Monday, December 1, 2014

Christmas City USA

Dear Family and Friends, 


So this week was awesome! I got to my new area on Wednesday and I am loving it so far! Rupert is pretty tiny. Not as tiny as Oakley though! So apparently I am living in "Christmas City USA!" Who knew? I guess Rupert has been officially named Christmas City. Every year, the day after Thanksgiving, they light up the ENTIRE town with Christmas lights and they shoot off fireworks for like 20 minutes. Seriously insane! I guess it is a good thing I will be spending Christmas here! :) They say if you address a letter to "Christmas City USA" that it will come to Rupert Idaho. Of all places? Maybe you should try it out? haha I love my mission! 

My new companion is Sister James and she is awesome! She is from New Mexico, and she likes to ride motorcycles. Pretty dang awesome. She is a wonderful missionary and I have learned so much from her already! She is also the oldest of 6 children. And whenever people find out that we are both the oldest, they always say, "Do you guys boss each other around?" Haha. #oldestchildsyndrome. 


Rupert is pretty cool. There is a lot of really great work going on right now! We cover 3 wards, so we stay pretty busy! We have 3 baptisms coming up this month which is awesome. There are definitely a lot of prepared people here. We live with a members and I love it! This week we start exchanges with the Sisters, so I am pretty excited about that! It will be awesome to get to know all the Sisters better and get to spend one-on-one time with them. I am pretty sure this is going to be the most awesome transfer ever! We have a great District, Zone, and Sisters, so I am pretty stoked! 

Thanksgiving was pretty good. I missed all you guys though! It wasn't the same not being with the family, but we had an amazing dinner and lots of pie:) We visited a lot of people and shared messages about being grateful, and we played card games with some members! It was a good day, and I definitely have a lot to be grateful for. 

Also if you have already heard, the church is doing a huge Christmas initiative called "He is the Gift." It is a 5 minute video about how Christ was the first gift of Christmas, and how this year we need to DISCOVER the gift, EMBRACE the gift, and SHARE the gift. So as missionaries, we have pass-along cards that advertise the video and we have been challenged to hand out at least 10 a day. We have to keep track of how many referrals and new investigators that we get from this initiative and report it to church headquarters each week. The church bought out YouTube advertising for the entire day on December 7th so the "He is the Gift" video will be the only thing advertised on that day. The church also rented a jumbo tron in Times Square that they will be advertising the video all of December. They are going all out! Also in the December Ensign there are 9 pass-along cards for you to hand out. You are also encouraged to share it on social media with the hashtag #SharetheGift. It is so awesome and Sister James and I are pumped about it! So if you haven't already, go look up the video, and share it with everyone! That is my challenge to all of you:) 

I seriously can't believe that it is already December and that Christmas is approaching us. I am so grateful for the gift of Jesus Christ and His atonement that changes our hearts and our lives. I encourage you all to remember and ponder the true meaning of Christmas and what Christ means to you! You all are awesome! I love you. Have a great week! God bless:) 
D&C 68:5-6
Love, Sister Bigelow
Happy thing: So yesterday, we were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting about missionary work in one of our wards that is struggling with missionary work. Sister James and I both spoke, and there was a missionary homecoming as well. It was just an awesome missionary Sacrament meeting! And after we were done, the Stake President got up and said, "You all need to buck up and help these missionaries out." Haha. They totally got chastised and it was awesome. After the meeting like 10 people came up to us and asked us what they could do to help. Best thing ever. 

No comments:

Post a Comment