Hello Everyone,
This week was great. I think between Christmas eve, and the day after Christmas Elder Bell and I had 6 Christmas Dinners!!! I am so over Turkey for the next 6 months. We started out going to the Pearce's for Christmas Eve Dinner. We got to play games and talk to lots of people. We ended with the Nativity. Sis Pearce asked me to be the narrator. So I put on my best voice and made sure everyone could hear me. We sang songs in between each set of scriptures. All of the kids were dressed up in their costumes for the Nativity. Just like we do at Grandma's. (Or try to do, we had a few wandering shepherds) It was a lovely performance by all. Christmas morning began with Elder Bell and me opening presents. After we were done, we left for the Hendricks home. Sis Hendricks is the one who emailed you guys. They have three kids and all of their toys. We went and flew helicopters, rode a rip-stick, played with air-planes and many other toys. Sis Hendricks made us breakfast too. It was delicious. We left around 12 and went home to have our personal study. At 1 was the Maldonado's. They are Hispanic, but speak English, and we ate pulled Brisket, Mexican rice, and a few other dishes. When dinner was finished we played Phase 10 with them. Sis Maldonado kept getting angry at Bro Maldonado, he kept skipping her. We finished up there and took off for the Cook's. We had a Christmas ham with potatoes and green been casserole. There three kids were a hoot. We went with the Cook's to the Grigg's home. With both families there were 8 kids, well 10 if you include us, over at there home. We watched a few of their home videos and played some games. Then it was time to call home. What a fabulous conversation I had with my family. I love and adore them so much.
Yesterday was church. The Chabots didn't make it, but Nina Cox did. She was unable to make it last week because she was sick, but she came this week and said we could come back again this week. Yay! After church we went to the Kelly's home. The Kelly's have two boys just older than me. Oh man are they a pair!! One is married and both served missions. They just pick on each other, pick on their mom, and anyone else who makes a stupid comment. Haha. It was very funny. We ate a whole bunch of food and then just listened to them talk and tell stories. True stories are far better than any jokes. That's for sure. Mostly because after the Kelly's home, we went to the O'Brian's. They fed us their Christmas dinner. ( I don't remember why they did it on Sunday, but they did) While we were eating a few of the O'Brian boys want to tell jokes. Once you hear a 10 year old's first joke, you know how the rest of them are going to be, but it was fun either way. After we finished up dinner number 6, we read scriptures with the O'Brians. They were going to do their family Scripture study and we hadn't done our Comp study yet. We stayed and read a few chapters in Alma. It's so cool to see their young minds as they read from the scriptures. They always ask the right questions to get the most profound answers. Or just to confuse their mom. Either way it was good.
My Christmas was fantastic and one that I'll remember for a while, a long while. Christmas's on the mission are always ones to remember.
I love you guys so much. Thanks for your support.
Elder Call
Elder Call
Off to the MTC
Monday, December 27, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Christmas time
Hey Everyone,
I can't believe that Tim is coimg home so soon. I seems like yesterday we were at his house taking pictures of everyone and having a blast. I remember going to the TCU - Utah game with him. What a trip that was!! Tim is the first one back. Erik will be there in no time, and six weeks later it'll be Erik, Tazz, T and me. Time is flying fast.
This Christmas season is a lot harder than last Christmas. I think it's because I'm so close to going home. Last Christmas I was close to when I came out and I didn't have a problem with it, but now it's hard. I just want to sit down in a warm blanket and watch the Polar Express. (sigh) I guess I should just keep working. We met with Karren Barrett this week. We took her over to the Legge's home to have a lesson. Brother and Sister Legge were kind enough to let us use their home. We taught Karren about the Plan of Salvation and everything that it implied. The Blessings, the Commitments, everything. After we asked her what she thought about being Baptized. She said she has nothing against it, she just needs to know for herself. She keeps telling us that it'll be hard because she is a New York'er. Haha. We told her it was possible and She agreed. After the lesson we were going out to our van and Karren came up to us. She asked us not to be mad with her, but that she has something to ask of us. How could we be mad at her, we would do anything she asks us!? Right!? Well...she asked us if she could take a break from church and the lessons. She doesn't want us to come over until after the Holidays. I had to bite my tongue. I wanted to say, "NO! We won't leave you." However, I'm way to nice and I said, "Of course." This is the second Christmas that Karren has had without her husband. He died about a year ago and it's still hard for her. Especially around the Holidays. So we haven't seen Karren since Wednesday. We didn't see her at church either, but we are going to try and keep tabs on her. She said we could. She also told us not to give up on her. That she loves what we are teaching and wants so much to believe that its true, she just needs a little bit of time around the Holidays. I hope she reads the Book of Mormon.
