Monday, December 17 !

Another week come and gone. Christmas is next week! We've had our Christmas tree up for quite some time. We've been putting things away for stockings... (which are actually plastic grocery bags)...we've started receiving small gifts from members so they are "under" our Christmas tree. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

We had Christmas in the mission home this last week as the Chester zone. We played games, watched Emma Smith, ate a big Christmas dinner, received our Christmas packages from home... mine are still en route... But I did get the birthday present from Aunt Diane and Hailey's birthday card with pictures of the munchkins (Thank You!)... Sister Smith commented that there still were no pictures of my sister... I was happy to get pictures though. they are now in my little picture book that Hailey gave me before I left. We did a gift exchange at the mission home so we were all asked to bring a gift less than 3 pounds (money, not weight). since we would be the only sisters there we figured food would be a good bet. We bought some plastic kids bowls for about a pound and then made a red velvet cake to give some slices of cake away in the bowls. Some Elders thought it was brilliant. Elders just don't appreciate food as much as they used to... :)

We had the ward Christmas party on Friday and I was asked to bring a cake. So I made a mint cake. It was really good. We had a few investigators attend and it was a really fun night that everyone got involved in. We left at 8:45 and people were still around playing games. It was really wonderful to see the ward interact with the people we have been working with.

It's getting colder and colder here. I had to call Sister Preston the other night to ask for suggestions on how to be warm because I wear like 5 layers of clothes and I'm still freezing. We've had to spend some nights with feet in hot water and Sister Smith has been kind enough to give me foot massages to help get circulation into my feet at the end of the day. Sister Preston suggested some vitamins and maybe a heated blanket. The blanket really wouldn't help me much when I'm outside, but we may have to look into it.

I haven't gotten my coat yet. I took money out at the ATM and went into the store and they had sold the one that was in my size. They said they would have some more in later in the week and they would call us.... We stopped by this morning and they still haven't gotten any in and they said it might not be until after Christmas. So we'll see about that... I don't know if I should just drop it or go in search of another coat or just live with the ones I've got... meh, I don't know.

Also, in regards to money. We have an activity this weekend for all the Chinese people we are teaching and we are in charge of the "gingerbread" activity, so we have to buy the supplies. We don't know how much it is going to cost and we will try to use our mission funds as much as possible but may need to use personal funds. We did a test run of making "gingerbread" temples. Our model looks so good! I forgot my camera today, so I'll have to send a picture next time!

Dad, I got your email about snow. Sister Smith's parents sent her a picture of their house covered in snow. Also, Aunt Judy sent a picture of their big snow by them. We haven't seen much snow here, thankfully. We've been told that if it snows two inches here everything shuts down. No one can seem to function. It's an ongoing joke for many of the people here. They say it's not a rare occurrence to get snow and yet every time they do everyone freaks out as if it something they have never seen or had to deal with before. I kind of want to see how that goes. The only time snow fell here and stuck was when I was in the MTC and we were sheltered from the outside world...

We are excited to see many of our investigators progressing right now. Ciaran and Gethin helped with the Sacrament yesterday which was very good to see.

I don't have a whole lot else to say, I don't know how emailing is going to work for the next 2 weeks because our P-days fall on holidays (Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve), so no idea what is going to happen. We get basically 5 days off this holiday season... Christmas Eve, Christmas, Boxing Day (Dad's Birthday), New Year's Eve, and New Year's. We're excited!

So Mom, let us plan on me calling home around 9 AM your time and if anything changes with that I can let you know later this week, but I will keep in mind if changes need to be made that you are feeding the missionaries probably around 1. Are the missionaries you work with good, friendly missionaries?

I love you lots,

 

Merry Christmas to Everyone!