There's No Place Like the Kansas Wichita Mission: The one where I won the zone ugly sweater contest

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and is going into the new year with excitement. It's weird that this is the last week of 2022.

Merry Christmas!

This week was a fun week full of fun activities and snowy days. We had our combined zone Christmas party. We started in the chapel where President Barr had a little Christmas musical program planned. I sang Silent Night with Sister Snow. It ended up sounding good (at least that is what everyone told me). And then we moved to the gym to play minute to win it games. The Senior missionaries were in charge of judging the ugly sweater contest. I was wearing a spongebob sweater that I bought at Walmart. And that ended up winning one of the categories somehow. I didn't think I would win. I wasn't really trying but it ended up being funny. After that, we watched Rise of the Guardians. It was a good movie! I haven't seen it since it came out.

Ugly sweaters

Sis. Mitchell & I

The day after our Christmas Party, the temperature outside was below zero. And it stayed that way for a couple of days. When we have days like that, we aren't allowed to go knock on doors. President Barr sent us a whole email about it. The roads weren't in the best condition either. So we had to stay off the roads. We ended up staying home pretty much the whole time. We went out a couple of times. The one time we went out was to pump air into our car tire. We went to the gas station and we started to fill the tire. Instead of inflating the tire, the tire was deflating. The air in the pump was frozen and it wasn't working. We ended up having a flat tire and we had no clue what to do. We called our district leader and he rushed over to the gas station to help us find a solution. After analyzing the situation, he didn't know what to do. He stepped away for a minute to call the zone leaders and ask them what to do. While he was on the phone, a man came to use the tire pump. My companion told him the situation about the air pump and advised him not to use it. He said that he had an air pump in the back of his car that we could use to blow up the tire. After a few minutes, our flat tire had air and we were able to leave.

While my companion and I were in the car with a flat tire trying to figure out what to do, we were warning a lot of people not to use the air pump. Not one of them stopped and asked if we were okay and if we needed help. They all just got in their cars and left. But then that one man stopped and asked us if we were okay and if we needed help. I thought of the parable of the Good Samaritan. How many of us stop and look around to see the needs of others? We all have busy lives. We all have a mile long list of things to do. But have you ever thought that you might be in the right place at the right time to help someone else but miss the opportunity? There is an inspirational message that talks about this same concept. She says that she doesn't want to be like those in the parable of the Good Samaritan. They see a need, and just walk past. I don't want to ever be like that. I want to be the one that looks for the needs of others in need and help when I can. I learned a very valuable lesson that day. To not get caught up in my list of to-do's. But to look around, and be observant to those in need. That is also why we have the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost can prompt us to be in the right place at the right time and can also prompt us to lend a helping hand.

Our mission car

Christmas Eve was a fun one! There is a family that doesn't have a lot of money for decorations for presents for their kids. Sister Mitchell decided to lift up their spirits. We decided to put something together and we were going to be secretive about it. Well we totally got caught delivering the package that we put together. It ended up being okay. But let's just say that we aren't very good at being sneaky. We played games with the Elders in our district later that day and then we went to a member's house and had Christmas Eve dinner. We ended up talking about a lot of different things. Before we left, we sang a few Christmas songs. We ended the night reading Luke 2 with the district and writing down what gift we will give Jesus Christ this year. It was a really special way to end the night.

Secret door deco

Christmas Day! We woke up and we had a zoom call with the entire mission. For the last couple of months, we have been reading the Book of Mormon together. We have been paying attention to the different names for Jesus Christ. So we read Moroni 10 all together and shared our favorite names that we found. It was a really special experience. My favorite name for Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd. I was reading in Alma 5. My favorite chapter of the entire Book of Mormon. Verses 37-38 are my favorite. It talks about Christ will always be calling our name even if we aren't listening to his voice. No matter if we fall short or aren't doing what we are supposed to be doing, he will still be calling our name. Calling for us to repent and become better. After the zoom call, we opened our gifts that we got from home. Then we got ready for church. Church was really good in both wards. Then we got together as a district again and played more games. Then we went to a member's house and ate some yummy food and watched Santa Claus 2. My favorite one out of the three movies. It was a really good Christmas!