This week was great! And fast. And busy. On Tuesday we had a Zone meeting which was inspiring as usual. Also, lately we have had more and more sisters volunteer to come out with us to some lessons. Working with the members is so fun and a whole lot more successful!

Thursday was our mission Christmas Party in Orange Park (Jacksonville). And it was so wonderful! All 270 Florida Jacksonville missionaries were all in the same room! We had a wonderful dinner and a talent show that almost everyone participated in. It was so nice to see some missionaries that I hardly ever get to see! We had a musical devotional at the end of the night and it was truly wonderful. The last thing before we went back to Lake City is that we got some gifts from our stake along with some letters from home. It was so wonderful to have so many letters from my mom and from some ward members that I love so much!

Friday was our ward Christmas party and it was so fun! There were some wonderful people there and some delicious food. For some reason our ward thinks we are starving so they gave us loads of leftovers! We sure do appreciate it but I don't know how we are going to eat it all!

So I think I will tell you about a few miracles that happened this week!

We went to an investigator's house. Her dad works from home and often has clients that come over and wait for him to fix their phones. A couple times we have had pretty good conversations with the people in front of his house. This week we talked to a woman and she asked who the Mormons are. What a wonderful question for her to ask! We taught her about the restoration and she said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. So we went to her house a couple days later. She wasn't home but her mom was and she asked the same thing! "What are the Mormons?" So we taught her the restoration and she is going to read the Book of Mormon! We are excited to go back and keep teaching both of them.

Another miracle is that an investigator texted us one morning and said "Good morning, I felt God's love last night and the Book of Mormon is true." We are so excited for him! He still has a little ways to go but we are excited to help him keep progressing!

And here's another one. An investigator was worried that she was going to have to start dialysis because her kidneys are bad. Well, she got a priesthood blessing and called us a couple days later and told us that she didn't need immediate dialysis because her kidneys had actually improved! And she attributed it completely to the power of God and the priesthood blessing that she was given. Wow!

I have had the wonderful opportunity to be reading in 3 Nephi the past week and a half and it has been truly wonderful to study Christ's ministry to the people in the ancient Americas right before Christmas. 3 Nephi 12:48 says "Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in Heaven is perfect." We have the potential to be perfect even as Jesus Christ is perfect! Isn't that truly amazing? It is going to take us a long time to get there but we can become more like Christ every single day as we study the scriptures, serve others, and make changes in our lives. As we make choices each day we should be thinking about whether or not they are making us closer to Him. Our trials and our mistakes make us better if we turn to God in that time and lean on Him. Because of Christ's atonement he can purify us. We just have to let Him.

Love Always,

Sister Kasteler