Dear Family,
This has been a wild and
crazy week.
Monday, FHE
Tuesday, Visiting
Teaching
Wednesday, Nails
Thursday was the start
of our Christmas party for the missionaries. We had all the senior
missionaries, couples and sisters, come to the office for dinner, exchange of
white elephants gifts and then setup for 300 missionaries. They had an
all day party on Friday. Some of the seniors couples live 7 hours away.
We have a large mission area. We love the senior missionaries.
They are dedicated, wonderful, loving and very fun people. We laugh
lots.
We set up all the tables
and chairs and then put all their presents and cards in different rooms
according to their last name. Quite a big deal getting it organized.
We fixed 50 Christmas bags for missionaries we knew that wouldn't receive
anything. 71 still hadn't received a package but in one week we will
reevaluate and if necessary make more Christmas bags for them. Over half
of our missionaries never receive a letter during their mission. That
makes us very sad but they continue to do good work and with a smile.
We had a talent program
for them. The missionaries volunteer to entertain. Most were
islanders because they start singing and dancing at a very early age.
They love to dance. They are a loving and funny group. One of the
missionaries, Elder Garcia-Kempf sang Silent Night in English and Spanish.
He stutters and during his song he never stuttered. He got a huge
round of applause. We were all thrilled for him.
They watched videos that
each zone made for the program. They were given scriptures from the New
Testament. All were dealing with the birth of Christ. 3 of the eleven
zones were not shown because of some inappropriate things. They will be
edited and the dvd will be given to each missionary. They edited some on
my computer so I have the dvd of all the zones. It was very funny but
some just got a little free in their interpretation of the scriptures.
Food time. We sat
with four Chinese sisters. Three of them came to the mission against
their parent's wishes. They are not being supported by family. They are
such happy beautiful girls, who are great missionaries. One said,
"We are the pioneers that will help bring the gospel to China."
That is so true. We also sat with one of our favorite missionaries,
Elder Bryant. We asked where he was from and he said Murray, Utah.
He lived in foster care for many years and at 15 was adopted. He is
such a pleasant cute elder. The stories of these missionaries are
amazing. They are strong in the gospel with a smile on their face.
Saturday we took the
train to the city. We saw a fun display of a gingerbread village and
lovely Christmas windows at Myers department store. They reminded us of
ZCMI Christmas windows. It was fun and festive. Lights and wreaths
all over the stores and streets. We were excited. Went to TGIF for
lunch and had an American hamburger with fries, not chips. The ketchup
was Heinz. Boy did we love that lunch and it tasted delicious.
After lunch we went to
see the Nutcracker Ballet. It was a bit different but we loved it.
The costumes were so pretty and the music was all we hoped. We were
just thrilled to be there and enjoyed every minute.
That night we had a
Christmas dinner at the Snow's home. This is our third time to have
dinner with them. The table was set with Christmas dishes and looked so
lovely. LOVELY is one of the most used words in Australia. They are
amazing people with unbelievable stories. Two other couples were there
also. One man and his wife were from Germany, via Poland, Bavaria, etc
etc. They lived through WWII, escaping one county to another. There
stories are so interesting and sooo sad. His name is Skibbe and he wrote
a book, Living through Hitler and Stalin. Adrienne is reading it now and
I will read it when she finishes.
We wish we could tell
you so you would understand how wonderful the people are that we have met.
We can describe them but their spirit and lovely personalities can't be
explained.
Last night we went to a
Stake Christmas music program. You have the Mormon Tab Choir and we have
many Stake Christmas programs going on all over Melbourne. They are
wonderful.
We have put pictures of
our Christmas party on our blog; cannonsisterscalledtoserve.blogspot.com.au
"For unto us a
child is born, unto us a child is given... His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
Love to all,
Adrienne, Dee Dee,
Mother, Mom, Grandmas
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