Last letter for the year

OH MY!  IT LOOKS COLD!!

(We were so pleased to be able to Skype with Christine on Christmas Day evening!)

The rest of our evening was pretty good. We had steak and potatoes and stuff. Delicious. But I was sad to have to hang up and cried for a little bit afterwards. (mom did, too) Feels. I lingered a little bit to skype chat with Richard and a couple of internet friends who jumped on to say hello and Merry Christmas.

Disneyland sounds awesome. I sort of miss going, right now. Maybe I just miss being near large groups of people. Christmas honestly felt a little flat this year, like all the buildup and then Christmas day was the day after instead, and it’s like... ;-; I miss my mommaaaa.

The area itself is okay- a lot of tracting (knocking on doors), and a lot of comments about cults and about how we aren't Christian because we don't understand the true nature of Jesus Christ... Kay, that last one is a new one. But kay. But there are the few ready and pure in heart. Hoping that it will work okay.

How did you like the Star Wars movie? I've heard almost the full gamut of opinions. (we loved it!)

We have one new investigator. She's had a hard life and the sisters came just at the right time to essentially keep her husband from hurting her (they're separating and it’s not pretty), so she's down to listen to what we have to say. Only problem is she's looking to move back near her dad, and he's a pastor. ): Better work hard and fast then.

It rained on Wednesday, so we did family history, which I talked a little bit about in the call. It’s been fun to try and figure stuff out. (Much our own family work is done, so she is connecting names to families, and doing other peoples work. More about LDS family history HERE – why we do genealogy.)

Thursday, Christmas Eve, we went to a member's house and more or less spent the evening there. We spent time with many members from the branch (a “ward” is a regular congregation, a “branch” is a small ward with few people to handle the administrative duties.  Often the missionaries take on some of those responsibilities until there are enough members to support themselves and they become a regular ward) though, and it was pretty spiritual, so I don't feel bad. Good food and good company. Friday was similar, though we got to a few more houses, and some members gave us stuff along our way. We played 7 Wonders (a really awesome board game) and got a bag of candy at the Johns (the RS president's (RS = Relief Society, the womens organization in the church)) house, and bacon at another member's (bacon!!). Attempted to visit some others, before we arrived at the Cronins, where we called from.

One member let us in yesterday and gave us turkey noodle soup and it was heavenly and we're a little happier. Tender mercies.

Today we're supposed to get 6-8 inches of snow, but I expect more, and they don't plow our roads much, so I don't know if we'll get out again tonight, if only because its straight up not safe. \o/ 25 degrees outside and pouring snow.

Pictures of me and my companion.

Love you

Christine

FORECAST:

Date – high/low – other stuff

12/29 – 27*/17* wind

12/30 – 27*/16* 50% chance of snow/wind

12/31 – 20*/7* 10% chance of snow/sun/wind

1/1 – 19*/13* 10% chance of snow/sun/wind

1/2  - 25*/12* 105 chance snow/sun/wind

Fayette and a new companion

Apologies for the delay....

 I was transferred, to Fayette, Iowa. It is the biggest area in the mission, and also the farthest from the temple (3 3/4 hours or so). We cover up to the northern border of the state and all the way down to Aurora (?), to the eastern border to a good two hours west of that. We don't have the miles to cover it (1700 miles – and it’s not enough), nor the time of day, and we're in a branch. There are many struggles this area faces, including weak leadership and high inactivity (in part due to the sheer distance it takes to get here- some families travel upwards of 2 hours to get to church- be thankful there's two+ stakes in our valley.) The nearest Walmart is an hour away, so we do our shopping when we meet our district on Thursdays. Hm. Also we have no laundry facilities of our own (we are in an apartment), so we end up paying a total of $2.25 per load, so... Think I'll be a little more judicious about what goes into the laundry from now on so i can minimize number of loads (I loathe to combine whites and colors but I guess that’s why I have a garment bag? I don't know.)

The new area has a lot of potential though, so we're planning to baptize all the people here, and become a ward, and build a temple here so we don't have to go so far. All before I go home or leave this area. Good plan. ;)

My new companion and I both love Star Wars and have lamented together the fact we can't see it. She doesn't go home until 2017 though, so she's lamenting even more than I. Poor girl.
Sister Baransky is a convert to the church of about 1 1/2 years. What. A. Champ. I love her- we have VERY similar personalities and approaches to life, and she loves to serve and love and cook and clean and hunt and fix cars and I’m like WOW! We're going to get the work moving here. Also with her talents at cooking I'm probably going to finally gain all that weight missionaries talk about. Mmm.

We have two houses for sure lined up for Christmas, one in the morning and one in the evening, and a few ifs besides. It’s a little harder because it’s so much travel time between locations and only so many people that will talk to us on their doorstep.

We got a little more snow this week, but it’s almost promptly melted off. Which is good, because we're in the boonies in the worst sort of way. Don't want the roads any more dangerous than they already are with deer and such. ): We have had a few flurries of rain. But I'm still keeping in mind everything I know about driving on ice. :(

No pictures from me this week- the computers here are archaic and I didn't think to bring my usb camera cord. So companion pictures next week.

