Monday, December 23rd 2013: Do as He would do. Love as He would love.

This week was great!
We are teaching this young man Freddy, he is awesome! He has been reading the Book Of Mormon very steadily and enjoying it, we met with him this week and taught the plan of salvation, he enjoyed it and at the end of the conversation we got on the topic of jeeps and cars, and he has a Nissan Skyline that he takes to the SEMA show is Vegas, it was really cool to be able to make a connection with him and I feel like he thinks we are a little bit more on the normal side now, rather than just strange girls that wear skirts everywhere and can’t be anywhere alone with a boy! hahah we had a hard time meeting with him at first because he is a single male, but we meet at his friends house who is a member, and it works out really well!! :]
We also began teaching this young man David this week, he is really cool and is unsure where it has come from but has said he is getting a random curiosity for the Book of Mormon, so that was cool. Our lesson went really well and we brought Hannah with us, Hannah has been a member for about a month now so it was really cool to see her bear her testimony to him! They are both progressing really well! We have been out caroling every night this week and people LOVE it!!!! They are so much nicer to us at the doorstep than usual and it really gives them a chance to feel the true meaning of Christmas! So I have really loved that, even though I now have a cold and I raspy voice, it is for a good cause!! We moved 3 people this week; I can’t imagine the stress of moving a week before Christmas but hey, to each their own! It felt good to do some physical service!
On a total side note, this week we had to drive to the collision repair center because my comp got in a little accident with the ditch on the side of the road before I got here, so I told her we need to get it taken care of, anyways, as we were leaving the collision repair center there was a jeep dealership across the way and I saw the new Grand Cherokee, I am SO disappointed in jeep.... they went from having the most beautiful SUV on the market to the most horrendous looking THING!! Ehhh! And they are putting gold grill slots in the JK's now? That was gross! Man! Anyways!! Sorry, random tangent!
I didn't get much time to tell you about last week so I will briefly update you, last week we had the Mission Christmas Party! It was a blast and very spiritual too! We had been reading the Book of Mormon as a mission and we read the last chapter together that day, it was really neat! The first picture is President Weaver and I at the Christmas party!
I invite all of you to add a little Christ to your Christmas this year and at least read these scriptures on the appropriate day; I’ll even make it easy for you and put them on here!
Today, Monday Dec. 23rd Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
(Notice the comma between Wonderful and Counselor and that all the other names have an adjective before them, but this is not saying He is a wonderful Counselor, He is Wonderful, and a Counselor!)
Tuesday Dec. 24th Christmas Eve 3 Nephi 1:13
Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets.
Wednesday Dec. 25th Christmas Day!!! :] Luke 2:10-11
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

Sorry this is so long, but I love you all!!!
HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
Love, Sister Falkner

And the last picture is our cute Christmas tree and presents!!! :]

Monday, December 16th: A Picture Says a Thousand Words, and I'm Outta Words!

1. Hanging Lights up for a member :]

2. The Elders and Sisters of the Olympia 4th ward! We decorated the tree!

3. Sister Palmer and I!! :]

4. I love this!! Remember Christ this year!!!

Transfer calls were on Saturday and we are staying together! Yay!

Have a wonderful week! I love you all!

