"I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" -December 19th, 2016

Well, we have had great week here in Prattville, Alabama! 

...Other than a bug that has been going around that we both have been fighting...

But hey, it definitely didn't stop us!

At the beginning of this week we had a great exchange with some Elders in our zone and I was able to spend time with Elder Stuart again! It was a good day and great to be with Elder Stuart again. 

A few days later we had our mission Christmas party! We had a zone conference in the morning and learned a lot of great stuff. Then in the afternoon we had a talent show and also watched a movie! We watched Zootopia and it was awesome! haha I'll attach a picture of the prattville missionaries from the party. In the devotional we read the story of Christ's birth and sang the hymns that correlate. It really helped bring the feeling of Christmas and keep our thoughts on the true meaning of CHRISTmas. 

Then the next day was another one of those extra special Saturdays. Joy, Jannice, and Jordan were all baptized and it was perfect. There's something very tender and special when a whole family decides to be baptized together. It was a very spiritual meeting and i'm so grateful for the opportunity that I had to be a part of their whole conversion process. It's also amazing because this has all come from an amazing member in our ward who was introduced us to four people now who have been baptized. It truly shows the power that members have in missionary work! It may be in the 70's here on Christmas but i'd take this type of a White Christmas (baptism) over real snow any day! 

Well, i'm going to keep it short this week since we'll be talking in six days:) 

I hope y'all have a great week and I wish each of you and very Merry Christmas!!

Peter Has Always Been My Favorite Apostle -December 12th, 2016

Well hello everyone! 

This week was fantastic and so much was accomplished! We started the week with our Zone Training and it went really well. We really put a lot of time and effort into it and we could definitely tell that it touched the zone. It makes all of the work worth it when a missionary comes up to you and tells you that a training was meant just for them and thanks you for it.

I love the temple so much! Wow. I'm so grateful that we were able to go this week. I'm so looking forward to continually attending throughout my life and learning more and more each time I go. I hope I never take take the temple for granted and always maintain it as an utmost priority in my life. 

Thursday was a long day too! Before we went to the temple we were asked to help out with seminary. We were asked to do this little play about the resurrection of Christ, focusing on Mary and the apostles reactions. Let's just say I'm very grateful I had release time because we had to wake up at five and it killed us haha but it was a ton of fun and we also were fed breakfast so it made it worth it;) I'll attach a pic. ( I was Peter.. hence the title)

We had an exchange with the ap's (assistants to the president) and it went really well also. I was with Elder Tullis and we had some great experiences. Most of our appointments fell through so we mainly focused on finding and we met a lot of great people. Elder Tullis and I served around each other when we were first in the mission and it was great to be able to catch up and learn more from each other as we worked. It was also really good to spend time with Elder Diede again, such a spectacular missionary! 

Elder Coleman is doing very well. He's really fitting in perfectly to Prattville and things are going great here! We're really trying to work our hardest together and also having a blast while we do it. This week we're really looking forward to quite a few things! We have an exchange planned with the amazing Wetumpka elders, our mission Christmas party, and also the baptism of one of our main investigating families! Joy, Jennice, and Jordan are all planning on being baptized this week and we're so ecstatic that they've made this decision to change the direction of their lives and point them towards Christ. 

Alright, that's all I've got for y'all this week! Love you! 

Fresh Start! -December 6th, 2016

Hey y'all! We've had a pretty busy past week... 

Started the week with Elder Opare packing and getting ready to head out along with saying goodbye to the people here in Prattville. Then on Wednesday we had Transfer which is when I got Elder Coleman! He's awesome by the way. We get a long really well already. This is going to be a fantastic transfer. 

Then on Thursday is when the fun began! We headed back to Birmingham again for MLC. It was a great meeting and we learned a ton. We've still been focusing on the basics for the younger missionaries in this mission. This meeting was focused around a few things including faith and prayer. We'll be taking the information and training's that we received and presenting them at Zone Training tomorrow! A few Elder and I took a picture with President because we were all wearing green ties! I'll attach it below. 

This week we also have our Temple trip on Thursday! I'm so grateful that we're still able to attend the temple in our mission and have the spiritual uplift that it brings. 

We've also began the Christmas festivities! We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday and it was a blast. It was a night in Bethlehem theme! We've also broken out the Christmas music! AND a few weeks back I found an awesome tree in our apartment closet with lights and ornaments so we've got it set up and looking brilliant! I'll get y'all a pic. 

In other news, we've also got a family that we've been teaching that has a baptism date for the 17th if y'all could keep them in your prayers. 

One last thing that I wanted to share with y'all is our missions vision for this month. We've set a very high goal this month for baptisms. We're focusing on having every companionship in the mission baptize this month but also helping recent converts and less active members get to the temple to do baptisms for the dead! The vision is that we're going to have a "White Christmas"! So yeah, if y'all could also keep our mission in your prayers for this months goal, I'd really appreciate it! 

That's all I've got for this week! I love y'all and will talk to you again soon!