Christmas

Merry Christmas!

"We must never forget what He did for us, for without His Atonement and Resurrection, life would have no meaning. With His Atonement and Resurrection, however, our lives have eternal, divine possibilities." -Elder Christofferson-

 

Such a great quote!

 

Seeing my family on skype was the best present ever! 

Unfortunately after Skyping and breakfast with the Archibald family... 

Boom! our flu symptoms got worse. We barely made it home and practically 

crawled.... into..... bed...... 

Sister Kopetky (the mission nurse told us to call her when our fevers were back down to 99) 

We felt like we woke up a year later and it wasn't even Christmas yet. But the calendar assured us it was. Maybe it was just that talking to our families felt like a dream! 

The families we were suppose to visit were very understanding that we didn't want to give them the gift of the flu for Christmas & one family even offered to send her daughter to drop some Christmas ham and tamales off to us. Wow. We were so grateful. This ward is so kind. 

Sister Hoogstra on Sunday brought groceries for us becuase she knew we were sick. 

I am so touched by the kindess of this ward. 

 

           Another exciting thing happened on Sunday! Can you guess who is in the picture? 

KENDAL!! 

Mom and Bella met her in Provo! Of all the wards she could have stopped in on...it was the Sheboygan ward! She gave me a hug and said, "This is from your family! I just want to thank you for all you are doing, if it weren't for Sisters... I wouldn't be here. And when I was walking around temple square- I just was overwhlemed by the Spirit I felt. The gospel is what's REAL!"

& this is Tyner. 

She is a sweet young woman in the ward who we take "heart attacking" with us. It's such a fun tradition- and it's really good for the 3 of us to talk, share scriptures, and laugh for an hour.

Tyner deals with a lot of challenges in her life but has been a blessing in my life because of her incredible positive attitude! During our ward's Christmas devotional this year (Bishop just started the tradition this Christmas) it was pretty amazing because without talking to one another Sister Prestwich and I thought, "This is the ward's activity, we'll let everyone in the ward who wants to go up first." But then I really felt like I should go! I bore my testimony about reading The Book of Mormon as a mission- marking in red and green. "Even though I am away from my family, and it's really hard.. I can pick up the phone and call my Heavenly Father whenever I need Him. Reading the Book of Mormon has brought me so much closer to Him and my Savior. This is the most Christ-centered Christmas I've ever had and becasue of that it is the most memorable." I was walking back and Sister Prestwich stood up and went too! But there was a reason for all of this. Tyner got up to bear her testimony and said, "Heavenly Father has a sense of humor because I had said to my Mom jokingly, 'If both of the Sister missionaries get up to bear their testimonies.... in a ROW... then I'll go!'... and then THEY DID!!" haha That was a huge stretch for Tyner to bear her testimony! I love being a missionary and noticing how aware our Father is Heaven is of each of His children. I know I am the happiest in life when my testimony is the strongest!  

Steadfast & Immovable in Christ!

Love, 

Sister Osmond

Love is a Verb

"True Christianity is love in action. There is no better way to manifest love for God than to show an unselfish love for your fellow men. This is the spirit of missionary work."

-President David O. McKay-

I spoke at Ashton Holme's baptism! on the Holy Ghost! There were so many non-members there. It was so fun to testify of the restoration of the Priestood. I had no idea how much that meant to me until my mission where I have talked to so many of other faiths. 

 

Sorry this is short but this P-day is a little different because we are going to see Christmas lights tonight. We did an hour of missionary work in the morning instead so we could go at night! :) 

So I wish I could have written more but I get to see everyone in THREE 3, 3, 3 days!!  

May the force be with you all!! I think about you all the time! <3

Steadfast & Immovable in Christ!

Love, 

Sister Osmond

Christmas Cookies

Dear Family, 

THIS WEEK: I am going to make a list of questions we can talk about on Christmas. & You can make a list too!  :) We are going to pack as much as we can into 40 minutes. .

Words can not describe how excited I am to see you guys! I'm sorry if my letters have not included my EXTREME excitement.. I've just been really little family-sick. I love you guys more than anything! We have a problem: we are way too close as a family. haha I notice that when I am talking to other missionaries, I just talk about my family like they are my best friends- i know they love their family too but being here has made me realize that i love all of you, your individual quirks and the phrases you say and the memories we have together and the trips we've taken and the jokes galore!! Just saying. :)

Sister Prestwich is so sweet. She has been so kind and I know she is meant to be my companion. We will be friends after this. I've really had to take charge on being punctual and feel like I'm pulling sometimes. She is so humble, last night after I told her that I would really appreciate her help she said, I need to be helping you more, we need to be equally yoked, I know you are tired sometimes and I just want to apologize... wow. I told her that she was so kind and I've learned a lot from her love for God and others.

