Too much fun?:)

Dec. 9, 2013

Hey everyone!

this week has been great! definitely full of adventure! We went to center Philly on Monday and it was super pretty!! We went to Love Park and they had the cutest little Christmas village up! And they had a huge tree! It was super fun! There was a guy there who was taking our pictures for us by the Love sign and he was telling us all about how he was recently saved as of June of 2013... we were pretty sure that he was high on something... We got to go to the temple sight and I got to see elder Larson from my first district and elder Cowley who I taught with on the airplane! We had so much fun talking with them and catching up! The temple is growing!!! Oh my gosh its crazy! While in center Philly we went into this big cathedral! It was so pretty and honestly kind of scary. It is so cool to see the difference in the spirit from one side of the street to another!

We also got to see Brenda on Monday. She is doing good. Right now she is praying about a baptismal date, but we are pretty hopeful for the 22 of December. And then we met with Sonny on Tuesday and he is progressing very well. We just have to get him to come to church and then he is ready to be baptized! Wahoo!!!

Thursday was super fun!!! Sister Kayce Johnson (the relief society president) took us to the zoo!!! America's first zoo!  :) We had such a fun time. we had to get special permission from president Anderson to go, but he told us that "in the interest of getting to know the members, I think you better do it!" I love President, he is the BEST! And to  make things even better, the animals were all pretty active and having a bunch of fun! The monkeys were going crazy, the tigers were going crazy, the otters were going crazy! It was a good time of day to go to the zoo!

We also got Christmas pictures taken by a lady in our ward who normally charges a ton for pictures, but she did ours for free :) They turned out super cute and as soon as that letter gets to me with all of the addresses I will send out a card :) Then we came home to plan, but we didn't get to plan because the power was out... so we took crazy jumping pictures :)

Friday was the day that we found out about transfers. So... when they called us they told us that we are staying in a trio! I was super excited to hear that because I love my companions so much! But at the same time, it didn't feel quite right. But we were all excited to be able to stay together for Christmas. We started putting all of these plans together and everything. Well, in the morning we decided that we should text the assistants just to make sure that we really were staying in a trio, because for some reason the word never gets down to the trios that someone is being transferred. Well, they got our text and called back telling us that they were confused because Sister Williams is getting transferred. All of the sudden the excitement dropped, but I had this feeling of peace come over me that Sister Williams needs to leave, that she is needed elsewhere. She was praying so hard that she would stay in Pennypack, but apparently that wasn't according to the will of the Lord. We have been going around to as many people in the ward as we can so that she can say goodbye.

Yesterday it snowed. People in Philadelphia do not know how to drive in the snow. IT IS RIDICULOUS!!!! It took us and hour and a half to go 1.5 miles! Ugh! I am so glad that I know how to drive in the snow! It really does bug me that people think that slamming on your brakes is going to help when in all reality it does no good, it only makes the situation worse. There were people sliding all over the roads, we saw a bunch of people completely off the road. When I say crazy Philly drivers, you really don't know how crazy they really are. ugh!

But Sister Hall and I are staying in Pennypack. Same address and everything. Hopefully we will be getting ipads this next week... but we have to make it to transfers first. I will be getting facebook this week. But just so you all know in advance, I can not add you as my friend unless you are not a member or a less-active member, and even then I would have to get special permission to add you as a friend.

I love you all so much! Have a Merry Christmas!!!

Love,

Sister Jess Cox