Hello everybody! This has truly been an amazing week! On Tuesday it was really snowing hard so we weren't allowed to drive. So we broke the snow shovels out and started shoveling some drive ways. We went to Maria and Atta's home( they are an older couple that we have been doing some service for) and we shoveled their drive ways as well. When we finished the clouds looked like they were parting and we would be able to go out and make it to all of our appointments! We went into their home and had some pizza with them and about 20 min later as we were leaving, it was a blizzard outside! All the drive ways we had shoveled were completely covered again!! So no one would ever know that someone had shoveled their drive ways for them... Oh well, it is the thought that counts right? On Saturday we had an awesome lesson with Julia! We had the Davis family come with us. They connected with Julia and her dad very well. Sister Davis invited Julia to choir and to the mutual activities. It was awesome to have members there who could testify on a more personal level to those we teach. I have gained such a strong testimony of the importance of having members help in the work. It has helped the people we are teaching so much. Julia is one of the most sincere, good hearted people I have met. I know she will keep progressing and I am excited to see it. Sunday was a miracle. We had Zach, April, Atta, and Julia at church!! It was awesome! They all had a great experience as well. We also had 3 LA members we are teaching come as well. It was definitely one of the best Sunday's of my mission. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and his work and the love he has for all of his children. I know all of the great things that are happening are because of him and I am just grateful to be a part of it. This church is true and missions are the best! Have a great week!

Super fancy picture a member took at the ward Christmas party

This week was so great! The work in Pittsburgh is really moving forward and we have been able to meet some great people. One of the greatest blessings is that Julia and Brother Olson came to church again this week!! They are so awesome and Julia is one of the most prepared people I have met! We are looking forward to going and seeing them this week.

                                             
We also were able to start teaching a lady named Tyne. She was a former investigator the sister missionaries found. She had some concerns before but when we stopped by she was so happy to see us. She is so ready right now. She is open and sincere and she is keeping the commitments we leave, which is really allowing her to feel the spirit. This week has been just a testimony builder of how Heavenly Father prepares his children for when they are ready. He knows them perfectly and he has not forgotten them. He is softening their hearts day by day. I am just grateful as a missionary that I have the greatest blessing of being a part of this! Have a great week everyone!

Wow what an awesome week! Elder Wilkins and I have seen some miracles happen in this area and I am just so full of gratitude right now! On New Years Eve we were short on miles so we walked all day. As we were out and about we saw a man loading some speakers into a shopping cart so he could take them from his apartment to a building up the street. We asked if we could help and he agreed! So we put the speakers in the cart for him and carried the poles for the legs to the speakers. After helping him get everything where it needed to be we walked outside and began walking the streets again. As we were walking the cops drove up next to us and got out of their car. They came up to us and said they had received a 911 call from a lady saying she saw two Caucasian males wearing bags walking down the streets carrying long rifles! I told him we matched the first two parts except we were definitely lacking the rifle part. Elder Wilkins then figured it out. We told him we had been carrying poles up the street and the lady that called must have thought the poles were weapons. While we were talking to the cop his cop friend was across the street talking to the women who called. As she was talking to him we heard her say, "They were the biggest guns I have ever seen!!" Nevertheless we were found innocent haha! That is only the second time on my mission he cops have been called on me so that is pretty good I would have to say! Sunday was possibly the best Sunday of my mission. There is a less active man in our ward named Brother Olson. His daughter, Julia, is a senior in high school and is thinking about going to school in Utah. She is not a member and her dad hasn't been to church probably since he was a teenager. On Friday we decided to stop by and see them. We have been trying to set things up with Julia for a while but things kept falling through. As we were walking up to her doorstep she was walking out towards her car. So it was perfect timing. We talked to her for a second and she said she was happy that we stopped by and that she really wants to meet with us. We gave her a Book of Mormon and bore our testimonies on it. Saturday we invited her to church and she said that her and her dad were going to be there! During testimony meeting it was awesome, her dad kept explaining everything to her and how things worked. Then she stood up and walked right up and bore her testimony. She talked about how this was her first time ever coming to church and how grateful she was that we had stopped by and for the chance she had to learn more about this church and the Book of Mormon. She said how she was grateful for the savior and for the spirit she had felt at church. When she sat down her dad got up and bore his testimony. I don't think he had ever shared his testimony before! I can't explain the spirit that was in the chapel as they bore some of the most sincere testimonies I have ever heard. I am so grateful to be a part of this work. I am beginning to understand how much Heavenly Father loves his children. Brother Olson and Julia are so amazing and have been prepared for right now. He wants all of us, no exceptions, to live with him again, and through Christ we can. This is Heavenly Fathers work and I am eternally grateful that someone like me can be a part of it. Have a great week everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope everyone's Christmas was awesome and that you enjoyed being around your families! It was awesome out here getting to skype with my family and to see all of them again. They are the best! We also enjoyed a nice 60 degree weather day as well. This week was awesome. We went caroling at some more senior centers the first couple days of the week. It is really heartwarming to see how much us coming and taking the time to be there means to them. I have noticed how much happier I am when I have taken the time to stop thinking about myself and focus on the needs of others. We were able to teach Dan and Peg this week. He is going through so many emotional challenges right now. They both are some of the most generous and Christlike people I have met before. We taught about repentance and how through baptism and through the savior we can be made completely clean once more. We can be new creatures through Christ. I love testifying of that because I have truly seen that in my own life and I know it to be true. We invited them to be baptized and they said that they would. I love being a missionary and I love this work. Above all else I love the Savior. I am grateful for Christmas and the time we have to remember him. I know he lives and he can offer, repair, and heal what no one else can. Have a great week everyone!

