12/15

Hello!

I'm in Gainesville now! Sister Wright is my companion. She is from a town near Seattle Washington. She has curly hair, is pretty short, and is very outgoing! She is very passionate about missionary work which is amazing. Her dad was baptized only a few years ago so she knows a lot about missionary work. More than I did when I first came out! It is fun to see the enthusiasm and excitement of a new missionary. :)

This ward is absolutely incredible! I went from a tiny ward in Brunswick to a HUGE ward here with TONS of families. The youth program is huge and the primary is huge. It is wonderful. They are all so welcoming and loving. We had a Christmas Party on Friday and it was "A Night in Bethlehem". It was beautiful. The whole cultural hall was decorated beautifully and it felt like we were in Bethlehem at the time of Christ's birth! We got to help with the set up and take down. There was a lot of time and effort put into it and everyone loved it.

White washing has been an adventure, that is for sure! We didn't have our area book until Friday so we were working with an old ward roster for the first two days. It has been wonderful though! We have met a lot of really neat ward members. They love the missionaries and the ward itself have very good goals and plans for missionary work. There is even a couple who both went to Alta High School. Hah!

One miracle that we have seen so far is that we were walking around a town center close to our neighborhood finding people to talk to. I felt pretty impressed to turn Right and so we did. Well, we ran into a young lady named Taylor. She has a very strong belief in Jesus Christ and was so happy to talk to us. We talked to her for a few minutes and she talked about how she doesn't feel like very many people can relate to how she feels about God and her relationship with Him. Sh is incredible really. We shared part of the Book of Mormon with her and explained to her what the Book of Mormon is. She really appreciated it because she has never known! She said that she would love to read it! It was really just amazing to me that she has such a close relationship with God and she wants to share it with others!

We are in a car share so we bike 3 days out of the week. That has been fun. I actually like biking a lot. I love being able to talk to everyone that we pass by on the street!

I am doing well, really. I am loving my companion, this ward is heavenly, and miracles are about to happen!

Always,

Sister Lauren Kasteler