Merry Christmas Y'all!!

Merry Christmas Family & Friends!

I think early last week it hit me that I didn't have much time left on my mission and I started wondering if I had done all I could and if I had worked hard enough. I prayed about it and we had Zone Conference this week, so it was a day full of edification, learning, and the Spirit! Soooo good!! What is wonderful though is that my prayers have been answered with feelings of peace, contentment, and love from God. I also received the guidance to keep working my hardest :) I have been blessed with so much focus and I have made a goal to be in the present at all times! Sister Sindylkova and I are working hard and I am loving it!

A cool thing happened the other night! Twice a week we are assigned to sing somewhere on the square for 30 minutes. Usually it's three companionships, however, once we got to our spot we found out that one companionship had a baptism to go to and the other was sick, so it would just be Sister Sindylkova and I.  We called asking for covers, but no one else came.  I suggested that we just sing anyway since S. Sindylkova has a nice voice and could carry us.  She liked the idea of still singing, so we stepped up onto the side of the plant things and I stood there for a minute, second guessing if we should, and then my comp said with her sweet little accent, "Sister Asay, open your hymn book". Haha. #stagefright!  We started singing and I know that there had to be angels singing with us!  You wouldn't think it was just two of us and we actually sounded GOOD!  Little kids every now and then came to join us and everyone who walked by was so nice and would say "Merry Christmas" or "thank you".  It was so sweet, they probably felt bad for us too, but I'll take it!  It turned into a spiritual experience and I felt a deep love of the Gospel and of my Savior, Jesus Christ as we happily sang by ourselves and, even more so, when others joined in. :)

The other day we called a guy named Jim from Indiana who we are teaching! We taught him the first half of the Plan of Salvation and focused mainly on the Atonement.  It was a really good lesson and at the end we invited him to be baptized.  He said yes!  We set the goal of his baptism for Jan.10th! Super excited!! And we are teaching a guy named Tim that Sister Sindylkova was teaching before we were companions and he has been meeting with local missionaries and goes to church each week.  He is going to be baptized Jan. 3rd, but is a little nervous about committing even though he knows it's all true. We are doing our best to help him have that confidence and review & teach key principles of the Gospel!

Lastly, we had a Youth Conference yesterday that we (along with Sister Peters and Poznanski) were in charge of and it was amazing!  It was about 60 youth from a ward in Ogden and President and Sister Poulsen (my mission president and his wife) came and spoke at the beginning for about 15 minutes. Then, we did a fun little thing with the youth and showed a picture of the man on the front of Preach My Gospel and asked the youth if they could guess who it was. Most said Joseph Smith or Brigham Young or Parley Pratt, but it is actually a man named Dan Jones!  He was a missionary in England and was short, so he would get on top of a stool or something and would hold up the Book of Mormon and shout his testimony to all who could hear.  We had 5 volunteers come down and they did the same as good ol' Dan Jones.  It was really cool actually.  We then split them up into groups and they went with sisters for a tour and to hear the sisters’ testimonies about why they went on missions, etc.  Then they came back and they each presented a minute long "Mormon Message" through testifying, singing, or doing a skit with their group.  It was so powerful hearing all of their testimonies.  My favorite was from a little boy who said "You have to change yourself before you can help change someone else". And he was like 12! So cool. We ended with showing "He Is the Gift", us four (sister peters, poznanski, my comp, and myself) sharing our testimonies, and then all of the sisters singing our version of Called to Serve. We have an extra verse. The whole thing was amazing and I just love the youth!

I want to close with this scripture that my Dad shared with me today from Isaiah. "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace".

I know that Christ is my Savior. I feel so blessed to be able to testify of His Atonement and His great love for us this Christmas season.

I love you all and Merry Christmas!! Talk to you in a few days, family!! :)

Sister Asay