Well another Christmas came fast and left fast.
I wondered at first if we could enjoy it without family, but it turned out to
be very wonderful. We have had a full month of blessings and small
miracles! Our Christmas Tree story was a blessing that really touched our
lives. The family that it happened to needed a miracle in their life, they have
been pretty much to themselves since in all happened.
We had the missionaries over for Christmas Eve.
We have learned to love these Elders so much! It still amazes us how 18 year
old elders can be so sensitive and full of the gospel, the younger generation
truly is coming up prepared to run the church!
Christmas Day we enjoyed staying home. We
skyped with the kids and got to share Christmas with each family. That was
wonderful!, To our surprise, Fri. we got an early call telling us that
Michael and Jen and kids were on there way to spend Sat. with us. What a
wonderful treat! They drove all day Fri. We played all day Sat. and they drove
home all day today. They made it home safe. That was a big sacrifice for them
but so very enjoyed and appreciated by us. At least we got 4 of the 17 grand
kids, we'll always take what we can get.
Karl has been the one conducting all month of
Dec. in Sacrament meeting. All week long he has said, "I need to
prepare something I know the speakers won't show up." His hunch was
correct, that is how it works back here, it they don't feel like doing
something they don't bother to tell anyone, just stay away.
We had been to the Messiah the Sun. before and
had three people from Frankford sing in the choir. Karl called on them to bear
their testimony about the experience. One Sister told how she couldn't
imagine how it would ever come together with just one more practice, and
she just cried telling the story. She had three solo parts and said she could
literally feel angles helping her sing. The performance was wonderful, I
think she was right, they had many more helping them sing. What a
wonderful way to start off Christmas Week.
I made 35 loaves of sweet bread to take to
members of our small branch, it was rewarding to visit so many humble homes as
we took the bread around. We are all so blessed, even now I see how
humble people have to live, I have been so abundantly blessed.
We had the missionaries over for Christmas Eve for
dinner, we played
games, sang songs and read the Christmas story, it was a lovely, spiritual evening.
games, sang songs and read the Christmas story, it was a lovely, spiritual evening.
We are anxious to start a new week and a new
year. It will be one year tomorrow that we went into the mission home.
What a year it has been. I wouldn't trade it for anything! Our appreciation for
the goodness of our Father in Heaven has been so abundant. He is so aware
of all His Children. Especially all these that have it so hard back
here. We are so blessed to have been a part of their lives. We are
getting sad that the time is going so fast, we just have to make every minute
count, some days count more than others.
We are having our Senior Couple Christmas Party
at the Mission Home tomorrow night. We have to take a $10.00 gift for a couple
that they can share. I told Dad the thing we run out of the most is paper
towels and toilet paper and that was what I wanted to give, he tabooed the idea
so we ended up getting them some TIDE. How fun is that to receive?
We've got to do the potatoes, another meal, when am I going to get ready for
the wedding?
We love all of you, I would like to hear some of your
new year's resolutions. I just add a NEW year (2015) to the ones I
made 10 years ago. Like Dad told them today in his talk, if you can't get
the entire Book of Mormon read, just read a verse or two a day. With our
age and the conditions back here, that isn't too bad of an idea.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! MAY WE ALL APPRECIATE OUR MANY BLESSINGS. ALL OF
YOU ARE SUCH A BLESSING TO US!
PHILLY MISSIONARIES
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