The Chabots are doing great! Kind of. They are ready for baptism. Well everyone except for Seth, but I'm sure he'll be ready soon. We are only waiting on one thing, Sister Chabot to give us a day. We talked to her last week about giving us a day for their Baptism and she said that she will think of a day. Well its been a week and a half and she hasn't given us one yet! She keeps saying that she is waiting for her mother to get back to her with a day, but there may be something else, we don't know yet. We went over to the Chabots home last night to give them a little lesson and a treat. We are going to be busy for the first part of this week and we wanted to see them. We showed up a little bit late because we had to give a blessing earlier, so we just gave them the treat. ;) TIM-TAM-SLAM's!! Yum. I'm sure some of you know what that is, but for those of you who do not know yet here are some basic steps:
1: Go to Target and buy 2 packages of Tim-Tams. (One for you and one for Elder Call)
2: If you don't already have hot chocolate, get some while you are getting the Tim-Tam's for your family, friends and Elder Call.
3: Make hot chocolate as directed with its packaging.
4: Open package of Tim-Tam's and grab one cookie for yourself, you can share later.
5: Bite one corner off, turn the cookie over and bite the opposite corner. You have now created the straw for your hot chocolate.
6: Dip on corner into the hot chocolate, making sure that the entire corner (one that you bit off) is in the yummy liquid.
7: Begin sucking like you would a straw and continue until you feel the hot chocolate coming through the cookie.
8: Hopefully you have read these directions before trying it out, because as you start to suck the hot chocolate through the Tim-Tam the hot chocolate begins to melt the Tim-Tam. After the hot chocolate begins to enter your mouth you slurp up the Tim-Tam. The hot chocolate should have melted the Tim-Tam and you will end up with a mouth full of Glorious Chocolate!
Hint: If these directions are too much for you too bad. The only way you will ever get that much chocolate into your system quicker is through an IV. I promise.
Any ways, that was our wonderful experience with the Chabot family. They loved it. Then they tried to get me to try it with a Twinkie. Maybe my skills weren't that good, but it failed miserably. Only Tim-Tam's (and possibly some similar cookie) will work as well. It was fun. I talked to Sister Chabot about a date last night, she still doesn't know. I don't think that she realizes that she is holding them back from the greatest blessing on the earth. The Holy Ghost. We'll try to help her see.
We took some more beach pictures last P-Day. It was awesome. The sun set at 4:30, so we went to the beach and had fun. I will send you a package with a few other things as well. I need to finish it up today. Tomorrow is going to be awesome. We are having a Mission Wide Christmas Party! My first ever. President Summerhays didn't do that. It will be fun to see all the other missionaries from the Mission that I miss.
I think that's all for this week. If I remember I'll send it to you soon. OH!!! I'm on Mormon.org!! You can create you're own profile and our mission president encouraged us to. It's not like facebook, but its pretty cool.
Love ya'll,
Elder Call
I can't believe that Tim is coimg home so soon. I seems like yesterday we were at his house taking pictures of everyone and having a blast. I remember going to the TCU - Utah game with him. What a trip that was!! Tim is the first one back. Erik will be there in no time, and six weeks later it'll be Erik, Tazz, T and me. Time is flying fast.
This Christmas season is a lot harder than last Christmas. I think it's because I'm so close to going home. Last Christmas I was close to when I came out and I didn't have a problem with it, but now it's hard. I just want to sit down in a warm blanket and watch the Polar Express. (sigh) I guess I should just keep working. We met with Karren Barrett this week. We took her over to the Legge's home to have a lesson. Brother and Sister Legge were kind enough to let us use their home. We taught Karren about the Plan of Salvation and everything that it implied. The Blessings, the Commitments, everything. After we asked her what she thought about being Baptized. She said she has nothing against it, she just needs to know for herself. She keeps telling us that it'll be hard because she is a New York'er. Haha. We told her it was possible and She agreed. After the lesson we were going out to our van and Karren came up to us. She asked us not to be mad with her, but that she has something to ask of us. How could we be mad at her, we would do anything she asks us!? Right!? Well...she asked us if she could take a break from church and the lessons. She doesn't want us to come over until after the Holidays. I had to bite my tongue. I wanted to say, "NO! We won't leave you." However, I'm way to nice and I said, "Of course." This is the second Christmas that Karren has had without her husband. He died about a year ago and it's still hard for her. Especially around the Holidays. So we haven't seen Karren since Wednesday. We didn't see her at church either, but we are going to try and keep tabs on her. She said we could. She also told us not to give up on her. That she loves what we are teaching and wants so much to believe that its true, she just needs a little bit of time around the Holidays. I hope she reads the Book of Mormon.
