"Come what may and Lubbock"

Us and Yoko

Hey everyone!

Another crazy week in Lubbock!

'Twas finals this week and now Texas Tech is a ghost town. Everyone has gone home for Christmas haha. 

I got to go on 2 exchanges this past week! One with Sister Peterson and also with Sister Draper. They're awesome! Both from Utah. Sister Draper and I especially got along really well and it felt like we'd been friends for a long time! She got baptized 18 months ago and has a really cool story  all the sisters we are over are wanting to work on planning, and so I do a skills training on that with them. I've been studying for each of them during my personal study and it's so so cool how even though all of them have been working on the new way of planning, I receive such different revelation of what to focus on with each of them. I love them all so dang much. All of them ask me what it's like being a STL, and I always tell them how you gain such a great love for all the sisters, just like the people whom you are stewards over in your area. 

We got all our Christmas decorating done! We got a cute little tree and decked it out. 

On Monday, we got to meet a girl named Amy. She's autistic, has been in foster care most of her life, and is the sweetest ever. When we went over to her house the first time, she showed us all her animals.One of them was a boa python and she asked if we wanted to watch it eat. They gave the thing a live mouse and he did his boa constrictor thing and guzzled it up. it was narsty. we also went over yesterday and had a lesson with her and during it, she kept looking next to me. She then told us about her aunt that died from brain cancer in August. she said she could see her as an angel standing right next to me and we looked alike. She also came to our FHE and Christmas party!

We had another service project where we wrote people in the Military. Some inactive members and people from our hot chocolate LTW booth came! 

As for people we're teaching- 

oh my gosh im so excited.

Eddie is continuing to progress so much! He is loving reading the Book of Mormon and praying. He went home for Christmas, but we hooked him up with the sister missionaries there. Our last lesson with him before he left, he promised us he would pray about a baptismal date! 

We just started teaching this AWESOME DUDE named Beckley! He's from Nigeria and was a referral. We taught him the restoration this week and read from the Book of Mormon. He came to our ward Christmas party last night, a baptism today, and is coming to church tomorrow! He is definitely prepared!!!! 

Aj- So she was someone who actually tried to drop us a few weeks back, but we didn't give up on her. She struggles with a lot of things. we knew she was just going through a rough time, so we just waited it out. Friday, we planned and went to lunch with her and she said she is going to start reading the book of mormon again, and SHE asked US when we could come over to teach her more lessons. Aj is awesome!! 

Nanette- We met Nanette at one of the LTW booths! She came to a service project we had. We asked her to go get lunch as well, and we got to talk to her about what we do as missionaries and also a little about the restoration!! 

We had our last lesson with Yoko :( She graduated and is going to live with her family in El Paso. Keep praying for her please! 

Today I got to go to the baptism of a teenage boy named Louis. The spirit was so strong. People like him are why we do missionary work! He was just sitting there, ready and waiting for the truth. As he sang apart of a musical number and bore his testimony, I could not help but cry tears of joy for this boy who I'd never met before! He has such a love for the gospel and is constantly striving to share it with his family and friends. When he bore his testimony, he talked about how if you truly love the gospel you'll share it with the people you love. All of us need to be more like Louis!

Also- he was baptized by a kid i was in primary with...if any of y'all know Stephanie Farnsworth and her family, they are in the Regal Park in my mission president's ward here and used to be in my ward in Gilbert when I was a youngin. random. 

SOOOO YEAH MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

being a missionary during christmas is legit the best. I hope your all finding ways to #lightthe world! 

LOVE YOU ALL! 

Sister MacLay

-us bein festive.

snakkkkeeeee

Sis kitterman's grandma sent us a nativity she made out of chocolate and joseph's head fell off...so mary is holding it....

My first love, aka my truck at home, Gordon was killed this past week. RIP. 

I got another cousin this week! My aunt and uncle officially adopted Cherish!