December 28, 2015- It's the Holiday Season

So Nor Tari (new year's) in Armenia is HUGE. It starts new year's eve and goes for a week and Christmas is on the 6th. There are lights and decorations and fun things everywhere!!!! It's gonna be awesome. But I don't know how much missionary-ing will happen. Christmas was wonderful I hope you all had a great time with family and friends. On Monday we had a Christmas activity with all the missionaries. We went to an orphanage and took the kids clothes and toys. I got to play with some sweet little guys and I loved it. There is a less active woman and daughter in our ward. The daughter has 2 boys, ages 3 and 4, and the husband just left and married some lady from Russia. The younger boy is really sick and they don't have much money. So on Christmas we went to their house and brought them some gifts from Dzmer Papik! It was really fun, the boys loved it so much. I just have a few people I want to talk about. Tatik. Our cute little neighbor is a tatik (grandma) that speaks want better Russian than Armenian. She lives alone and her children all live in different countries. She can't really get down the 5 flights of stairs very well and she has no teeth. She loves us and we love her soooo much. She comes over in the morning and bugs us during personal study. We take out her trash, get her paper for her and every night she knocks on our bedroom wall to tell us she's going to sleep. I still don't know why I'm in this area, but if I can make Tatik's day. I feel pretty accomplished. The elect lady. I need to give her a name or something... I don't know but I've talked about her before. She came to church on her and all that. Well, we hadn't had any contact with her for almost two weeks so we thought we had lost her. We went to see her one day and couldn't find her house. (we get lost a lot) But she showed up to church again! She said she missed us and her phone hadn't been working and she was really busy. I was praying so hard that she would come back or we could reach her again or something and we did!! I love her. Heavenly Father answers prayers because He cares about each and every one of us. And if we develop that love for others, we can be the instruments in His hands to answers the prayers of others. Active member lady. There's a very active lady in the ward of a few years now and she's preparing to go the temple. We were running through some of the baptismal interview questions with her to help her feel prepared. When we talked about Thomas S. Monson, she said she had no doubt in her mind that he was our living prophet. She said he must be a prophet because he knew exactly what missionaries needed to come here specifically for her so she could accept the gospel. My testimony was so strengthened. I have felt a renewed confirmation that this is where I need to be. This is where God needs me to be for some lost soul in Armenia. I am so grateful for God's mercy in giving us a prophet so we can know what we must do in this life to be happy! I love this Gospel. It is perfect for each of us. And I love my Savior who mad it all possible. Have a wonderful week. Sister Blanchard