WE are the symbols of our Christianity!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and that you have a Happy New Year! I loved this last week so much because on Tuesday, our entire mission got together in Centerville, Ohio and had a WONDERFUL Christmas devotional! We started it off with a talent show, then had a christmas program — complete with musical numbers, and then we heard from President and Sister Porter, ending with Brother Paco (from President Porter's home ward). It was AMAZING! It was so incredibly fun being together with all of the missionaries... I feel like I learned so much!

My mom, me, grandma, and sister!!!

One of my favorite thoughts shared by President Porter was about why we don't use the cross as a symbol of our Christianity. People ask us about it all the time, and it's because WE are the symbols of our Christianity! It is the way we live, the way we present ourselves to the world. What we do to follow God's commandments, and what we do to serve others. What we do to be like Christ. Our ACTIONS make us Christians. When the gospel becomes infused into our very souls, then we are examples of Christ in the world. That is something that I want to strive for my entire life, to be an example of the believers.

Driving home from mission-wide Christmas Devotional in Centerville, Ohio

Wednesday we went on exchanges in Huntington, and I was with the lovely Sister Hamblin!!! It was POURING rain all day and we got absolutely soaked!!!! It was so fun though — haha!

Me and Sister Hamblin on exchanges - in the pouring rain!

Thursday was CHRISTMAS EVE and Sister Creager and I were invited to the Neeley home where we ate yummy fondue and sang together around the piano. I loved it.

Selfie with the Neeley family on Christmas Eve!

Then on Christmas Day I got to Skype with my family... and I loved it so much!!! Maybe I'm a tiny bit biased but I have the greatest family ever — It was really hard to say goodbye! Till May, mi familia...

After skyping, Sister Creager and I had Christmas dinner at the Tucker's, along with some of their extended family! It was a lot of fun.

We have "officially" been accepted as Hoosiers!!!
(Thanks Tucker Family for the cute shirts!)

Saturday we went to do some work in Fort Wayne and it poured!!! Literally. All. Day. Long... We ended up completely drenched by the time we were through!

Sunday, Sister Creager and I gave talks in Sacrament meeting, and then we taught Relief Society. That was fun!!! We also attempted to have a walking day (because we went over on miles) so some awesome members drove us to Bluffton and from there we proceeded on foot. It was windy, too, so my face was practically frozen by the end of that day:).

Selfie with Olaf

Anyways, it has been a very busy week and we have another crazy busy week ahead!

Hope you all have a grand new year!

Love, Sister Feil

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

So this week is Christmas... and I just want to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful and very Merry Christmas!

Saw some of my MTC favorites at Transfer meeting!

Once again, I don't have time to write much but I do want to share that because we had transfers last Tuesday, I said goodbye to Sister Nicol and hello to.... SISTER CREAGER!

Sister Creager is so fun! She is from Weston, Idaho and has been out for 7 1/2 months so far. She has served in the Dayton Stake her whole mission (two different areas) and so Decatur is her first area in Indiana! I apologize, but I don't have a picture of us because we took them on her camera and I haven't had a chance to get them yet... but I will send a pic next week. This is going to be a fun transfer! There is a lot of work for us to do here in Decatur so we will be kept very busy — haha.

It's funny, on our first day together, Wednesday, we ended up having a flat tire. Thankfully, a stranger came and helped us change it and then we took it to a shop to get it fixed. So... about half of our first day together was spent taking care of the car — haha.

Tomorrow our entire mission is getting together for a Christmas Devotional in Centerville, Ohio, and I am so excited!! It should be an amazing experience. Then of course Friday is Christmas and I get to Skype my family! And I am VERY excited about that as well!!!

I want to close by bearing my testimony of Christ. I know that He is my Savior and that because of Him, I have the hope of happiness and progression in this life. I can be forgiven of my sins, and start fresh every day. I make so many mistakes, but I don't have to be discouraged because of that! I know that mistakes allow me to learn and grow and to become better, and to become more like Heavenly Father wants me to become. Christ gives me the strength I need to push forward with a perfect brightness of hope, and to love others and see them as God sees them. I am so grateful for the peace that this knowledge allows me to have. And as a missionary I get to spread this beautiful message with the wonderful people of the Ohio Cincinnati Mission, and I love it. There is no other place in the WORLD I'd rather be:).

Have a blessed Christmas, and remember the true reason for the season!

Love, Sister Feil

#Blessed

Soooooooooooooo... transfers are happening this week, and I will be staying in Decatur! My lovely companion, Sister Nicol, will be leaving me :( but she is going on to be an STL and she will be amazing! I honestly learned so much from her. I feel so blessed to have had her as my trainer! And she might even become the STL in my zone, and if she is then I will still get to see her and work with her which would be awesome! We are sad to be leaving each other right before the holidays, but we know that God has a purpose for both of us as we move on to work with new companions!

Tuesday was SISTER NICOL'S 20TH BIRTHDAY and it was amazing! We had interviews with President and Sister Porter, which took up most of the day (and was super awesome because they are literally the greatest people EVER!) and afterwards, Sister Gimbel (who drove us) took us out to an Italian restaurant and surprised Sister Nicol with gifts that her family had sent her! It was so awesome! And that night we had a dinner appointment with one of the Steele families and they fed us sloppy joes (the best ones I have ever had in my liiiiiife) along with Sister Steele's famous chocolate cake. It was some of the best cake I have ever had, and though we begged for her recipe, she didn't budge... It's top secret and still remains that way - LOL! I felt very privileged to have just gotten to try some.

