Happy New Years!!! :)

Hello Again Family! 

It was so fun to talk to you on Christmas! Sorry it didn't work towards the end, but I'm grateful I was able to see all of your beautiful faces for a while! You all look really good, not too different, I don't know what I was expecting, but it was fun to see you! 

The rest of my Christmas was awesome! We went over to a families home from our ward. They are just recently married, and he is a recent convert. We had dinner and then they gave us stockings and pajamas, I got mickey mouse footie pajamas! It was so sweet of them! We talked about how far they have both come in their lives, and how much the gospel has meant to them! I've thought about the last year that I have had. 

There has been a lot of great things happen for me! I've finished my first year of college, received a mission call to the most amazing place I could have ever asked for, started my mission, seen miracles, grown closer to my savior, and received my endowment! I've thought of how the gospel has helped me through this year and I think it might be safe to say, it's been the best year of my life! And it's all because I've tried everyday to build my relationship with my Heavenly Father and my brother, savior, and redeemer, Jesus Christ! I know the reason my life has been blessed is because of my efforts in learning of the gospel and trying to be like Christ! I want you all to think of your last year and reflect on how the Gospel has blessed you this year, because I know it has! :)

Happy New Years!!! What are you all doing for New Years Eve?! I don't know why I just realized this, but I won't be able to count down for the new year..... I think I'll be more interested in sleep anyways though! :) 

This week Sister Fisher and I have really focused on being enthusiastic about the work! We weren't super depressed or sad, but sometimes when you've been tracting for awhile and no one will even talk to you, it's difficult to be enthusiastic. So we pumped ourselves up and had the funnest time ever knocking doors and talking to people on the street! It was so cool to see that when we were happy and beaming with confidence, we talked to SO many more people and saw miracles after miracles!! The Lord sends prepared people to prepared missionaries! The Lord is not going to send some boring, not confident missionaries to his children that are ready to be taught! Each missionary (this includes you all) is unique and has different talents! We need to love our differences, enjoy every minute, and be confident in our message! When we do this, we will see that more opportunities will arise for us to share the gospel!

I'm Glad you had fun in San Francisco! And that was very sweet of you for giving that woman a ride! That was very kind service!! The Lord is always giving us opportunities to serve and then it is up to us to take advantage of those opportunities! I think it is interesting how often times we will pray for an attribute like love, patience, charity, humility, diligence, ect. and when the Lord gives us opportunities to build the very attributes we are trying to build, we ignore them! We need to be aware of those opportunities and then Thank Heavenly Father for giving them to us! 

Make this next year a year of opportunities! Opportunities to mess up, to learn, to grow, to achieve, to teach, to love, to become like our Savior! Pray for opportunities and you will receive them. Look for opportunities and you will recognized them. Take advantage of opportunities and you will be blessed by them!

I Love you all so much! Have fun this week! :) 

Love, Sister Samantha Tracy