"Fa la la la la la la ka-Ching" MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Wow what a week full of the Christmas spirit! Monday was absolute chaos. We had to go to the post office to send the packages and man there was the longest line and everyone had not so happy spirits!! We ran around getting everything done but I hope you liked the Christmas cards :)

Tuesday we had zone training and sister Hyer and I trained on things elder Bennett talked about. We served at the temple visitors center that night!! It was so fun!! Wow so many amazing people came in and you talk to a ton of people. It was way fun. We get to go again on the 30th. The church hired a guy named Emmanuel to drive us up in his bus to the TVC. He was so funny and I busted a gut laughing talking to him. Also he took a picture of all the sisters in front of the temple and then called two guys over and was trying to set us up with them. Hahaha FYI Emmanuel isn't a member. Haha so funny.

Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Leesburg sisters!! I was with Sister Snow. We knocked on this door and a very tall man opened the door. I had to crank my neck to look up at him. He looked like an NBA player. His name is Reggie! He was super nice. We passed him to the goose creek sisters. 

Thursday we went to go give this one lady getting out of her car a Light the World card and she just was not havin it!! She was like "No, I don't need that, Jesus is the light, I am the light! Matthew 11...!" And just went off haha it was funny. She was nice though. We contacted a solid member referral named Daniel and we are going back tomorrow!! That night Kennedy came to a lesson with us that fell through, so we knocked on their neighbors apartment door. This kind family from Egypt let us in and talked with us for a bit. The dad bore his testimony of God and it was making Kennedy cry. When we were leaving the dad told Kennedy "you cry beautiful tears" aww it was so cute and such a cool experience to meet them. 

Friday we planned and went to a lesson that fell through. We contacted a Spanish cleaning lady and we were trying to talk with her and then all of a sudden...

She was like  "no me gusto Mormons. Not good. BYE!" 

Me: "Okay well God loves you! Feliz Navidad!" 

We get in the car and Sister Hyer was like "what a savage Hispanic lady." Haha oh sister Hyer. She cracks me up.

Carlos' Baptism

We were driving home and we both got prompted to talk with this man walking on the side of the road. We kept thinking as we drove past well  "Do we do it?" Finally decided YES! It was totally the spirit. We flip a U and pull over to the side of the road.. start talking to him and are teaching him from the car. His name is Malik and he explained how he just lost a baby. We taught part of the plan of salvation and gave him a Book of Mormon. He took it and said he would start reading it right when he got home. He was so grateful for us stopping to talk with him. We called him the next day and he said he had read part of the Book of Mormon and it had changed his perspective on the situation he was in. HUGE MIRACLE!! We have plans to go back tomorrow and check in with him even though he texted us and told us he wasn't interested. We will see what he says tomorrow. Carlos also got baptized that night!! It was a beautiful service. It has been amazing to watch his progression in the gospel. He got confirmed yesterday at church!! What an amazing Christmas!

Saturday was so great! No better way to start off your Christmas Eve than to go serve at the homeless shelter! We handed out gift bags to them and they were so grateful! Loved it. It warmed my heart so much. Sunday was so fun we SKYPED!! Wow I loved that so much, I just love you family!! Best present ever. Thank you so much for everything. I read Luke 2 in studies and cried it just touched my heart. We had dinner with the Parkins and Carlos was invited over! We had church and wow I love church and the sacrament. I love the Savior. I know He lives. I know He is the Son of God and that He truly loves us each and knows us individually. Merry Christmas everyone! Have a happy new year. Stay safe out there :) also continue to light the world!! :)

Love you all so so much.

Xoxox,

Sister Hymas

 

Gifts from members

Hectic, crazy, busy, but MIRACULOUS week. :)

MERRY Christmas week!!  6 days ladies and gents. I'm so excited! :) 

Also, so sorry this email isn't going to be super great because we have a million things to do and not much time to do them haha! Sister Hyer and I defs didn't procrastinate doing all of the Christmas things the p day before Christmas. Haha. Oops.