That night, we drove to Huntington for exchanges, and on Wednesday I led the Decatur area — for the very first time! Sister Jones (my grandma) was my companion for the day, and I have to admit, I was SOOOO nervous, but the day went really well! It was definitely waaayyyyyyy better than I thought it would be, and I know the Lord was helping me and guiding me to know what to do. And we saw some great miracles!

This time of year is SIMPLY amazing! I have loved telling everyone about the videos on christmas.mormon.org because Jesus Christ is the reason for the Season! He did so much for us, and we owe Him everything. Literally. And I love spreading that love to everyone! Have you been on that website yet? There are also some "12 Days of Christmas" videos that are AWESOME, along with some other pretty cool stuff... Look them up if you haven't already!

Funny story! On Saturday I made a huge mistake and accidentally ate some old bread and turkey for lunch... then we drove to a neighboring town for an appointment (which fell through) and we made a few more stops there. Suddenly, I started feeling SO SICK that we decided we should probably head back to the apartment, but we didn't quite make it and I ended up throwing up in the car! Fortunately I had a bag, which unfortunately had a hole in it, so it wasn't that helpful. Sorry.... That's probably waayyyy more info than you wanted to hear. But it was SO. NOT. FUN. Oh... the many interesting joys of a missionary's life :).

A cute little girl in our branch wanted us to read her a storybook. We told her that we couldn't read anything that didn't have the LDS logo on it, and later her mom told us that she wrote her own LDS stamp on the back of one of her books — so that we could read it to her. How insanely cute is that?! Ha Ha. It made me laugh so hard.

Yesterday, we saw a lot of miracles. After a pretty successful start to the day, we went to visit a guy we met this past week who has actually met with missionaries before, and we had a very powerful lesson with him. He is open to learning new things, and is mainly curious as to why there are so many different churches. He is awesome though, and we are going to continue to work with him and hopefully even his children!

We have also been meeting with a lady named 'J'. We met her a few weeks ago and had a feeling we should go visit her last night. Turned out, she had been having a really hard day and has been super stressed out lately, and as we taught her about The Restoration and about God's love for her she began to cry. The Spirit was so strong and we asked her if she would be baptized and she said YES! So next time we meet with her, we will hopefully put her on date... Woohoo!

I honestly feel so blessed to have this opportunity to invite others to come closer to Christ through baptism. It is amazing the difference that can make in one's life. My heart is just constantly swollen with the love I have for my Savior, and for others.

Have a blessed week!

Love,
Sister Feil

Hello!

Holy moly. These weeks just fly by so quick! I mean, I only have one more week and then I am done with training... AHHHHHHHH it's so crazy. Mission time is just weird. My goodness.

No-Shave November.... LOL!!!

So this week was another busy one! Sister Nicol and I have just been workin' workin' workin' away. I am so excited for the Christmas season though! We set up a Christmas tree in our apartment and some lights and we have some Christmassy scented candles and some rockin' (but approved) Christmas music and so we are set. And my favorite part about the Christmas season is handing out pass along cards that say, "He is the gift." Those cards have a link to an amazing video. Sooooooo please please please go to christmas.mormon.org and watch the video that pops up!! Seriously, there is nothing more important about the season than remembering Christ and all that He has done for us. Because of Him, we have so many blessings! So many! He was born, He lived, He died, and He rose again for us, and because of that, we can be cleansed and forgiven and have a perfect hope for our future as we strive to become who we have been put on earth to become. Heavenly Father wants us to rejoice and be happy as we strive to follow Christ's example and prepare ourselves for that day when we will return to Him. So everyone, remember the true reason we celebrate Christmas. It is to remember and rejoice in Christ, for He is our Savior, and He is the reason we have the hope of redemption and glory. Watch the video and share it with all of your friends! ALL OF THEM! EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE IT!!!! For reals.

A Random 'EGG'-plant we came across... HaHaHa

Anyways, this week we had our Branch Christmas party, which was pretty rockin'. We helped a member prepare some food for the event, and also helped set up the decor, and a lot of people came! It was wonderful!!! And it was kind of funny because we ended up singing non-religious Christmas songs and so I felt kind of weird haha, but overall it was awesome and we ate a TON of food and dessert.

Me with an ADORABLE little boy from our branch :)

As far as the missionary work goes, we have a huge branch roster and a lot of less actives, so we have been spending our days trying to contact them. And boy it has been requiring a lot of work! We keep missing people and some don't even live at those addresses anymore, so we have just been traveling and trying to update the list.

Okay, so five people this week have told me that I look like Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter. Just throwing that out there.

It's freezing here in Indiana.... I mean it's FROZEN!!!

Last night, Sister Nicol and I had the opportunity to watch the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional at a part-member family's house, and it was awesome. Seriously - if you haven't had the chance to see it yet, GO WATCH IT!! It was amazing... two of my most favorite speakers EVER spoke and so I was in heaven.

FUNNY STORY!! So we got a media referral this week and we went to go contact them. They live in Fort Wayne and it was kind of later at night and we were in this cute neighborhood and we can hear this rap music blasting from one of the houses, which turned out to be the house of the referral. We walk up to their door, and we saw through the garage window that they had turned the garage in to a workout/exercise area and they were just working out like crazy while listening to this heavy rap music. We knocked quite a few times, and nobody could hear us I guess cause the music was so loud. And the whole situation was just kind of comical so Sister Nicol and I were just cracking up! It was hilarious. 

Anyways, love you all!

Have a blessed week!

Love Sister Feil