Merry Christmas!

Antonio's Baptism...the VERY best present of ALL!!!

President and Sister Miller,
This has been such a wonderful week, I am sure I say that all the time, but really we have been so blessed this week and have seen promises being fulfilled. This week we decided we are going to live 20-20-2 to it's fullesti ncluding having 10 new investigators and matching our member present lessons with our new investigators. It has made all the difference and I really have seen miracles happen within our area. Antonio Lopez was baptized about 2 weeks ago and for the first time he was able to go to Elder Ott's Mens Group at the church on tuesday night. This is where we started to see amazing changes because while there he was surrounded by other men in his same circumstances and they all committed together to read the entire Book of Mormon from cover to cover in 10 weeks. The next day before we could go over and visit Antonio called crying saying how he had started to read the Book of Mormon and he had felt how wonderful and how great of a blessing that book is. He left school in 7th grade to go work in the fields and so he can't read very well, but he stayed up till late that night reading and he cannot put it down. When we went and visited him it was amazing seeing the visible difference in this man. I can hardly recognize him. He was gruff and grumpy and now he is humble and submissive. All he wants is to learn more and to have is family join him. As we have been living 20-20-2, many of the baptismal dates that we had set that were not prepared, dropped, but we were able to find more that were really prepared... instead of finding them, they found us. In the middle of the week we got a text in the middle of the night from Cristina Lopez, Antonio's daughter who lives with him but never wanted to listen to us before. It was a cry for help and she has been humbled and prepared and she has watched these amazing changes in her father. She realizes more than ever that she needs the help of the Savior in her life, to lead and guide her and her children. When we went over the next day she sat down with us, she asked questions, she accepted a baptismal date... she was ready to act. she came to the ward christmas party that night, and the next day she and her son came to church. It was such an amazing blessing to have them there, learning, and see them as they felt the spirit and their hearts were softened. I know that God is mindful of each of His children. He loves us so much...more than we can ever comprehend. Often times He gives us trials so that we can be humbled and rely on Him instead of our own strengths. I know that we are His missionaries and He places us where we need to be at the right time and gives us the right words to say. I know that the Atonement is real, that it really can change my life, and it has. I am grateful to help others learn about the restored gospel so they can experience this change and this happiness in their own lives as well. I am so blessed to be a missionary. Heavenly Father knew better than I did that this is where I needed to be, and that I needed to serve Him. I owe all I have to Him. Have a wonderful wonderful Christmas and thank you so much for all you do!

Sister Osborne
Contacts - 142
New investigators - 11