Sister Akayla Juliann Ferrara: Hello!

Hi everyone, hope you had a wonderful week! It's getting colder every day and apparently it's supposed to snow here this week...we'll see! I'm excited for the snow actually. It will make it seem more like it's Christmas time. I can't believe Thanksgiving is already in 2-3 weeks!

Anyways, it was a great week!

Last Monday we got to clean the temple. So special! I love cleaning the temple. There is such a special spirit there. Because of that, we were able to take 2 hours of our day on Tuesday to make up for preparation day, and then we were on chat that afternoon.

We are in a new district which is kind of strange. We are now in the Loess Hills district and Elder Thompson is our new district leader! He is 24 because he had leukemia and had to wait to serve a mission. He is really awesome! It's so great to be able to be around new missionaries who teach differently. It helps me learn more and helps me become a better missionary!

Thursday morning we were on shift and guess what...we started decorating for Christmas! We now have a giant Christmas tree in the lobby of the Trail Center and Christmas lights and everything. We have a gingerbread display that will be starting November 21st and it's this huge thing here in Omaha. The mayer comes and we have this ribon cutting where everyone comes to watch and it's incredible! Amazing missionary opportunity! Everyone from around here, members or not, make gingerbread houses and bring them here and the Kanesville Tabernacle for display. I'm so excited! I love Christmas time! Anyways, Sister Whipple (a new sister serving here that was pulled out from full pros) and I took this single man named Kai on tour. He wasn't a member and lives in a tiny little cabin in the woods with no electricity or running water or anything. He's basically like a pioneer! It was such a spiritual tour, and he was so kind and asked many questions and we were able to give him a Book of Mormon and share with him Moroni's promise in Moroni 10:3-5. Amazing miracles happen here at the Trail Center. I love it! Then that afternoon we got to serve at the Clinic with Sister Mahlstede and Sister Cragun. That's always fun! Dr. Fischer took us out to this Varsity Sports pizza place and made us each choose an XL pizza and then take all the leftovers home. We each took about a whole pizza home for ourselves! Yikes!

Ok, so we're teaching this amazing family right now! The mother and father's names are Pam and Ray and they have 4 kids. Cameron is 13, Madison is 9, and then they have twin boys who are 14 months. I had actually met Pam a long time ago. I think it was my 2nd transfer when I went on exchanges. I don't know if you remember at all...but she and her family just recently moved into her parent's old home and she seemed really awesome and prepared, but then when Sister Mahlstede tried to see them a couple times after that we could never get ahold of them and they just didn't seem very interested anymore. Well, they randomly showed up to church a few weeks ago, and they've been to church 3 times now and they're ready to have the gospel now! I truly believe that this family is one of the reasons I am still serving in Bellevue. We just have to trust in the Lord's timing. They were obviously not quite ready yet when I first met them, but now they are. Such a huge miracle!

I better get going now, but I love you all so very much! You mean the world to me! Have a great week! Talk to you next week!
Sister Ferrara :)