The Chabots are doing great! Kind of. They are ready for baptism. Well everyone except for Seth, but I'm sure he'll be ready soon. We are only waiting on one thing, Sister Chabot to give us a day. We talked to her last week about giving us a day for their Baptism and she said that she will think of a day. Well its been a week and a half and she hasn't given us one yet! She keeps saying that she is waiting for her mother to get back to her with a day, but there may be something else, we don't know yet. We went over to the Chabots home last night to give them a little lesson and a treat. We are going to be busy for the first part of this week and we wanted to see them. We showed up a little bit late because we had to give a blessing earlier, so we just gave them the treat. ;) TIM-TAM-SLAM's!! Yum. I'm sure some of you know what that is, but for those of you who do not know yet here are some basic steps:
1: Go to Target and buy 2 packages of Tim-Tams. (One for you and one for Elder Call)
2: If you don't already have hot chocolate, get some while you are getting the Tim-Tam's for your family, friends and Elder Call.
3: Make hot chocolate as directed with its packaging.
4: Open package of Tim-Tam's and grab one cookie for yourself, you can share later.
5: Bite one corner off, turn the cookie over and bite the opposite corner. You have now created the straw for your hot chocolate.
6: Dip on corner into the hot chocolate, making sure that the entire corner (one that you bit off) is in the yummy liquid.
7: Begin sucking like you would a straw and continue until you feel the hot chocolate coming through the cookie.
8: Hopefully you have read these directions before trying it out, because as you start to suck the hot chocolate through the Tim-Tam the hot chocolate begins to melt the Tim-Tam. After the hot chocolate begins to enter your mouth you slurp up the Tim-Tam. The hot chocolate should have melted the Tim-Tam and you will end up with a mouth full of Glorious Chocolate!
Hint: If these directions are too much for you too bad. The only way you will ever get that much chocolate into your system quicker is through an IV. I promise.
Any ways, that was our wonderful experience with the Chabot family. They loved it. Then they tried to get me to try it with a Twinkie. Maybe my skills weren't that good, but it failed miserably. Only Tim-Tam's (and possibly some similar cookie) will work as well. It was fun. I talked to Sister Chabot about a date last night, she still doesn't know. I don't think that she realizes that she is holding them back from the greatest blessing on the earth. The Holy Ghost. We'll try to help her see.
We took some more beach pictures last P-Day. It was awesome. The sun set at 4:30, so we went to the beach and had fun. I will send you a package with a few other things as well. I need to finish it up today. Tomorrow is going to be awesome. We are having a Mission Wide Christmas Party! My first ever. President Summerhays didn't do that. It will be fun to see all the other missionaries from the Mission that I miss.
I think that's all for this week. If I remember I'll send it to you soon. OH!!! I'm on Mormon.org!! You can create you're own profile and our mission president encouraged us to. It's not like facebook, but its pretty cool.
Love ya'll,
Elder Call
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Man the time flies........
Hello Everyone,
Another week is gone. Man the time flys. On Friday I celebrated my 18th month mark!! That means only 6 to go. It also means that Tim is pretty much home already. Wow. Time flys when you're having fun right? Niceville is doing great and we just got into the spirit of Christmas (We had to wait until after Thanksgiving).
This week Elder Bell and I put up our Christmas tree. It is a lot bigger than the one I had last year. (2 feet) This one is 6 feet, but we have no lights or ornaments. But that is ok, because we spend most of our time in other homes and they do have a Christmas tree. With lots of lights and crazy ornaments too. We also had a parade in Niceville for Christmas. That was a first for me. Usually its too cold during December, but here in Florida we had a big parade. That night they did the Tree Lighting for the City. We weren't able to go to that, but we heard all about it. Last night was the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. It was great. President Uchtdorf, President Eyring and President Monson all spoke to us. All of them talked about having a Christ centered Christmas and how each of us can focus on him by focusing on others. President Eyring shared with us that we all like to give Food to those who do not have it or who are in need of it, then he went on to describe how the greatest gift we can give anybody is the 'Bread of Life'. Christ. We can give Christ to someone's life. I liked that one, mostly because that's all I do. It makes me feel good that I'm doing what I'm supposed to.
Our investigators are doing well. We talked to Sister Chabot about providing a date for her Children to get baptized. They are all preparing well and ready for it, we just need Sister Chabot's permission and a few more lessons. We are hoping to set a date with them this Tuesday. They didn't come to church yesterday because Sister Chabot was sick. Lame.
