't wait to see pictures of your baptism!Brenda Franklin (our recent convert) loved you mom! She was so greatful that she got to talk to you! She took my hand and started tearing up and told me that I was to never forget what we did for her and all the experience we had. It is crazy the impact a person can have on another persons life. I heard this quote from one of my favorite talks from Elder Bill Carpenter. He speaks on how 'the desision of a missionary not choosing to serve a mission does not just effect him - but the life of those whom he would come into contact with'. While on his mission he taught and baptized this lady and when she had received her patriarchal blessing it said that she would have joined the church 10 years earlier if the missionary then would have excepted his call to serve a full time mission. I am so glad that I have chosen to serve my Heavenly Father on a mission and bring the gospel to those that I am called to.The gospel is perfect, full of imperfect people. Our Heavenly Father has a plan and we have a "get out of jail" free card - our Savior! As we choose to use the card our lives can progress and have the happiness that our Heavenly Father wishes to give us, but as we choose to keep our burdens the blessings he wishes to give us can't come. I am so greatful for the gift of repentance and am trying to use it. I am so greatful for my Savior and especially around this Christmas season it is such a great time to re-commit our selves, and then, like our beloved prophet Thomas Monson declared "may we have Christmas all year round" the true Christmas - the spirit of it, the commitment of a new life formulated around the gospel of Jesus Christ.I love you all very very much. I am so happy that I will get to talk to with my family - I am so happy my Heavenly Father gave me each of you! Stay safe for the Holidays!Love, Elder McBridePS. I believe I will call at 1:00 here... and so 2:00 there. Oh, and President Reeves said that you should each prepare questions that you want to ask so we can make the use of our short time ;] & Hopefully we can get a word across this time... haha ;')