Over the River: visting many families and having warmer weather

Attached are some of the photos of the decorations around and the snow and some stuff from the gunsmith shop while I was in Nauvoo and me. I'll have the video of everything home soon.

It's always hectic just before Ward (congregation) events, and it’s even more interesting to see the behind the scenes stuff to know how much more hectic it is. I never want to be an auxiliary leader. More responsibility than I want. (she needs to be careful what she wishes for!)

We don't have a real, real tree- we have a fake one, lent to us by one of the members. So now we have two trees up- the one they gave us and the one you sent us (paper). But I was under the impression we weren't allowed to have a tree at all, so I'm happy with our decorations. We did help a member decorate the real tree she and her husband bought, though. They also loaded us down with more sweets. I don't need any more sweets or cocoa- I'm way set. (we'll send See's candy in a few months!)

We've been well fed, and it's been fun to be in different houses and see how different families celebrate and generally operate. The different dynamics I like or don't like and there's a lot of things I want to take home, and take to my future family...

I'm glad to hear there's been rain, even multiple days of it! I've been telling all the water here to head west. The more the better with how parched California's been. (Thank you!)

The more I learn about relationships out here, the more I want to come home and tell Nick and Jake and Katie to watch out. It's been different, being more involved with adults and their life stories and such. There's a lot of people here who have been divorced two or three times and their grief as they watch their children make all the same mistakes and it makes me look at my life and go 'I wish someone had said something at this point' or that I had figured out a lot of things before I got to experience all the heartache. I wish I had read the scriptures more, the church magazines more, listened closer to talks and really, really tried to put those life principles into play. I wish I could show my siblings these things I've learned and warn them how much more miserable life is if you don't stay as far away from trouble as possible.

I love the letters!

We have two people getting baptized this week - Marcellus and Gabriel. Gabriel's parents will hopefully follow him the coming week, as they're still struggling with quitting smoking, but they want it so bad. The Temple (why Mormons build Temples, and what happens inside the Temples - we want to be eternal families!) is one of the most important things to them right now and we're trying to help them get that to carry them through the challenge of quitting. We just set a date with a lady named Robyn for Feb 21st. She called us out of the blue and asked if we would come around. We're excited to help her turn her life around.

It’s actually been relatively warm. Today it’s been about 50, and the last couple of days it’s been between the 30s and 40s. It will dip down into the 30s again in the coming week, but right now we're great. I'm frequently over dressed for the temperature because I keep expecting it to be colder.

The church is true.

I wish I had learned a lot of these things years ago. It’s the little things that matter most.

Keep fighting the good fight, even when all seems lost.

Forgive and love, regardless of what happens.

Happiness is the method of traveling, not the end of the road.

The Atonement makes all of that possible.

All my love, Christine