Music and testimony

Well, we finally caught up to your weather patterns. :) 8 degrees and snowing this morning! Brrr. Good thing I like wearing lots of layers. :) 

Jacob didn't get baptized on Sunday, unfortunately. He got down in the water, tried to go all the way under, and couldn't do it. All of the sudden he was terrified of going under the water! He had never expressed such a fear before--I'm not sure what happened. It was sad and a little frustrating, but we know that he'll be baptized soon. He just needs to practice going under water. :) Pray for him!

I've heard that we might have a 5-week transfer, but not til spring/summer. So we'll see. Speaking of transfers, though, ours is next week! Crazy how quickly this transfer has flown by. And NEXT transfer, in March, we have 3 new sisters coming--2 of whom I know! Sister Karen Spong (one of my flute students from PHS!!!  Awesome), and Sister Esplin, Pat's grand-daughter. Yaaaaaay!! I'm really excited about that. Small world eh. :) Also, hurray and congrats to all the newly-called missionaries you mentioned!! I'm SO excited for Emily Bean--how awesome! And I'm especially excited that Carrie Hastings is going!! I LOVE her. She will be such a great missionary! Tell Carrie and Rachel hi for me if you ever get the chance. :)

I'm so glad you liked the pictures! I wish I'd had time to label them all--sorry! They might be labelled on the back--I can't remember. If not, most of them should be identifiable from pictures on the Kirtland VC page on lds.org And I'll look for that package this week. Thanks SO much for sending it! And thank you so much for delivering those thank you notes. Sorry to everyone for taking so long to get them out! 

We had interviews with President Vellinga last week--always such a highlight of my transfer. We have interviews every other transfer, so this was only my second interview ever--but I always come away from interviews feeling so so excited about missionary work. President Vellinga has a way of making you joyous and excited about every aspect of life. That's just the way he is--happy and friendly and inspiring. I love getting to serve under his leadership because he is such an amazing person and mission president. In my interview, we talked about why I love music, and what the Spirit does for us--and together we realized that the gospel is a LOT like music. Karl Paulnack (dean of the Boston Conservatory) talks about music being able to move around those big inner pieces of our hearts and souls and express thoughts and feelings that would otherwise be inexpressible. Really good music always touches my heart in a way that infuses it with light and joy--and that's also what happens when I feel the Spirit. It touches my heart in a way I can't describe--but I know that my experiences with music have taught me and prepared me to better recognize and understand when I'm feeling the Spirit. I love it. :) The structure and discipline that I've learned from so many years of practicing and learning music has helped me as a missionary as well. Learning and applying the gospel takes the same kind of discipline--the ability to practice things and improve and progress--and on and on. That was an amazing discovery for me because it helped me realize that I know how to do this more/better than I thought. The "I can do this" thought is always comforting. :)

I absolutely love what Elder Brimhall shared in your stake conference (and what a fun connection! Small world). Sometimes, when doubts or fears creep in, we find ourselves doubting core elements of our testimonies--this has happened to me before, and it was alarming and scary. But when we can find even one truth to cling to, that one truth can be the pinprick of light that we need to guide us back to a stronger faith. Smiley face. Those three things that Elder Brimhall mentioned are perfect.

It's been a little hard to find people in this cold weather--so we've turned to doing a lot of stop bys and calling through our old lists of potential and former investigators. We were promised at a recent zone conference that there are 12 people in our dead pool (those old lists of people that have been taught in the past but whom we aren't working with right now) who are just waiting to be baptized. We just need to find them! Our purpose is to preach His gospel, and we love having that opportunity to teach those very things mentioned by Elder Brimhall--but we can't teach people until we find them. :) We'll be doing a lot of finding this week. Expect miracles!

We've also been trying to contact and work with all of the less active members in the branch. There are a lot. And sometimes they don't want anything to do with the Church, which is always sad. We stopped by one family last night, though, and were finally able to find the mom at home--and made a dinner appointment for next week! Perfect. 

The Edmans are leaving this week. :( We had a special fireside on Sunday where they spoke and all the sites sisters did a special musical number. I got to play my flute for that, and it was such an amazing experience. I love the Edmans so much! They are amazing. I'm excited to meet Elder and Sister Sorenson though--I'm sure they will be wonderful as well.

We always pray to meet one prepared person everyday--whether it's at sites or in our area. At sites, we aren't as busy with tours (we did get to take one this last week--with a lovely couple from Sandy, Utah. They were so great!), but we do get to be on mormon.org chat and make lots of phone calls. We're blessed with the technology to be able to make international calls through the computer--which I absolutely love. I've been able to talk to people in New Zealand, Australia, and Germany, among others--and it is so fun! There's a potential investigator in Switzerland that I'm hoping to call next week--I might be a little excited about that too. ;)

Well, time is short. Thank you for all of your love, support and prayers! I love you oodles and oodles. :)

Love,
Sister Wygant