Wow. This week just flew. Time flies when you're having A BLAST! Okay wow Monday was straight chaotic. We rode the metro into DC and had a grand trip. All was going well. We were planning on buying some DC things for gifts to send home from the souvenir cart/buses on the street. Usually there are a ton all along the street. Well sister Hyer and I get there and we start walking along and cannot find any. We walked, pretty much ran all around the Smithsonian. All over. Haha AND COULDN'T FIND ONE. We walked through a museum and finally just decided to ask one of the food cart people outside. She said they are all closed up because it rained that day and they aren't open when it rains! We were like "uhh.." are ya kidding. We came all the way here for zero souvenir trucks! Then all of a sudden she said "oh wait! There is only one at the very end of the street! She's the only one that's opened!" Okay. Totally the spirit that helped that lady to remember that souvenir lady, so grateful. We ran there and then got some gifts (which I sent in a package today! ;) let me know when you get it! P.s. You can open it Christmas Eve if you would like :)) and then we ran all the way back to the metro and I was sweatin like crazy. Haha. It was such a fun day though. We had dinner with the brassanini fam! And p.s. Brother brassanini works for the FBI. SO COOL. I feel like I never tell you guys about the people I meet here and how they all work for the FBI, military, NASA, etc. Ya don't see that everyday in Utah. Here it's a different story. You do see that everyday! Haha It's so cool!

Tuesday we had our half mission conference where Elder Randall K Bennett from the seventy spoke to us! It was so amazing. There are so many things to say about the conference but basically after everything he said I had such a great desire to be more obedient and work even harder. There are always things you can improve upon. I wish I could send you all the notes I took but I'll just include a quote here and there in all my emails hahah. Okay and then we had a lesson planed with Antwon that night. Okay super awkward story. He lives in lock out apartments so we have to buzz in to have them open the door. Well he came down and let us in. P.s. He doesn't have a phone. So we are talking with him and he is explaining to us how he doesn't have a phone and it's hard to contact him... then we move on to talking about if he's read the pamphlet, Book of Mormon, etc... when all of a sudden someone's phone starts ringing. Antwon's face turned to pure astonishment/"oh man they caught me" face. HAHAHAHA I lost my mind I was laughing so hard. He pulls out the ringing phone from his pocket and struggles to turn it off. He told us it was his girlfriend's phone, but his face clearly said something different. He really could've just told us it was his and he didn't want to give us his number haha. Oh well. Who knows! Maybe it was his girlfriend's phone. Haha it was just super awkward and super funny.

Wednesday we had MLC which was awesome, elder Bennett spoke there too. And president Huntsman. I just love president! He is seriously the best. I know He loves each of us missionaries. And sister Huntsman, wow I just love her! She is awesome. Later that day we carried groceries in for this cute little Spanish lady. That was fun. We went to the temple visitors center with Sarah that night and saw the lights and such. 

Thursday We had exchanges with the ham/cat sisters. So fun!! I learn so much from these sweet sisters. I love them. RJ, a Ward missionary, took us all out to lunch at Chipotle! P.s. First time ever having chipotle! I like cafe rio better. Wow okay another awkward story. Sister Winward and I went to go check on our investigator, Mister. Yes his name is mister. So we knock, his mom answers says he's not home. She isn't interested but gives a referral who lived up the street! So we leave and go and contact it. We contact the lady, she isn't interested, we start walking back down the street and I see mister and two of his friend pull up to his house and start walking up the steps to his door. I yell "hey mister!" And wave. He sees me and hurries up the steps into his house. But this time we are at the end of his porch steps and I'm like "hey we just want to talk with ya for a few minutes about the Book of Mormon and see how your doing! Hello! Heyy Mister!" Haha during all of this, Mister runs inside the house, his friends are awkwardly standing at the door like 'what do we do?!' looking down at us and looking back at mister in the house, we hear his mother laughing hysterically in the background and then his friends look back down at us, and just slowly shut the door. DENIED. Sister Winward and I just stand there for me moment. And I just start busting up. It was so funny! HAHAH yes so awkward. Mister really just didn't want to talk with us haha. Oh well! 

Friday came around and we planned, planned, planned! Hector, our ward mission leader, took us to a cute little Mexican restaurant for lunch! Wow it was so cute. It's in downtown Leesburg and mother, you would love it! We ate pupusas, and that was the first time I've ever had a pupusa! So we documented it. There was a bonfire at a members house that night so we spent our dinner hour there with Carlos.

