Elder Dwight and Sister Susan Potter: Week 25

This week started out with Elder Potter helping our son with secret Christmas stuff in Raleigh while I finished secret Christmas stuff here. That day seems like months ago. Tuesday we visited Claire to give her a new member discussion (which she could have given to us--she knew it all). She wasn't feeling very well that day... more to come on Claire a little later. That evening we went on another visit to a ward member's home this time with a member of the Elder's quorum presidency. We had a fun visit with Barbara and Jimmy. We gave a Christmas message and had a wonderful discussion.

Wednesday afternoon we visited Judy. She's the new member in Albertson that we took to the temple a couple of months ago. We have another trip planned with her for January. She just lost her older sister and is very grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and her understanding of the Plan of Salvation.

Us with Judy

Thursday we had a great visit with Angie and JD. We talked about Christmas and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and how we need to prepare temporally but more importantly, we need to prepare spiritually.

Susan, Angie, and JD

We visited the Faisons that day and took them some Christmas surprises and watched a Christmas video about the birth of Christ. The Christ Child: A Nativity Story

Us and the Faison Family

Thursday night we went to the Huggins Family Christmas Party. Clifton Huggins is Claire's great-grandpa. When we got there we found out that Claire started feeling worse after we left on Tuesday night. She had the flu with a 104 degree temperature! I was disappointed we didn't get to hang out with her at the party and really sad she was so sick.

In the picture of the entertainment below, the boy on the left is a Huggins family member home from a military base in Kentucky for Christmas. When he saw our missionary badges he told us about the senior couple on his base. He said he loves them. They found him immediately after he got there and have helped him so much... shameless plug for senior missionaries.

That's Claire's great-grandpa in the middle and
next to me is her grandma, Sheila.

Being entertained at the party by Huggins
family members.

Friday was our Christmas Zone Conference. It was actually a four-zone-zone conference. I know we've said it before, but hanging out with the young missionaries is awesome. They teach us so much. I always look forward to Wednesday for district council or any day there is a Zone council or conference even though it means getting up earlier than usual. From 9-12 it was spiritually uplifting and from 12-4 there was lunch, Santa, games, and a movie. We left before the movie because we had to go visit someone.

Some of our district and our zone leader...
love them!

Today is Christmas Eve. We took the two youngest Faison children with us to church. The 7-year-old has a LOT of energy. He needed a LOT of reminding to be at least a little more still and not quite so loud. On the way home we talked to him about why we go to church. We talked about Jesus and how he loves us. Now that I think about it, Jesus is probably thinking something similar about me. She needs to be a LOT more patient with that 7-year-old. The Savior is patient with me as I learn, and He forgives me when I make mistakes. What a beautiful world it would be if we were all just a little more patient and a little more forgiving. We are so thankful for Jesus Christ and His Infinite Atonement that makes the Plan of Salvation possible.

In about an hour, we are going to Raleigh to visit Jake and his family and then to pick up Caroline from the airport! Yay! :) I'm not going to post this until I can add some pictures from that, so this will be a little late.