Hello Wonderful Family!
Merry Christmas! I am excited to see all your pretty faces
on Thursday!
This week has been so busy and so amazing! Sister Mencarelli
and I had 3 PHENOMENAL exchanges with some of our sisters - so many answers to
prayers. As my companion and I would be planning while on exchanges, we could
just FEEL the Lord guiding us in our thoughts. The next day we would go as
planned and the spirit would direct us to another side street right next to
where we had planned and we would meet someone amazing! If we do our part, the
Lord will guide us and turn us to where we really need to go :) Also, So many
fun Christmas musical miracles happened this week. Loved it so much.
We have a very cute Potential friend named M.... She is
17 and she has been loving coming to church - the members are doing a wonderful
job helping her feel welcomed. At last week's Christmas party she asked if she
could sing, so I played the piano for her as she sang Silent Night. Several
days ago she called us asking if I could give her voice lessons. We received
permission from our leaders for it. I told M... that I could do it with a
few things to remember - it couldn't be a set-in-stone-time-each-week type of
thing because I'm not sure how long we will be here, it would have to be church
music, and our purpose as missionaries is to invite people to Come Closer to
Christ so we asked her if she will allow us to share with her the meaning of
the songs we sing. She gladly accepted. Starting this Thursday! Pray for
M.... that testimonies through music will help her learn and love the gospel
:)
Also, somehow I ended up in the front of the Sacrament
Meeting yesterday, leading the music for the Primary kids' Christmas songs. And
I have been asked to lead the music in Primary for the next several weeks
because there is no one else available in the ward that could do it due to
callings and everyone being away. Haha it's been a blast!
Last night, our ward had the Christmas Musical Celebration
that we have been working on for the last several weeks. I wish with all my
heart that we could have recorded to remember because the event in general was
miraculous. But a recording would not do it justice. The spirit of Christmas
enveloped the room that entire experience. When we first brought this idea up,
our Bishop wasn't excited about the idea because with it being the week before
Christmas, he didn't think anyone was going to come. But we, missionaries, felt
so strongly that we needed to do this and we promised to put ourselves in
charge of it and make sure everything went smoothly. We created the script,
wrote up the programs, put together all the side parts, and strived to include
as many ward members as possible. Not to mention we invited everyone we talked
to on the streets as well. We had about 15 songs altogether - all sung or
performed by members in the ward. Narration of the nativity was done by Elder
Dunyon, and 13-year-old Gionni Colantonio. The chapel was filled with over 100
people! Over 25 of whom weren't members! WOW!! Afterwards, we had refreshments
provided by all the members and we situated the chairs in the way that people
could sit and mingle with lots of different groups. We are just sitting on
cloud nine right now. It was wonderful. Many ward members approached us stating
that they hope that this happens again next Christmas and many expressed that
they wanted to invite many more people to join them as well! It was a Christmas
dream.
M... is doing amazing of course! Progressing towards baptism
on the 4th of January. Please pray for her! Miracle is this: M... has had
health problems pretty much her entire life. She had an enlarge aorta that was
close to erupting that needed to be checked, plans for surgery on her shoulder,
therapy for broken ankles, soreness from her car accident, this list goes on
and on. She received a blessing from our Ward Mission Leader a couple weeks
ago. Last week she missed church because she was in the hospital for two days
getting everything checked out. After all the tests were done - EVERYTHING was
gone. No more doctor's appointments until the middle of January, the heart thing
disappeared, her blood sugar is leveling out. She is receiving so many
blessings right now. I TESTIFY that it is due to the power of the Priesthood
and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It produces MIRACLES. So grateful.
Merry Christmas everyone! I love you all so much!
Sister Bodine
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