Happy New Year! (Or, in other words, Happy Birthday to Sister Ashford!)

This week we have been teaching Allan Poe a lot in preparation for his baptism in two weeks (January 15th!) and we have been trying to find new investigators and move the work forward here in quaint Mineola.

Me with my cello backpack! #meandmycello

CAMMIE IS GETTING BLESSED! After a complicated situation and calls to President Reynolds, Zone Leaders, District Leader, Presidente Reyes, and the soon-to-be president of the MTC, I am happy to say the daughter of one of our dearly beloved members has received the permission from her father to be blessed when they go to visit their country in March. This is a major stress reliever for me. More progression in this family is pending, but Cammie being able to receive her baby blessing gives me exquisite happiness and joy. I am grateful for the patience of the mother, the faith of the family, and the will of our Father in Heaven for allowing this to happen. Baby blessings may not be a saving ordinance, but the forward-moving progress of this family is a victory.

On Wednesday we were invited in to a Dominican birthday party. We wanted to share a message with some potentials Named Angel, Angel Luis, and Angelito, but we were told when the door opened that it was the mom (Angelita's) birthday. Then Angelita peered around the corner of the kitchen towards the door and we heard, "Pasan! Pasan adelante!" They had several beers around the kitchen table, and they may or may not have been a slight bit tipsy, but we were able to share our message about Lighting the World with Christ's light. They liked our message, but professed their Catholicism and seemed unwilling to change. As we tried to leave, we were told to sit, and a cake was brought out. We then sang to Angelita, ate cake, took videos, and slipped out quietly while more family was entering.

In terms of awkward situations I get myself into, on Tuesday Sister Ashford went to the doctor. While she was getting a hearing test, I was left alone in a two-person, decently small, waiting room with a boy who was studying law at Hofstra and we began to have a conversation. This wouldn't have been awkward in it of itself except the whole time I was thinking, "oh no my companion isn't here. I can't talk to boys. Oh dear this boy's dad is a lawyer for Walmart that makes it worse he could sue me. Oh no I can't even hold a proper conversation the mission really does ruin social skills. His ear drum is perforated I hope he doesn't need surgery poor thing. Can I share the gospel with him? Would that be too awkward? Does he like Jesus? What do I say if he doesn't like Jesus? I only know how to talk about the gospel." It was almost as awkward as when parents leave us alone with children and we freak out a bit and don't know what to do so we slowly walk away from the child or sit petrified until the caretaker returns. The good thing about it being Christmas time is that we can pretty much give anyone we see a card about a Christmas video because it's fairly inoffensive and normally heals any tensions.

Dinner with the Reyes'. (Picture courtesy of Elder Brown)

P.S. Burger's Funnel cake fries.

The Elders boxed our car in this week. They thought they were clever.

Getting ready for the New Years was exciting. Our lockdown in our apartment started at 6pm. We ate P.S. Burgers (I wasn't as fond of the Vienna burger, but the funnel cake fries were better than delicious), we watched a face-to-face with Lindsey Sterling (she is a pretty amazing person. Also, she served her mission in New York New York North, so we were neighbors), I played cello (for one of the last times - I'm turning it in tomorrow. My gratitude is full for what time I did have with the cello), and we played Trivial Pursuit (which just showed me how much I don't know. 'All I know is that I know nothing' has never been so true).

New Years with a Sleeping Companion:

Sister Ashford set an alarm for 11:55pm so we could celebrate her birthday and the new year at midnight. The moment the alarm went off my tired brain thought 'BIRTHDAY!' and I began to sing happy birthday.

"Sister," my companion said, "my birthday isn't for another five minutes."

"Oh, okay." I replied.

Apparently about twenty seconds feels like a lifetime to me because I started to sing happy birthday again in a very tired and not-very-awake manner. "Sister," came the chastisement, "just wait three more minutes."

"Oh, okay. Sounds good," I said.

An alleged forty seconds later my sleep-ridden voice apparently just couldn't wait because I started to sing feliz cumpleaños. Upon finishing I heard no reply but a second later came a "thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven...." I couldn't wait to join in on this action so naturally I provided my voice to the two-man chorus but she counted *so fast.* I mean, she may have had a watch on that counted seconds, but there was no way she was following it because she just blew through it. I was seconds behind in my weary intonation of each number - I had to skip eight, seven, and six all together to catch up at the end! Luckily all ended well and fireworks went off and things probably worked okay in Times Square and I fell back asleep in moments.

Moral of the story: sometimes a half-asleep companion doesn't process much at midnight, but if one wants to be thoroughly sung to, said sleeping companions are quite excellent!

On New Year's Day we met a missionary who returned to say hi named Hermana Welch and we ate a dinner at the Reyes' in which I kind of ate sour cream but then asked for one without sour cream and she was only a little offended so that was good. Also, I pulled a doorknob off a house accidentally. Which was a right shame... I really didn't mean to, and it came off so easily it must have been broken before... but enough with the excuses, long story short I pulled out a doorknob. Oops.

District Activity bowling in Mineola today! It was fun but a bit

pricey. A full thirteen dollars! Yikes.

My pretty fantastic district are only decently okay at bowling.

According to my companion I am "awkwardly adorable" when I bowl.

Resolutions:

If you are like me, you quite enjoy setting goals. My goals were centered in three realms: 1. Studies, 2. Personal goals, and 3. Service/relationship goals. I set goals to read through the Bible and Book of Mormon once and thrice, respectively. Also to read the Book of Mormon in Spanish twice. As a personal goal which goes into service and relationship goals, I really want to try to develop charity this year in whatever ways I can and serve my companions and investigators and everyone with whom I come into contact here in New York. I have many other goals, but these are some of the major ones! Goals lead us to action which means we progress. I hope I am progressing every moment of my life here on earth and pray for the strength to do whatever I must to have such success.

I hope your weeks were joyful and you drank Martinellis like us and ate plenty of chocolate. :)

My love,

Hermana Ally Voss