Saturday we had another exchange with the goose creek sisters! I was with Sister Goudy and wow, she is a rockstar. Loved serving with her for a day! We had the chance to help a little Spanish family move into their new home. We helped move some mattresses and such. They were kind of creeped out at first but were so grateful for our help by the time we left. Had our ward Christmas party that night and Carlos baptismal interview! He passed! Wahoo! He gets baptized on Friday!! He asked me and Sister Hyer to speak. Uh oh. Just kidding it will be great!! We are so excited for him!! :) he has come so far. Wow it's been amazing to watch him progress. By far one of the best parts of missionary work...

...Wow. But everything about missionary work is so good. 

Sunday we had a HUGE MIRACLE! Everyday is a miracle but this one was so miraculous. We were coming home from church and saw this lady walking her dog. Sister Hyer said "hey let's talk to her" so we pull over and get out to talk with her. For a split second the thought "uhg no let's just go eat some food" came to my head. (It was lunch time by the way) yeah well that thought was totally Satan and I'm so glad sister Hyer followed that prompting because we were led to meet the sweetest most prepared lady in the world. Her name is Robinette and she said she has been searching for answers for awhile and haven't been able to find them. She said she never walks up the Street in this direction but her dogs led her that way today and then she said she ran into us! NOT A COINCIDENCE. I asked her if she had ever wondered why there were so many churches and she said "yes! All the time!" Or something Ike that. Wow she said she would be baptized if she came to feel it was true, and now she wants to meet with us and come to church. MIRACLE MIRACLE MIRACLE!! I know for a fact that God leads US and leads those who are prepared TO US when we are being obedient to His commands. ALWAYS obey Him and ALWAYS follow this spirit. That night we watched the Ashburn stake choir sing Handels Messiah! It was beautiful. Carlos came and it was super!

I love this work so much! I love Christmas. I can't wait to talk with y'all!! And I can't believe this transfer is almost over. It makes my heart so sad. Here's a stellar quote by President Huntsman, "If we truly love, we're going to be obedient and we're going to help others be obedient." Given at MLC about helping other missionaries be obedient. Goes for all of us though! Missionary or not. Love and obedience coincide with one another. If we love God, we will be obedient to Him.

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! 

Xoxoxo,

Sister Hymas

"This is God's work. The Gospel is true. AND I LOVE YOU!" #rhyming

Wow Wow Wow!!

You guys. This week though. It was full of miracles!! Also, we are riding on the metro to DC right now, and are currently going through tunnels and it sounds and looks like screeching dementors in this tunnel. Scary. And random. Haha. Also... CHRISTMAS IS IN 13 days. Not like I'm counting or anything haha I just love Christmas!! Not to mention Rach gets married in like 3... SAY WHAAT?! 

Tuesday, one of our ward missionaries, Jaya, took us to Cheesecake Factory! Wow. So much love for the food there. I got the Luau Salad and it literally looked like a luau in salad form! Definitely got the peanut butter chocolate cheesecake there... even though I'm so intolerant, it was worth it!! We had a lesson with Carlos that night where he received an answer to his concern and question about Joseph Smith being a prophet of God. It was so amazing. We showed the five minute restoration video at the end of the lesson and the spirit filled the room. It was there the whole time but was stronger during the video. There was a long silence after the video. Carlos broke the silence and said, "okay..... yeah. I believe he was a prophet." Jaw dropped. MIRACLES. LITERAL MIRACLES RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES. 

We went to the temple visitors center on Wednesday for Luis last day in the USA! He went back to Peru. So sad. :( but it went so well! I saw Sister Moore serving at the TVC! I went to high school with her! And her twin is in my mission. I also went on a blitz with Sister Snow and we found 3 new investigators for them!! God is seriously SO GOOD!! I cannot even express in words, how MIRACULOUS everyday is out here in the field. My eyes have been opened to see how God's hand is so evident in our lives. Every single life. We are His children and He does look out for us. I can testify of that.

Thursday we went on exchanges with the Brambleton sisters!! WAHOO! So much fun. I was with Sister Ketch, who BTW is my sister! Sister Lang trained her too. P.S. Sister Lang definitely goes home this week. My heart. Broken. So sad. You better go to her homecoming! Sister Frei goes home this week too!! Crazy stuff!!  Anyway, it was my first exchange as an STL and it was totally hectic and chaotic but what's new?! haha plans had to be moved all around... etc. Craziness calls for a good time. I had a ton of fun :) Sister Ketch is awesome! She is a rockstar missionary. We had a good time laughing about all the memories with Sister Langford. Hahah.

