Elder Bridger Hall: MERRY CHRISTMAS BEDFORD FALLS!!

Downtown trip!

Hey everyone I hope you had an amazing Christmas!!! It was a lovely
day for us. We had a really fun week this week despite some trials and
hardships.

Last Monday we went downtown again! I love my city! There are so many
amazing things to see and do. It was so fun! When we got back to the
train station, we discovered our bikes had been stolen. Totally our
fault. We forgot our locks so we stuffed them into dumpsters. Turns
out that doesn't work. Don't do that. Just lock up your bikes. I
strangely felt peace about it, but Elder Hewitt was so mad. When we
finally got back to our apartment, I felt like we should pray so we
knelt down and I offered a prayer. Peace immediately came over us, and
diffused the whole situation. Heavenly Father made sure to let us know
it was going to be ok, and it is. We are getting new bikes today!

As for the whole week, we walked A LOT. It felt like Disneyland but
worse because there was no popcorn and rides with fun music to skip
along to. Just some mud and rain with the usual "not interested" reply
from everyone. Go missionary work!

Wednesday, I went to the sunset hills Ward for exchanges. They have a
trio there, so I was with two other missionaries. It was great! We had
dinner with a sweet old couple and the husband has Alzheimer's. He
asked the same 4 questions all night, but would only talk to me
though. We hit it off though! He was so sweet. The second we shared a
thought, it was like the Alzheimer's went away. He said something
rather profound that stuck with me. He said, "Jesus said to love your
neighbor as yourself, so you have to see the good in yourself. There's
good if you look for it." I was reminded of the quote from Pollyanna
that says, "if you look for the bad, you'll surely find it." Thank you
for making me watch that movie mom. It's got to be one of my favorites
to this day!

The rest of the week Elder Hewitt was sick so we stayed in the
apartment. I went a little stir crazy. I decided I need to take up
knitting or something to keep myself occupied when we can't go out!

On Christmas Eve we spent all morning giving homeless people hot
chocolate. The most amazing Christmas miracle happened though. Every
time we went into a gas station to buy the hot chocolate, a stranger
would either pay for the drinks or the clerk would say, "it's on me.
Merry Christmas!" It was so incredible to see how much Heavenly Father
wanted us to pay our good fortune forward to those less fortunate. It
was the best feeling to see someone's eyes widen and their sad
demeanor change to a happy one when we handed them that hot chocolate.
That is Christmas!

We tried caroling at the local mall but only made it a whole 10
minutes until we got kicked out. The ward here has a Christmas Eve
musical devotional every year so we went and enjoyed that! It was
pretty neat. Our dinner appointment for Christmas Eve canceled on us,
but the bishop invited us over to his house so all was well. We had a
fun time!

Christmas Day was great! I LOVED skyping with everyone! The kids are
so big now! I miss everyone so much. We sang in two ward choirs in two
sacrament meetings, then we got to go to our ward mission leader's
house and skype! That was fun! We came home and built a gingerbread
house a member gave us, then went to dinner. It was a very nice day.
I'm so thankful for my Heavenly Father and His mindfulness of me. I
love my family, I miss you all, and I hope you have a good week. MERRY
CHRISTMAS BEDFORD FALLS!

Elder Hall