Karren Barrett is also doing really well. We were able to teach her again on Wednesday. We brought Brother Howell with us. Brother Howell is an older member, but his testimony is like a rock. He lost his wife about a year ago and has no other desires than to return to be with her. Its killing him being apart from her. This makes him perfect for the lesson with Karren. Karren lost her husband about a year ago and was very upset about his loss. She blames many things, but we think the gospel will help her see the true light. She came to church with us yesterday, but could only stay for the first two hours. She wasn't comfortable staying for Relief Society, mostly because Sister Walker wasn't there. She had been Karren's buddy last week, but because Sister Walker was sick yesterday, she wasn't able to be there for Karren. And Karren didn't feel comfortable with anyone else yet. We kind of have to pull her leg, gently of course, to come with us to church. She's not completely comfortable yet, but we are working on that.
It seems like sickness has taken its toll in Niceville. There have been cancellation after cancellation. Its hard to teach when everyone is sick. I, however, have not been sick yet. :) It may have something to do with my random crave for Orange Juice lately. I think I've had 3 gallons in the last 2 weeks. Yum!
Any ways, the mission is awesome. Those who say otherwise just haven't lost themselves in the greatest work on the Earth yet. The spirit will come to them soon though. It comes to everyone in their own way and in their own time. We just have to be happy, ready and willing to take those people in when they are ready. Not judgingly, but rejoicingly. Grateful that they are once again back in our presence. Yay!!
Love Elder Call
Another week is gone. Man the time flys. On Friday I celebrated my 18th month mark!! That means only 6 to go. It also means that Tim is pretty much home already. Wow. Time flys when you're having fun right? Niceville is doing great and we just got into the spirit of Christmas (We had to wait until after Thanksgiving).
This week Elder Bell and I put up our Christmas tree. It is a lot bigger than the one I had last year. (2 feet) This one is 6 feet, but we have no lights or ornaments. But that is ok, because we spend most of our time in other homes and they do have a Christmas tree. With lots of lights and crazy ornaments too. We also had a parade in Niceville for Christmas. That was a first for me. Usually its too cold during December, but here in Florida we had a big parade. That night they did the Tree Lighting for the City. We weren't able to go to that, but we heard all about it. Last night was the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. It was great. President Uchtdorf, President Eyring and President Monson all spoke to us. All of them talked about having a Christ centered Christmas and how each of us can focus on him by focusing on others. President Eyring shared with us that we all like to give Food to those who do not have it or who are in need of it, then he went on to describe how the greatest gift we can give anybody is the 'Bread of Life'. Christ. We can give Christ to someone's life. I liked that one, mostly because that's all I do. It makes me feel good that I'm doing what I'm supposed to.
Our investigators are doing well. We talked to Sister Chabot about providing a date for her Children to get baptized. They are all preparing well and ready for it, we just need Sister Chabot's permission and a few more lessons. We are hoping to set a date with them this Tuesday. They didn't come to church yesterday because Sister Chabot was sick. Lame.
Karren Barrett is also doing really well. We were able to teach her again on Wednesday. We brought Brother Howell with us. Brother Howell is an older member, but his testimony is like a rock. He lost his wife about a year ago and has no other desires than to return to be with her. Its killing him being apart from her. This makes him perfect for the lesson with Karren. Karren lost her husband about a year ago and was very upset about his loss. She blames many things, but we think the gospel will help her see the true light. She came to church with us yesterday, but could only stay for the first two hours. She wasn't comfortable staying for Relief Society, mostly because Sister Walker wasn't there. She had been Karren's buddy last week, but because Sister Walker was sick yesterday, she wasn't able to be there for Karren. And Karren didn't feel comfortable with anyone else yet. We kind of have to pull her leg, gently of course, to come with us to church. She's not completely comfortable yet, but we are working on that.
It seems like sickness has taken its toll in Niceville. There have been cancellation after cancellation. Its hard to teach when everyone is sick. I, however, have not been sick yet. :) It may have something to do with my random crave for Orange Juice lately. I think I've had 3 gallons in the last 2 weeks. Yum!
Any ways, the mission is awesome. Those who say otherwise just haven't lost themselves in the greatest work on the Earth yet. The spirit will come to them soon though. It comes to everyone in their own way and in their own time. We just have to be happy, ready and willing to take those people in when they are ready. Not judgingly, but rejoicingly. Grateful that they are once again back in our presence. Yay!!
Love Elder Call
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