Friday we had another lesson with Carlos, and Sarah came. He was struggling with a concern about if the pope had the priesthood and if Joseph Smith had it too, at the same time.. like two different people holding the keys or something. Anyway, basically long story short, the spirit totally took over that lesson. We were sharing some scriptures with him and it seemed like he was getting semi-agitated and antsy... when all of a sudden a jaw dropping miracle happened. This is the conversation that went down...

Carlos: "okay lets do it. 23 right?"

(My mouth drops.)

Sister Hyer: wait, what? So anyway..

(She didn't quite understand what he said hahah she just moved on)

Carlos: "23 right?" 

Sarah: "you mean like the 23rd of December? You want to get baptized?" 

Carlos: "yeah."

Me: "what made you come to that conclusion?"

Carlos: "ever since I started meeting with you girls, my life has been changing. On the inside. In a good way. I been searching for answers and 'God said you want a concrete answer? Okay send the sisters.' I had an answer the whole time, it was right in front of me. Just the way you sisters talk about God and Jesus... you can tell you love God.... (and he went on about us)"

Wow. Yeah I was SO amazed and my heart was so touched by his answer!! It was a testimony to me to be an "example of the believers in word and deed." People notice. You never know the impact you have on someone as you follow God and live the gospel. 

Saturday we had a good Correlation meeting and Hector took us and the Leesburg sisters to lunch at Pei Wei. Super delish. Funny story. Sister Hyer was waiting for me in the bathroom. She got a little bored and started clogging (the dance) in the bathroom. A lady walks in. She gives her a weird look hahah and all I hear is sister Hyer say "HA sorry it's cold, just clogging to warm up..!" Lady doesn't give her the time of day and just asks if she was in line. Hahah I could just feel how awkward the whole situation was, while I was in the stall. I was dying trying not to laugh out loud. Hahah so funny. Giovanni fed us dinner and taught us a new word in Spanish! Luis told Giovanni to teach us Spanish so we get to learn a new Spanish phrase every time we see him haha. He taught us "santa vocka" that means holy cow. Fun fact for ya!

I got asked this week if "Hymas" was a German name. Haha never got that before! Do I look German? I don't know, maybe I do! Random question, do we know any Doug or Brenda Hymas's that lived out here? Also, I got some saaad news about my recent convert Diane. Remember her? From ft Belvoir? She moved to Reston when I was still in the fort. Anyway, I got news that she doesn't want any contact from the missionaries and how she doesn't want to be a member anymore. My heart broke. BUT sister Hyer told me some comforting words that she heard from someone else's mission president. They said, "You have to remember, this isn't the end of their story." SO TRUE. I know it's not the end of her story. The same goes for everyone too! Such wise words.

I wish I had unlimited time to write and tell you about all the amazing things that are happening out here, but that would took years! Everyday is a rollercoaster. Everyday I have the blessing to talk with so many wonderful people. Everyday is a party with Sister Hyer haha. Everyday God blesses us with miracles, so many I can't even count. I am so so grateful to be here. I love being a missionary. This is God's work. The gospel is true. And I LOVE YOU!!!

Xoxox,

Sister Hymas

#LighttheWorld

Wow. I love DECEMBER!! I love a Christmas time!! I love the spirit of the Holidays. It just makes me so incredibly happy. Also because Christmas is all about Christ, and we get to focus even MORE on Him. I hope everyone is doing the #LighttheWorld initiative! Seriously, best thing ever. We can truly become more like Christ in the small simple actions we do each day. 

This week was MIRACULOUS. For FHE on Monday, we had a bonfire at Max's house! We had three investigators show up and a few recent converts! It felt like I was back in college but at the same time still living as a missionary. Basically everyday life serving in the singles ward. Haha. We also went Christmas shopping for some gifts at the Leesburg outlets so that was super fun! I'll be sending a package in a few weeks :) 

Oh my lands. Okay so I wore my rain boots on Tuesday. We were walking around and all throughout the day I just kept getting this nasty wiff of a horrid smell. I thought it was me for the longest time. I kept asking sister Hyer if I smelled bad and she kept saying "no sister!" So I kept on going just hoping people didn't think I smelled bad. Well, nighttime comes around. Finally sister Hyer was like "sister you probably just stepped in dog poop!" I look down on my shoe. Definitely stepped in dog poop and it reaked. However, I was so relieved to know that it wasn't ME that smelled so bad!! ;) haha.