Love love love!!

Be well! Staying warm!

Christine

We Skyped on Christmas Day evening, and the whole family was able to talk to her for about an hour.  She looked wonderful, and didn't even cry this time!  Neither did Mom!  She was in good spirits and ready to work in her new area.  We are very proud of her and grateful for her service!

Christmas presents

My companion and I are doing well. We expect to get separated this transfer though, which is stressful for her, since that means a new companion right before Christmas. She's very attached to me….being her first companion.

A bit of rain and some wind that just cuts you to the bone, but no snow. It doesn't look like it will be a white Christmas this year, and honestly I'm okay with that. Snow is so over rated.

The box did arrive! (mom sent Christmas presents, a paper tree with paper ornaments, a roll of tape to hang them, candy, and an advent calendar with scriptures and corresponding refrigerator magnets) Sister Marsh opened her two presents (what?!?)  and promptly fell in love (both knitted by mom). She's worn her booties every day (fluffy on the inside slippers), and put on the cowl long enough to figure out it was warmer than necessary for our jaunt into the 60s this last week. It should get back down into the 30s next week so she'll be wearing it then. We enjoyed the colorful hot chocolate as well (multi-colored marshmallows).

Last Monday (P-day!) we made skirts at a member's house. Sister Marsh got an almost full circle skirt out of the fabric she picked out, and she's very in love with it. I didn't get mine anywhere near done because we spent the whole time on hers, since long story short she doesn't know how to sew. (sigh) So if I get moved, I hope I can find another member's house that has the tools and the time to let me mess with their machine.

We got to go to the Nauvoo Temple this week (kind of a last hurrah since we expect to be separated this transfer), and it was really nice. The family that took us let us linger in Nauvoo a little while too, so we got to see several of the sites. I really enjoy that, and the missionaries down there are always so excited to see other missionaries. Too bad we didn't have an investigator with us. They always love that. We also took our Christmas photos down there, so I'll be sending a Christmas card soon.

We also met a Jehovahs Witness that only spoke Swahili from Africa. Needless to say, there was a language barrier, but it was kind of fun to figure out her religion. (who knew that Iowa was so international?!)

We also sang in the choir for the Christmas sacrament this last week. I'm still super lost as to how to successfully be a tenor by myself, but luckily I usually stand next to a fairly strong one, so I can just harmonize with her (yay singing men's parts).

Love you! I look forward to pictures! (of family, of Christmas, and of some crafting creations made)

Love, Christine

Polar Express without snow

Sisters Kurt and Marsh (and?) at the "Polar Express" themed ward Christmas Party

No snow anymore; just periodic rain. It’s been in the high 30s/low 40s this week and I'm somewhat baffled, admittedly. ]: the threat of snow stresses me out more than just having snow, I think. I am not looking forward to snow, but I expect a white Christmas... Who knows though? Seems Iowa weather is finicky at best.

Our Ward Christmas party was polar express themed. We had bits done from a bunch of different countries as 'stops' for our train. Mostly Spanish countries but it was cool. Also lots of papoosas and tamales among the normal Christmas food fare. We got sent home with some of it too. My comp and I made flower crowns to wear. A couple of dollars at the dollar tree. :) They were well received. We'll take them down to Nauvoo this week when we go to the Temple (a last minute trip!) and will take pictures for our Christmas cards. Transfers are next week, so we're a little antsy about who's getting transferred, if any.

We've started doing family history a little more, attaching source hints that come up, and we helped a member find a great uncle she didn't know she had. Hopefully that will help encourage her to make the effort to go to the Temple.

I'm glad Jake likes the handkerchief- I thought that would be right up his alley.  (She monogrammed a handkerchief for his birthday.)

I hope Nick will be good to go when it comes time to skype home. I will be very displeased if he isn't online. (Nick will elsewhere for Christmas….when Christine Skypes…we hope to get everyone online together.)

I will likely try and send another box home soon-ish with a few of the odds and ends we've found here; at least a bottle of millstream cream soda from here. It’s a local thing apparently. Amish colonies.

Sad day on the Mrs. Knott's building! I hope they still keep it true to the general atmosphere though. That whole strip definitely needed an overhaul, but it’s still sad to see it go. (The Knotts Berry Farm Chicken Dinner Restaurant will be overhauled soon – we went to take our annual family Christmas Photo, and found out that it will all be very different next time.  We took photos of the restaurant.  Hoping they keep the same recipes!!)

Investigators:  Our professor went off the radar because some family back in the home country passed away. It’s a mess and he's especially heartbroken because he can’t go back to go to the funeral.  Rough stuff. The sick single mom of 4 has also dropped off- she hasn’t responded to our calls for a while.  We'll see what happens with her. There will be a lot more finding in the near future. Yay Tracting! I just feel bad because my companion hasn't seen a baptism of our own yet and we aim to baptize at least once a transfer. Here we are at the end of our second one and no one in the water. So she doesn't feel too great about it. But we're trying. A lot of seeds planted I guess.

Love you! :)

Christine