The advent calendar has been a HUGE LIGHT amidst the difficult times we have face throughout December. I am beyond grateful for such a present and I now know how those Elders felt in Florida when we gave them Christmas presents with attached scriptures. I thought I knew, but I didn't. Now I understand. :)

 

I will cherish this Christmas for the rest of my life because it's been really hard. 

& I've gained an appreciation for the Atonement of Jesus Christ on such a deep level. 

He is my best friend.  

I could not do this if I did not know it is true. 

I absolutley do know that the gospel is true! I know that Christ lives! I want everyone to experience the healing that comes from allowing Him to help you. 

& Anyone who has sacrificed anything for this gospel will say the same thing. 

I know this because of my 1) Desire to know for myself  2) The action I've taken because of it & 3) The fruits, The undeniable experiences I have had, The love, comfort and motivation to press forward I have felt!  -Matthew 7:20-  and this is the pattern that everyone can follow to receive His guidance. 

 

We saw a lot of miracles this week after we faced a lot of opposition. The Mom of a family I really love slammed the door super hard in our face and yelled at us so loud I thought her next door neighbors were going to come out. I had felt really good about going to see her so I didn't regret going, but my heart stung that she would yell at us and tell us to go away because of something she had told other sisters missionaries about that we were unaware of.

Something that shocked me was the way I was able to handle this because I understand the Atonement a lot better now. I was able to have that sting removed from me and replaced with love for her and her hard situation. 

Wow- My heart was transformed. That's the only way I can describe it. 

 

Nicole told us that she doesn't want to learn anymore- with her baptism a week away. :( 

We need to meet with her as soon as we can and resolve her concerns. This seems to happen a lot. The hardest thing is that people DON'T CONNECT THE DOTS BETWEEN the opposition with the good ahead! 

I know I have seen this in my own life too. Something to be aware of. 

Even her daughter Ebony, who we are helping prepare for the temple in January has faced major trials and we told her yesterday... 

"This is because you are preparing for the temple."

She responded, "I did not even think about that."

 

In the Book of Mormon we read during the wars of the people whose opponents gained advantage over them simply because the people "Hadn't supposed they would...[fill in the blank]." interesting, huh? This blew my mind! OPPOSITION is real.

 

I would just like to invite everyone to step back and examine your life from a bird's eye view. :) 

It's amazing the things you will discover. 

Why do you think you are facing opposition? What is that opposition trying to stop you from accomplishing?

 

OK... SO HERE'S A FUN MIRACLE STORY!

Rosa is a hispanic lady who owns a Mexican Bakery in Sheboygan. 

Their family doesn't attend church, but her son Frank has been preparing for a mission and comes to church alone. 

We saw a hispanic lady walking down the street so we grabbed a spanish Book of Mormon and gave her a He is the Gift card and asked her if she had ever heard of El Libro de Mormon. She told us she had to go to work and didn't want to be late. 

So we walked down the street with this Spanish Book of Mormon in my bag. Wouldn't you know it... we walked right past Rosa's bakery. I looked over and...

DING!! This is Rosa's place! I had never met her.. so we walked in and said, "Are you Rosa?" She smiled and said that she was. She didn't know there were "girl missionaries" in Sheboygan. She was a little unimpressed at our ability to speak her language so I whipped out my, "Camaron que se duerme se lo lleva la coriente." and her face lit up! She said, "That's funny!!" 

I read 2 Nephi 32:3 from the Spanish Book of Mormon. She was so surprised that we had one in our bag. I was too because we never do!! 

We invited her to the Relief Society cookie exchange and told her that everyone would be fighting for the galetas she would make because of her baking skills. 

She has not been to church in a very long time so was a little hesitant, but her excitment exceeded it! We told her we could help her make them!! 

So here are the pictures of us with Rosa at her little bakery on 15th street. We laughed, she taught us some Spanish, and she put on some classic Christmas music for all of us to listen too!

Have a wonderful week! & travel safe!! I'm so excited for you all to be in Wales!!

 

Steadfast & Immovable in Christ!

Love, 

Sister Osmond

Rosa

     

Marsha, me, Sister Prestwich, and Brother Klunk

Exchanges

Saturday we had exchanges...

This is Sister Spens from Morgan, Utah- 

she lives on a sheep farm and is right next to HUNTSVILLE.

