Happy New Year 2011

Hey Y'all!


Happy New Years! Can you believe we're ringing in another new year? It's crazy how times does fly. I hope that you have been able to see the blessings of the Lord in your life and that success and blessings are coming your way. I was able to have a great missionary Christmas. What a wonderful place to be, on a mission, to celebrate the birth of the Savior. Pres. Thomas called to wish me a happy birthday and he told me that my Christmas as a missionary would be tender in my heart for years to come and I think he's right. On Christmas Eve Sis. Knight and I went to the Miley family's home and had a great dinner and talked about fun traditions and Christmas memories. Then for Christmas we got SNOW! It was a white Carolina Christmas! It snowed all day. Our cars are grounded when that happens and so we sat around all day and were couch potatoes. We set up the little purple tree in the middle of our floor and put our packages around it. We slept on mattresses in our office so it was like a sleep over. We still got up at 6:30 and stayed in our pj's all day. It was a lot of fun. The best part was talking to our family members. To those of you I talked to...thank you for all you do and I love you with my whole heart. It was so great to hear your voices! The Lord does take care of his missionaries and their families. For New Year's Eve we also went to the Mileys and chatted and ate dinner again. They are a great family and have really included us to help us feel loved this holiday season. Surprise though we now are in a trio of sister missionaries! There are 3 of us, yay! Sis. Singleton joined us from another area in our district. She was previousy in Boone which has been closed to missionaries for the winter because it snows a lot and often and so not a whole lot of work is accomplished. She is having a lot of health problems and so needed to stay close to the doctors she's been working with and so we are lucky to have her with us.

What a blessing it was to have Sunday come. We were finally able to go to church after 2 solid weeks of not having it due to the flood that occured and then the snowy weather over Christmas. We met in the primary room and really felt a spirit of unity and appreciation for the ordinance of the sacrament. Maybe the flood was a blessing from the Lord in disguise to help the ward unite more. I'm still doing great and loving my mission. I have learned so much and continue to learn new things all the time. Especially about myself and new insights. I am praying that over the next year I will take full advantage of the refining fire of missionary work and let the Lord mold me into something better. We are so blessed to see people change when we help them learn of the gospel. But, you know what, I think the mission is the Lords way of helping his missionaries learn the gospel and strengthening them as individuals. I am still reading in the Book of Mormon and am currently in Alma. I love this book and know there are lessons in its pages that apply to every principle of the gospel. I know it's a true book of scripture. I testify of the reality that we are God's children. He loves us. He desires us to stand a little taller and reach out to serve others. This is our grand calling. I love each of y'all and wish you a great new year with many wonderful adventures. I plan to have some of my own!

xoxo,

Sis. Erickson