Pickett, Taylor PT

IT WAS A GREAT WEEK!!! Chileans finally got their act together and had soooo much Christmas spirit.      December 24 and 25 my companion (THE hermana vasquita) and I went to the houses of members in our ward and our friends we are teaching to drop off cookies, share a Christmas message, and sing the only Christmas song I remember on the guitar... Silent Night.      THE MOST BEAUTIFUL EXPERIENCE EVER walking around with my scriptures, my missionary tag, a guitar, cookies, and my bestie companion around the streets of Puente Alto, Chile yelling "FELIZ NAVIDAD" to every person in sight in the deathly heat.      The PURE joy I felt these past two days is hard to even describe. I AM LITERALLY ON A MISSION AHHH!!! Nothing in the world I would rather be doing on Christmas than going house to house singing, talking, and praying with the people I have grown to love SO much.      We were walking back last night and we passed a house that...

Jacob 7:5 (Book of Mormon):     And he had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things... wherefore, I could not be shaken.      I remember reading this in high school and being blown away by the amount of power in this scripture, and I read it again this week and felt it 10x MORE because my faith is actually being tested.     This week was interesting. Our area is normally super friendly and we are able to have great conversations with people in houses and the streets, but the Christmas spirit is nowhere to be seen. In fact, I think we have run into all of the haters in our area in just one week!!!!      IT STINKS sometimes to be outside all day and get harshly rejected, HOWEVER, this scripture came to my head and I reread it and immediately had a change of perspective.      Why would I let a couple days of rejection shake even a little...