(I knew you would love that Dad.) I really loved being with her. Miracles always happen on Exchange days. Some of those miracles included investigators being home who are never home, Hannah Carroll (who came Pier contacting with us in the Summer) coming to Nicole Perry's lesson with us, and inviting everyone to the Christmas Devotional! At the end of our exchange we went to a lady's home in their area. There was a picture of her at the Jukebox theatre! 

It wasn't the first time on my mission I had met someone who had been to Branson before. CRAZY. 

Some of these people I met 10 years ago, never did I ever think I would be at their houses for a lesson on my mission.  It's really surreal, but really lucky. I love being in Wisconsin. 

"I knew the church was true just because of your family's example." Something she said while we were there.

 The best testimonies we could ever share with people are the righteous lives we live!

One really amazing thing that our mission is doing is at 3:00 we pray to reach 300 baptisms at the end of the year. 300 people with the strength of the gospel in their lives. Yesterday we ended up at the Pond's house at 3:00 for a lesson with Jared Pollock and asked them if they would like to join us. It's powerful to know that 275 missionaries are praying along with you at 3:00!! Jared's family have been greatly effected by his righteouss example to be baptized. 

He said yesterday, "I just wish everyone could know this!! You just wish you could shake people and say- you'll be so much happier." with the biggest smile on his face. Remember this is coming from an ex-heroine addict. 

 

Another cute thing that happened this week is we went to go visit a Laotian member. She didn't speak any English but gave us sticky rice and we sang her I am a Child of God. The spirit that filled the room was so peaceful.

 

We are also helping Thaina, an exchange student from Brazil, with her paper this week on the Power of Prayer & we are teaching her Japanese exchange student friends! 

They love the fun little Japanese phrases I know. It's a reminder of home.

They are all attending Lakeland college. We taught them all the Plan of Salvation and ordered a Japanese Book of Mormon for Yu. 

We compared coming to Earth life to college. An answered prayer on how to bridge the language barrier! Everyone understood and wanted to learn more. 

 

One thing Nicole Perry said this week over and over again that I love is:

"He's my Father. I know that He is there for me."

I know Heavenly Father Lives!! 

& always has your Best interest in mind. 

Pretty amazing that the most powerful being in the Universe has your best interest in mind. 

Rely on Him for Guidance.

 

Have a wonderful week.

The countdown to Christmas is the countdown to FAMILY TIME!!! Yeah! 

Can't wait to see everyone!!

Steadfast & Immovable in Christ!

Love, 

Sister Osmond

ps: I LOVE CUSTARD!! There. I said it. :)

We ate the best flavor today- Rice Crispy Treat! We told everyone in town about it. 

It was a crazy P-day. Went to Pomp's tire and auto to get the mantinence check up for our car Andy, went to the Sprint store to transfer our contacts because we were eligable for an upgraded phone, bought groceries, went to the landromat, and now we are here at this wonderful peaceful library!! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Breaking the Wishbone!

Thanksgiving was wonderful! 

We made little turkey cards for people with scriptures on them and passed them out. 

After we went to Don and Vals house. They have been saving wish bones for 5 years!!

So we all got to make a wish! I won but my wish was for both of us: That Nicole would get baptized. She is so close! She just needs to make church a habit before we can feel comfortable with her making this sacred covenant of baptism! 

We are loving sending our email from our new library!! The Kohler Library is wonderful!  

We were done with the Sheboygan Library... it was really sketchy and we got tired of always feeling like we had to keep our eye on our stuff. So happy we changed!

My training went super well at District Meeting. I fervently prayed for the Spirit to speak to their hearts as it did mine while I was studying obedience. I shared a short Guillian-Barre story and told them that although I have major fatigue I always get up on time! I'm grateful I could testify that obedience brings blessings because I have seen them in my life!! 

A theme that really stuck out to me this week in the scriptures was, 

"Our afflictions can be swallowed up in the joy of Christ!"

I loved this scripture this morning. Alma 33:11

"And thou didst hear me because of mine afflictions and my sincerity; and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been thus merciful unto me, therefore I will cry unto thee in all mine afflictions, for in thee is my joy; for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, because of thy Son."

He hears us, no matter where we are spiritually or physically. 

Christ = Hope!

& Happy December! 

In preparation for Christmas Bishop Holmes has invited us to ponder- 

"What shall I give to the child in the manger?" 

Steadfast & Immovable in Christ!

 

Love, 

Sister Osmond

ps: photos of our apartment :)

SERIOUSLY?! ha! We have also seen several Green Bay Packers Houses! Crazy!!

Don & Val

Sister Berg, Marsha, Adam and his girlfriend Ari