December 15th Email

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been another busy week for me here in Florida! Monday was my last day in North Port. For my last day we went to the Fisherman's village. It is down by a river and is a collection of souvenir stores. It was fun to see all the Christmas stuff!

After the little village my companion and I went to say goodbye to a few people. First off was the Cuevas Family. I have really grown close to this family so it was really hard to say goodbye. I cried my eyes out of course. Then we went and said goodbye to Pam Johnson. She was the first person I met in that ward but at the time I meet her she wasn't a member. She was baptized on September 6. She is now one of the strongest members down there. She is amazing!

Tuesday was transfer day. It was so hard to say goodbye to North Port and the sisters that I had grown close to down there. But as soon as I saw Sister Anderton my fears disappeared. She is my new companion. I love her so much. I served around her for the first three months of my mission and we went on exchanges once. We get along pretty well. I actually had a class with her at BYU (my DAP class).
Seminole is beautiful. You have to go over this really cool bridge to get here. It is kind of scary but neat at the same time. This city is very festive. It seems that everyone decorates for Christmas here.

Wednesday we taught a man who isn't really interested in the church but wants us to answer all of his questions. It is hard to know things out of the Bible. But I am managing. The spirit gives me all the things I need to say. We went that evening to a place where there are a lot of lights. Almost every house was focused on the nativity. You don't have to pay to go through but they do ask for donations to Hospice. It was well worth the dollar donation we gave them.

Friday night was the Christmas Party for this ward. I have never been to a party like this before. We helped frost cookies with the children. We share the ward with Elders and they helped make ornaments with the kids. They had two pinatas. And of course, Santa came. There are 750 members in this ward. It needs to be split but there is only really one logical way to split it and the one side does not have enough worthy Priesthood holders to run a ward. So for now it will stay the same. There were 10 turkeys made and 3 were left by the end. The food was amazing.
Before I came out one of my co-workers from Mail Services was moving out to Tampa for law school. He told me that him and his wife would feed me if I was ever in their ward. Sisters only have five areas to serve in so I knew that I would probably never serve in his area. At the party I saw him. He is in this ward. We had a really good time reminiscing about the good times at work. It was fun to see someone I know!

On Saturday we went down to North Port for Caitlin Ridgeway's baptism. I was so glad that we got a ride to go. We had to post pone her baptism because she was sick. It was a wonderful day though. The spirit was really strong. I gave a talk to the Holy Ghost. I thought it was good. Her mother was so happy that I was there. She is a really sweet girl. The missionaries that were there sang "Walk Tall, You're a daughter." I cried as I looked into the eyes of this daughter of God. She said thank you after we were done singing.

Yesterday was also long. We went to church and all of our meetings and then went to a baptism afterwards. A little boy in the ward was baptized. We were put in charge of the food. It was really neat to see this little boy be baptized by his father.
We then went to a Christmas Choral Fireside. It was beautiful. I know that Grandma would have liked it. It was a stake fireside so it was great to see the talent of everyone.

We also went and saw this week I really cool light show. The lights go to the song "Carol of the Bells" done by Trans Siberian Orchestra. It was really cool.
Well, my time is up. I love you all. I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas. Thanks for all the love and support you give me. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love
Sister Comte