Hey,

Yeah I got your package yesterday I think! Do you know how hard it is to wait until Christmas to open everything?? I almost did but I figured your mom senses would have gone off if I did open them early haha. Is the air abuzz with Christmas spirit over there? Parker and I will be switching spots next Christmas! That is pretty weird to think about. Things are going great out here. We went caroling in downtown Pittsburgh this week! That was really cool. We sang on the trains, at the ice skating rink with the mega tree and we also went to a lot of nursing homes. That is one of my favorite things to do. It means the whole world to them for someone to come and spend some time with them. So Lindsey is coming out east huh? Well she is going to love it! Hopefully Sherie will be able to handle it haha. How is Alex doing these days? So for Skype we can do it on our iPads so we can really do it anytime. My companions family is trying to do it around 2:00 our time so if that works we can try then. Since we have iPads I am allowed to check my emails throughout the week, just not respond, so just let me know if that works, love you! I will talk to you in 4 days!

Can I just say how awesome the weather has been out here!! It hit 70 degrees a couple of times this week! We were driving with the windows rolled down and everything! It is weird preparing for Christmas when it is this kind of weather but we will take it! This week Elder Wilkins and I set a goal of listening to promptings and then acting on them. On Tuesday night a couple of our plans fell through so we were looking through some of our back up plans to see who we should go see. We both felt like we needed to go stop by an investigator that we haven't been able to get in contact with for quite some time. When we got to her house we saw a lady down the street sitting on her porch so we decided to go and talk to her. We showed her the new Christmas video and she really liked it! She said to come over again so we could see her again! After that conversation it was 8:40 and we still hadn't tried the investigator we had planned to go and see. It was getting late and we had a little bit of a drive back but we felt like we needed to try her! When we knocked on her door she was happy to see us. She said she has been praying and us coming over was an answer to her prayers. She had been going through some pretty hard times and she said she felt so much better when we came over. We set up an appointment with her for the next day and she told us that we better make sure to be there haha. That is one of the greatest feelings as a missionary. I love when you and your companion feel prompted to do something and when you act on that prompting you understand why! I know God loves every single one of us. If we can humble ourselves and turn our will over to His, we will be able live our lives to the fullest and accomplish all the things he has in store for us. I love Alma 5:14 "Have you received his image in your countenance?" When people look at us do they see a light? As we strive to do the best we can and humble ourselves, we can truly receive his image in our countenances and others will recognize that. Thank you for all he support!

Like always this was another great week here in Pittsburgh! The best part has been the weather! It looks like we are going to be having a 67 degree weather day coming up here! I am definitely complaining. The longer that we can go with warm weather the better haha.

On Monday my companion and I got to play tennis! It was super fun! There is a court really close to our house so we were able to go and play as long as we wanted. I had to use a pink racket but it had some serious power haha.

We were able to teach a lot of our investigators again this week! Alex ( the one from the Congo) was able to make it to church on Sunday. We got him a Swahili Book of Mormon and he said that he is going to share it with his whole family. He is awesome! As we were walking down the street we met a lady and began talking to her. Apparently she had missionaries come by in the past and she wanted us to come by and see her again! We set up a time and then she asked us what our favorite kind of cookie was. She told us when we came by on Thursday she would have 3 dozen chocolate chip cookies cooked up for us!!! That is a lot of cookies, maybe we can find someone to share them with! The only problem is when people think that Elders made the food, they tend not to eat it haha!

I was thinking a lot this week about the Holy Ghost and how we are promised that we may Always have his spirit to be with us. As missionaries we pray for the spirit all the time in everything that we do. But I was thinking, how often do I actually stop and take the time to listen to the still, small, subtle promptings that do come from the spirit... And I don't think it is very much. Sometimes I feel like I am not receiving guidance from the spirit, but am I actually taking the time to try and listen? We are all promised that we may have His spirit to be with us, maybe we just need to take sometime to listen to it! Thank you for all the support. Try not to freeze out there! Maybe I will pull out the short sleeve shirts again for this week!

Elder May