Christmas, Boxing Day and Deep Cleaning (wk ending 28 Dec 2014).

Monday and Tuesday amidst training, we were finishing the gift bundles from the Carters. Missionaries came to the office since it was pday and they had skit practice by zones at the adjacent chapel. There's a lot of creativity going on around here and I can't wait to see the results!

We made senior logistic assignments for set up, shopping, cooking, clean up, etc after the Monday morning devotional by Elder Hannan. All the seniors were there except for the Whites, who visited Kangaroo Island to change flats for the missionaries and spent an extra day of R and R with senior missionaries from their SLC Family History mission several years ago.

Lee and Elder Smith went to Costco Tuesday and hit the door as it opened, along with 300 other people! When they came out, the parking lot was jammed as were the check out lines. I LOVE Costco but I HATE Costco for that very reason.

President and the assistants worked on transfer planning over the weekend, as well as in the office Tuesday.

Wednesday Sister Smith and I booked travel for transfers. It took all day with distractions. Sister Hannan was working on projects and Sister Carter came in at noon with the "I've been thinking..." look in her eye, to which I respond by plugging my ears and closing my eyes. She laughed and put her head together with Sister Hannan for a handout to go along with her Christmas talk.

Wednesday night we took the Whites and Sister Baker along to the Stabler family Christmas Eve party. We were weary before we even left, but were thankful to be included and not home alone for Christmas Eve. Eila (pronounced A la) shows her love and devotion to friends and family by cooking and she doesn't stop! She is from Finland and served several Finnish dishes as well as Australian items, plus turkey and ham. I love trying new food, Lee not so much. We ended up getting home much later than we'd planned and we went straight to bed and right to sleep!

  Christmas Eve trifle that Sister Hannan brought in Christmas Eve. Lovely thickened cream on top of custard over cake and jelly (green JELLO) yum

Thursday 25 December....Merry Christmas from Australia! We were at the church by 9:00 am to cover tables so Sister Carter could decorate. We set napkins, utensils and bottled water at each place and then went home again so I could make salad for 25 and bake ham and potatoes. Arrived back at the church at 1:00 for a large group picture before serving Christmas dinner to 120 people.

Since the missionaries had been to members homes to call their families by Skype or FaceTime, they weren't as hungry as we hoped by 1:30. We maybe should have had the program and skits first, then fed the masses. By the time we cleaned up after the 'meeting' part of the day, it was after 7:00 PM. We were beat and I had a huge headache so I was glad to get home and went straight to bed!

In the meeting portion, which followed skits and talent show by zone, Sister Carter challenged the missionaries to use the new pen and highlighter from their stockings to read and mark all references to Christ or any of his teachings, as well as impressions or personal revelation in their new Books of Mormon.

President Carter accompanied himself on the guitar for 3 Christmas songs before speaking. We read along in 3rd Nephi as he pointed out scriptures about the birth and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. President directed our attention to the fact that when Christ was born, it brought great light to the world, physically AND spiritually. And conversely HIS death brought great darkness to the world. President Carter bore beautiful testimony that the CHRISTMAS celebration is not so much about the BABY Jesus to him, but about the crucifixion and Atonement of the ADULT Jesus Christ and ALL that HIS light means to ALL men everywhere. Jesus Christ is the light of the world!

 Our gift from the Carters. Pops loves poppycock! ( I think that is what it is called) ZAAM stockings, and an ornament.

These are crackers... Kind of like poppers....for holidays and special occasions.

Friday I walked to the office at 8:30 AM since the van battery was dead when Lee went out to start it. We borrowed the mission instant battery charging unit so Lee was a only little later arriving to the office.

We served lunch for the multi zone conference on 26 Dec, Boxing Day. All hands were on deck and we put everyone to work after the morning prayer. We sent a senior crew to clean the church gym and kitchen floor after the Christmas party the day before and a crew to the mission home kitchen to slice tomatoes, watermelon, hamburger and hot dog buns, wash lettuce, and clean up the mess from all the slicing and dicing.

Lee and a crew barbecued burgers and hot dogs. The day started out cool but warmed nicely by 12:15 serving time. In fact, they were making fun of me for not wanting the cheese or potato salad out on the serving table before we saw the whites of missionary's eyes. We had grapes and watermelon too, and sliced beet roots, with Costco cookies for dessert, snow cones, and water to drink. I must have walked a million miles, ok so maybe it was only a hundred but I know Lee walked twice as far! Everyone pitched in and worked together but it took all 13 senior missionaries to pull it off. What a day!

Saturday we ran to the mall with a million other people looking for a black pair of shoes for me. It's summer here and I'm going home to winter so even though I tried a couple of pair, nothing felt good enough to purchase. We made one more stop on the way home and then took a rest.
The afternoon was spent cleaning floors on our hands and knees, but what a difference! The laundry dried very quickly on the clothesline and we accomplished a ton! Pizza for dinner and then we drug our sorry sore bodies to lay on the bed and watch the American national news.

Sunday brought the sore muscles I predicted. My poor knees were red from the dry towel I scooted around on while scrubbing the floor grout Saturday and Lee was sore all over as well. We rested after church and then spent time catching up on our scripture reading. Sacrament meeting topics were making good choices and Elder White spoke about personal revelation. He did a beautiful job! Bishop invited Elder Fepulea'i to bear his testimony and there was a a baby blessing as well. Sammie and Max are still traveling with friends visiting here from China, but Taylor came to church as did Danny and Christina.

It's transfer week again! Our last one! We have 12 arrivers and 11 leavers this time.