Last week we had our mission wide Christmas Party and it was so much fun! We had an AMAZING Christmas music devotional to start it off, and then had the "Olympic Games" (haha it is like President Vidmar is an Olympian or something LOL) it was super fun though.
BUT it is summer now, so it was 40 degrees (100 degrees F) the day of the party. It was sooo hot.
Also it was sooo fun to see all the missionaries! All the missionaries in the mission (except those who are in Tasmania.. they had their own Christmas party..) were there (like 160+ missionaries!!) It was so fun to see some of the missionaries that I don't get to see very often anymore.
Pretty much this whole transfer, there are always extra sisters staying at our flat. The sisters that live 7 hours away got to spend a couple nights at our flat this week (for the Christmas party) so that was cool. But it is fun, because we get to know some sisters that I NEVER see :) haha
We also had a zone meeting this week and it was great. We talked about recognizing and following the Spirit. It was awesome and our zone has such a fire right now. After the meeting, we all had companionship interviews with our zone leaders to talk about what goals we could set in our individual areas.
The zone leaders challenged us to set a goal to get 5 new contacts a day. It is a really high goal, especially since like all the Chinese are back in China right now. BUT we have been working hard & are out GQing ALL the time, and we have seen sooo many miracles!! We have been able to get the goal twice and on the other days, although we haven't gotten 5 new contacts, we have met some super keen and prepared people! God is so good.
BEST NEWS OF THE WEEK!!:::
VICTOR IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY! Victor is an old investigator from my last area. I street contacted him back when I was with Sister Fong (ages ago) and he's been meeting with missionaries ever since. I taught him for almost 8 months and I have grown to love him soo much. I started sobbing (LOL surprise, surprise) when they called to tell me that he is getting baptized. This is such a miracle and I am so grateful to have been apart of the journey.
Not going to lie, it is SO hard to be away from family and home at Christmas time. BUT I am so excited to spend Christmas in the place that has become my home away from home (Australia is awesomeee!). & I get to spend it with people who have become part of my family. so I guess I really can't complain.
I am so grateful to be a missionary. Christmas is such a special time to be a missionary and talk about Our Savior. This is the first time that I have been able to focus 100% on the real meaning of Christmas, Jesus Christ. It has been so cool and my relationship with Him has grown so much.
I love you all!
Hope you all have a good Christmas!
Hopefully you will be enjoying the snow, sweaters and hot chocolate!
I will be sweating. :):)):)
xoxo,
张姐妹
Sister Johnson
MISSION WIDE CHRISTMAS PARTY
Missionary Tree with all their names on it
Sister Maughan, a favorite senior missionary of Alyssa's
"I love hot weather, even if it is in December"
The Ward doing some Christmas Caroling
Aussie Jingle Bells from the side of a cereal box
esky in the boot = cooler in the trunk
kelpie = famous dog here
singlet, shorts and thongs = tanktop, shorts and flip flops
swaggies = kind of like a traveler? not sure actually..
HAHHAAH I LOVE AUSTRALIA.
Hail storm came through - those is some BIG hail
Heart Attacked or Post-It Note Attacked a
member's door for Christmas