Feliz Navidad!

AHHHH!!!! Christmas time already!!! I cant believe it!! :)

Feliz Navidad! I really really can't believe that it is here already. that I get to talk to my family and that its gonna be the last time till I go home. Idk it all feels super surreal to me. But nonetheless I am super excited to talk to my precious family.

And oh boy do I have some cool miracles to share this week. How these keep happening to me mind boggles me. But I have been able to be the witness of so many miracles during my mission and especially now here in Aurora.

Well the following miracle I am going to share is a very special.... But a couple of weeks ago I was praying and asking God where we needed to go that day to find someone who was prepared and waiting for us to talk to them. As I prayed I had the feeling that we needed to go to these certain apartments and we didn't need to knock any doors just walk around the parking lot. So I obeyed. we went and just started walking around the parking lot of these apt buildings when this lady walks out and she is SUPER prego. Like Ready to pop she is so big with child. So she starts talking to us telling us that this will be her first child and that she left her abusive boyfriend and is now living with her brother. she invited us to come over and talk to her more. so we had one appointment with her and it was a really awesome appt. and we set up a return day for us to come back and we went back and she wasn't there and didn't answer the phone and we were pretty sad. but nonetheless something felt different about her..her name is Maria and so we kept trying and trying to go back and see if she was home. well two weeks later Hermana Brown was on exchanges with Hermana Alvarez and they found her! Turns out the reason she wasn't home was because she was in the hospital having her sweet little girl. They set up an appt to come back and see her on Sunday and SOOOOOO on Sunday Hermana Brown and I went over to her house and taught her the plan of salvation. the spirit was there bearing testimony that the things we were teaching were true and we invited Maria to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and she accepted! She is now on date to be baptized for the 21st of January! :) So ultimately it comes down to one cool thing....We received a member referral-from GOD! the best member ever! :) We are teaching her again tomorrow!

So this week our bishop and his family are out of town-in Utah seeing the lights at the temple etc... and Bishops Mom is staying at the house watching the house while they are gone. and Bishops Mom is about 80 plus years old and so the bishop just asked if we wouldn't mind stopping by their house in the morning and in the night to make sure that his mom is doing OK and if she needs anything. so we had been going over there and just talking with her and sharing all the cool miracles that we have been seeing in our days and Sunday night we went over and were telling her about what happened with Maria and how we received this cool referral from God and after we finished the story she asks us "well would like another referral?" and we are like "of course Hermana!" She proceeds to tell us of how her granddaughter Rosa just came to the house this week to spend time with her and how they were talking and that Rosa had had all the charlas before and been to church a couple of times but that she said that now she wants to be baptized and talk to us...So we went back Monday morning before district meeting and got to meet Rosa. Talked about the Book of Mormon and invited her to be baptized and she accepted! and told us that she wants to be baptized as soon as she possibly can and so we have her on date to be baptized December 31st :) All that happened Monday morning before 10am :) really was quite awesome!

Earlier in the week I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Hermana Hawes in Cicero and we had a really great day. We were going to an appt that ended up not being home and there was a lady across the street on her porch trying to hang up Christmas lights and so we ran over across the street and helped her put up her lights. Her name is Lily and she just started talking to us and telling us all her stories. how she is happily married to a man who doesn't smoke, drink or do drugs and that they have been married for 10 years, about how she wants to be closer to God and has been looking for a church and just through talking to her on the porch we ended up giving her a soft baptismal invitation and she accepted it and said that she would love to be baptized. then the next appt we had was with a family that Hermana Hawes and Alvarez had found the day before and we went back and had one of the most powerful lessons on the restoration invited Esmerelda and her two sons to be baptized on the 14th of January and they all accepted it and then with a little bit of a encouragement Esmerelda said the closing prayer and the spirit was soooo strong in the room. Its so interesting to me how I feel like the best prayers are given by people who have never prayed before So innocent and pure with real desire to know if God is really listening. So leaving Cicero there was 7 people with a date to be baptized! :)

My eye is back to normal and doing great! my companion doesn't have bronchitis anymore and we are hittin the pavement. :)  and biggest miracles of all: NO SNOW! :) wee!!! it can stay away as loooooooooooooooooong as it wants. I'm not missing it one stinkin bit. It snowed on Monday but it was only a little and its already gone. :) although the wind does make it feel like there should be snow with how windy and rainy its been. but still no snow! and that makes me happy! :)

Yeah  so its been a pretty miracle filled week!

Nana I got your package :) thank you so much. Ive been eating the stolen every morning with hot chocolate and it sure makes me miss you :) hope you all got my stuff or will be getting it soon! :) Sure love you all and hope you have a super merry Christmas :)

Con mucha paz y amor,

Hermana Maughan! :)