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