I hit my 8 months on Wednesday!! Say whattt?? That's crazy stuff. I can't believe I hit half way this month!! Wowza. Crazy. Okay funniest story of my life. We had some car troubles this week. Sister Hyer wrote it so well in her weekly, she so kindly let me use what she wrote. In the words of Sister Hyer: "So starting the weekend before last the lights in our car weren't really working. The fog ones. The brights would work just fine but the normal ones weren't shining like at all. So we had to drive with our brights and get about a million honks and flashes. But it's fine. Safety first. We call the senior missionary over cars early last week and he tells us to take it into a Subaru dealership. On Wednesday we did. We sit there for a while and then the man comes and tells us there is nothing wrong with our car but that the lights are just dim naturally. I was having some real un-Sister missionary like thoughts in my head. Like dude. You try and drive this car at night. You can literally see nothing. But whateves. He didn't charge us anything so it was all good. We were like well maybe they weren't as bad as we thought. Well that night once it gets dark we realized we could see literally nothing. The dashboard showed the little yellow pictures that says your lights are on but there was no light!! So brights again. And we called the senior missionary again. We chat for a while and finally he is like, did you try pulling back the lever? So I do it and bam! Lights!! Perfectly normal ones. I about died laughing because I felt so dumb but hey. It's all good we have light now. #LIGHTTHEWORLD." HAHAHA. Wow. Mystery solved. Thank goodness! It was scary driving at night. 

Thursday we had interviews with president! I. Love. President Huntsman!! He is such a good man. He is an inspired man. He is so encouraging. I never leave an interview feeling down. Sister Hyer and I had the opportunity to train the missionaries all day on talking with everyone. I learned So much from each of them. I know God places people in out path for a reason, and if we don't stop and take the time to open our mouths and talk with them, you may never find out whether they were prepared to hear the gospel or not. So just Preach it! I love these missionaries. I'm so grateful to serve with them. Haha okay, sister Huntsman sis the cutest! One missionary was like, "man my throat is killin me" and sister Huntsman immediately pops up and was like "do you need a cough drop?! I have one! I have lots! The Costco sized bag! President asks me to carry them around for him!" Hahah love her. Gotta love Costco too. We also raked leaves for Ashley during our lunch break too for light the world!!

We had some amazing lessons this week. We had a few lessons with Carlos and he is progressing so well! I learned on exchanges with sister Bray to start every lesson with a hymn. I loved that idea so we decided now to start each lesson by singing a hymn! And wow. Lemme tell you. Miracles happen. We started our lesson with Carlos with a hymn and that lesson was completely filled and led by the spirit. That was the lesson where Carlos accepted a baptismal date for December 23rd. I know that hymns invite the spirit. I know that we don't have to be good singers either! Ya need the spirit? Sing a hymn and pray :) I'm so grateful for the Spirit. 

Also, we just got a text from Carlos today saying "I'm really feeling like I want to get baptized right now." WOW. Sister Hyer and I were just like: WOOOOOOOOOOOO!! It was a complete miracle. Carlos has been taught for like a year and now he finally wants to be baptized. It's a miracle. It's all Gods hand. I am just so grateful to be here.

We had stake conference yesterday and they are doing something so cool where they are taking all of the YSA wards in the northern Virginia and Dc Area and making a YSA stake. So we got to witness the stake be created! That was way cool. And two members of the seventy, elder Perkins and elder Calderwood came and spoke! I shook Elder Calderwood's hand and talked with him for a few minutes. Good fellow!! The bittersweet news is that our Bishop, Bishop Janzen, got called to be the stake president. So sad but happy at the same time! He is such a Good guy. I'm so grateful for his example of true selfless service and love.

I want to bear my testimony that I know God loves His children. I know His hand is so evident in our lives we just have to open our eyes to see Him. I love this gospel. I know that it's true. I know that Jospeh Smith is the prophet of the restoration. I know that Christ lives. I know He is our greatest friend and our Advocate with the Father. I know that He is the Light of the world and we can become more like Him by DOING what He did while He was here on earth. God needs us to love, lift, and help each other. SO.... Go LIGHT THE WORLD!! :)

Love you all so much.

Xoxoxo

Sister Hymas :)

Scripture of the week: 3 nephi 5:13: I am a disciple of Jesus Christ...