"Thank you, Jesus! Amen." -Jasmine, age 5

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year! Two weeks is too long, I've missed yall :)

I have a couple miracles to share! First is our Christmas miracle. Weeks ago, Sister Kelly was sent $100 from a friend at home to spend on someone in need. We stewed over that money for a long time and finally decided to call our good friends the Zone Leaders the day  before Christmas Eve. They have been preparing a family of 6 kids to be baptized and they wouldn't be having a Christmas. They were debating moving their celebration to January when their next paycheck came in :/ Long story shorter, we teamed up with them, let some members in the area know what we were doing, and ended up with $400 to spend on this family. We got each of them presents and

stocking and bought the family food for a nice Christmas dinner. Everything was wrapped and ready on Christmas Eve and we went to drop it off! We wished it could have been anonymous, but there was no way to get our two trunks full of gifts up to there apartment without all the neighborhood kids seeing... The Elders have told us how grateful the family is and we are so grateful for the Christmas Spirit we could feel while helping these beautiful people :) It was wonderful, pray for the Law Family :)

Our Christmas also included several dinners with families, Christmas jammies, TALKING TO OUR FAMILIES, and serving lots of people. I loved it.

For the New Year we played with sparklers, watched fireworks from the youth dance from our window, took some pictures, and watched a Pioneer movie :) On New Years Day we drove out to Jackson with the Zone Leaders for our Missionary Leadership Council. There was a little party there and we stayed the night for our all-day meeting on the 2nd. This was my first real MLC and it was exciting to be involved in bettering the mission, helping the missionaries, and pushing the work forward! I'm excited to apply everything we learned and teach the Zone so they can as well. MLC was exactly what I needed to start the year off rededicated to this work :) I'm pumped. 

Writing MJM with sparklers!

Second miracle: Prayers are answered. Finding people to teach in this area is extremely hard. (I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that) Tracting usually feels like a waste of time! We have been given plenty of other ways to find people and permission to spend more of our time doing them, but we decided to take an hour to knock on doors yesterday. Sundays are usually best to find families at home, usually after they have been to church, and they tend to be more willing to listen to us. We prayed together about where to go, picked streets on the map, and went to a street that both of us had been drawn to. Yall. Third door we knocked, Natasha answered and LET US INSIDE TO TEACH HER FAMILY. She is a single mom of 4 kids, all under 11, they recently moved to the area, and she raises her children with wonderful faith. In my 5 weeks here, this was the first person to let us into their house. We sat down, they turned off their TV, we taught a full lesson, and they were all engaged. Natasha accepted a Book of Mormon, and set up a time for us to come back! All of the kids wanted to say a closing prayer, Jasmine is in my subject line :) Little black kids are my favourite! When we left, Sister Kelly and I were speechless. God answers prayers! We REALLY needed a good lesson yesterday to lift our spirits and He knew that. 

This year is going to be a great one. I'll be able to spend every day but 10 out here serving the Lord :) I've made some resolutions that will help me to grow, to reach more people, and to draw closer to my Saviour. I'll be seeing many miracles this year, I can feel it! And they will change me :) Thank you for your prayers and support, I received many cards and things in the mail and I appreciate the thoughts so much!  I spent some time journaling and reflecting on this last year, and I decided that being a missionary is the hardest/greatest thing I have ever done and I can't imaging being here without you! 

Have a blessed week! Write me an email sometime :) 

Love, 
Sister Bartsch