Love, Sister Falkner

Happy Days, All Is Well: December 9th 2013

Let the Christmas season begin! :] The Christmas devotional was amazing! I loved the part about the Hymn "Far Away on Judea's Plains" the lyrics are so great! It is a happy day, and all is well! We have God to thank for so much and He brings so much peace into our lives!! I also really loved what President Monson said about The Spirit of Christmas and if you take off the last syllable it is simply The Spirit of Christ! I hope and pray you can all feel His Spirit this wonderful time of year!! Some fun things happened this week! I got to go on my first exchange since being released as a Sister Training Leader and it was a blast, Sister Scott came to my area, she is from Ephraim and is good friends with one of my sister Britt's old Laurels. So she knew my family a little bit already! I was praying so much that I would learn from her and our short 24 hours together and I did! She has such an incredible testimony of the Book of Mormon, we went over to visit Suzi and she was having terrible withdrawal symptoms from the medication she is coming off of, she was pacing and sweating and just could not sit still, it was kind of scary to see her that way, but we asked her to sit down and we began to read the Book of Mormon to her from page 1, within the first few verses she was completely calmed and brought to ease! It was amazing! The power of the Book of Mormon is real!! I decided I wanted to try something new this week and we did it while I was on the exchange, we went Family History tracting, we took our ward Family History Representative with us and we went tracting in a 55+ community, everyone was so friendly, which was surprising because it was a "no soliciting" community, but they all love family history and wanted to hear about it, so that was great! It went well for a trail run! We also had our ward Christmas party this week, Suzi and Freddy came, they are the main two people we are working with. Suzi is being baptized on January 1st and is doing so well at working towards her goal; she is pretty much already a member! It’s great! She is Duane's wife, technically we gave Duane to the elders, but I still get to teach him and he is just a really great guy! I like him a lot! He reminds me of my big brother Sam!! :] (on a side note, Elder Bing, that is serving in 4th ward with us, he really reminds me of Ian! haha) but Suzi is doing well and she loved the Christmas party, she brought her daughter Katy and Katy brought her boyfriend Steven, so we are hoping to be able to work with all of them soon enough! :] Freddy is awesome! he is 19 and is in the marine core, we met him my first week here and he has since already read the first 120 or so pages of the Book of Mormon, he is enjoying it and he also came to the ward party, he is good friends with an inactive member but the great thing is that his friend is willing to come to the activities with him so that he doesn't feel alone, so they were both at the Christmas party. when we got there, I saw Freddy with an apron on and putting ice in all the cups, I laughed and said "Freddy what're you doing?" he just looked at me and said "well, I’m just helping" Freddy is really awesome and he continued to "just help" the rest of the evening by serving everyone their lasagna and cleaning up afterwards! He is praying about baptism on December 28th. That's the exciting part of my week! It has been around 15-20 degrees this week, it is REALLY cold!!!! But we are managing! It’s a very different kind of cold here, it penetrates to the bone and there is nothing you can do about it but shiver! Hah Anyways! I love you all!!!

Love, Sister Falkner

This is pretty much all the snow we get here! So far! hah. We will see if more is coming!

Leftovers For Life: December 2nd 2013December 2nd 2013

December 2nd 2013

Happy belated Thanksgiving my loved ones!!! :]

I hope you all had a great day and truly reflected on how blessed we are in the wonderful life!

Thanksgiving as a missionary... well we were told that we could have as many thanksgiving dinners as we could fit in one day, or our tummies. hah! So we started our day off by being picked up at 11:30am and we went to our first dinner at the Smiths home. Brother Smith is a member and his wife is not, but she suggested that he invite us, it was very nice and there were a few of their friends and family there as well, the elders came along too!

After that we went over to Suzi and Duane's home for our 2nd dinner! They are so great! Suzi just got out of surgery this week but she wanted to feed us so badly that she made it work! They were all exhausted from the cooking and baking and moving furniture to make some space for us, but they pulled it all off and we had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner with them and their friends and neighbors! :] the greatest part of the day was at their home. Two really wonderful things happened!

1. We all went around the table and said what we are grateful for, Suzi said she is grateful to be joining the true church, she is being baptized on January 1st :] then she practically bore her testimony about the church and how blessed her life has been since meeting with us, it was so special! THEN!!!! Duane said what he was grateful for and he said "I'm grateful for you guys (looks at all us missionaries) ya’ll ain't gonna convert me though... (awkward silence) I'm just kiddin' we'll see!" it was great! Duane will be baptized soon enough! He is being prepared! Then he prayed for the food which was a huge step for him! It was so fabulous!!!

2. The next best thing of the day was the homemade butterscotch cheesecake Duane made! I had been saving room for it all day!!! He was going to make a white chocolate cheesecake, but he found out I wasn't eating chocolate and changed the recipe for me! It was so dang delicious!!

Later on in the day we went over to another family’s house, the Klumkers, they are a really great family!! We had a nice lesson with them and got to enjoy some pie, it was really nice! They have a very "Homey" house! It felt good to be there!

The rest of our week was good, I haven't been feeling very good, but I’ll get over it!

We found this really sweet old lady named Anna this week! She is 96 and wants to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year! We are meeting with her on Wednesday; hopefully she remembers who we are! :]

I love you all! We are now in the month of December, or as we call it in the mission, the month of Christ!!! :] Always remember Him and what He did for you!

Love, Sister Falkner

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2874125972001

Sister Palmer and I on Thanksgiving!!

We were grateful that the sun was shining!!! :]