Georgia Christmas 2013

It is over so fast!

Does it strike any of you that way?  We have had a wonderful season.  I think it has been mainly our opportunity to focus on the Savior and his gifts to mankind and to us personally.  It has also been strengthening to us as we have had many opportunities to teach and ponder the testimonies of prophets through the ages who have testified of his coming and teachings.  We have loved this time out of the materialistic demands of life.

Just so you know, we were attending to mission business along with incorporating Christmas traditions.
These are the sisters in our district - Sister Waycott, and Sister Hathaway at our 2nd last district meeting of the year in the morning of Christmas Eve.  They are such fun, and are excellent missionaries.  We had to lead the training for part of it.  Our assignment was to discuss how to teach "enduring" to the end to our investigators.

Later, we shared dinner and Christmas Eve Family Night with the young Elders and three of the people we are working with.  It was a small gathering, but that is about all that will fit.  We have exactly 8 chairs.

Ready for dinner!

Our special guests were:

Robin, who lives here without any family.  She is currently taking lessons with the Elders.  She brought a delicious chocolate pie.  Her rental place has no heat, as the landlord is currently renovating.  She gets a deal for the inconvenience, but it is cold, so we invited her to come early.  We decided to invite her to do Christmas visits at the nursing home with us.  She said she had never been to a nursing home and asked what we did there.  We said "Come and see."  It turned out to be a sweet experience for all of us.  We came away feeling more of the Christmas spirit than we could have generated on our own.

 Sister Hooda, our less active friend from E India.  She seldom leaves her house, so it was a real privilege to have her accept our invitation.  She brought us an amazing electric frying pan.  We have become accustomed to our small utensils, so this seems like luxury!  We may have tacos at New Years after all.

Elder Schlaich, and Elder Cawley, whitewashed into our area with the last transfer.  Elder Schlaich is new from the MTC.  His home is in Ogden. Elder Cawley is our District Leader.  He is from California.  They were also here on Christmas Day as they made their calls home to family.

Elder Schlaich just had his first experience cutting his own hair.
He said he made a mistake, and there was nothing he could do
 but even things up.  We assured him that it would grow,  and
we would take another picture then.

Bill, who lives alone, in a home behind us a few blocks and walks everywhere.

Everyone had gone before I remembered to take pictures.  This is Bill.  He is our nearest neighbor, and has just started back to church.  He thought it was really funny that his gift from the ward was written to Elder Gibson.  We told him he would have to prepare himself so the title would be true.

We all enjoyed being together.  It is always beautiful to sing the carols of Christmas and contemplate the gift of the Savior.  Doug had found an article in the 2008 New Era called -Advent Calendar: Prophecies of Christ's Coming -  that could be read each day leading up to Christmas.  You might want to look at it for another year.  We used it as a springboard to discuss how it made us feel to know that Christ's birth was foretold by prophets so many years ago, and how that is meaningful to each of us personally.  We then read the well known texts from the Bible and Book of Mormon.  You can always feel a special spirit when you talk about the Savior, especially on Christmas Eve.  We love Christmas Eve!


Santa Really Does Come to Georgia ! !

How does he do that in the middle of the pouring rain?

The Christmas Eve puzzle

New PJs  These were designed by our enterprising
Mission leaders in the Atlanta mission.  They changed the letters especially for us who transferred to the Macon Mission.  We wondered how we could best use
a t-shirt.  Elder Castleton has it all figured out!

The Santa layout!  As you see, my Santa is always good at surprises.

Opening presents in the not-so-early hours
on Christmas morning.

Christmas Day

This is Kathy who came with some of her family to spend Christmas Day.

She didn't have any pictures of herself, so we took a few so she could give one to her mama for Christmas.

We had warned her that we would have left-overs instead of cooking twice.  She thought that was a great idea, and really, everything tasted even better the next day.  Doug was so cute reading our Christmas books from the  library, to Caleb while Kathy and I fiddled with the picture taking and printing.  Why didn't we take a picture of that?









Doug has been feeling a bit puney since Christmas however.  He was all dressed ready to go out on Friday, and suddenly got the chills - like he does, which indicates a fever.  He has been taking long 4 hour naps since.

He really wanted to go to meetings today, but he was still asleep when it was time to go, and when I returned at noon, I could see he had been up and got dressed in his missionary clothes, but he was sleeping so soundly he didn't even know I was home.  It is now mid afternoon, and he is still asleep.  Soon, I'll wake him for the chicken noodle soup fix.  We'll have the Young Elders give him a blessing tomorrow when they are over to use our computer.  It is hard to regain momentum when he is sick, as we never know when we can set up appointments.  Hopefully it will be all out of his system before the New Year starts!

Pre- Christmas Visits

It's been pouring Rain!

We have been out in the country since our meeting block seeing some of our Sandersville people, and we have just returned bedraggled, like two tired, wet puppies.  That was with umbrellas.  The things we were delivering got a little water speckled as well. 

We have a wonderful small town main street, filled with historic buildings, but I never know how to capture it- especially on my trusty little phone camera.  Here is what greets us at the East entrance to Milledgeville.  In the daytime they look like green bushes.

This is the Information Bureau and Visitor Center.  There is a Christmas tree in every window.  My camera did not catch them all.

What a delight to make these visits though.  It seems that the families just needed to know someone was thinking about them.  For Example, in one family, both of the adults have been seriously ill - heart lung problems, for one, and a new cancer diagnosis for the other.  In another home, an older single sister has had five family funerals in the past three weeks.  There is not a branch in Sandersville now, and many of the people don't have cars or can't drive as far as Milledgeville, so we are a good reminder of the Church.  We try to bring, besides our friendship, a little spirit of the Gospel and the season into their homes.

Christmas Treats

Here are some of the treats and surprises we have been collecting.  We thought it would be fun to share with you, even though many of them are going to be Secret Santa things here in Milledgeville.

The boxes are full of Doug's special Christmas muffins, and there are many more than this.  They are our Merry Christmas offering for people we visit.  The big basket in one of our Secret Santas.  It is for Kathy's family who we teach and help with tutoring.  We didn't know how we could get it on their porch and have them find it, before someone snatched everything (not a good neighborhood), since we are not nimble enough to escape after knocking on the door.  Finally we decided, that Doug could do it while we were all in church this morning.  They ride with us, so if he delivered it just before we brought them home, they would find the box as they went home.  It seems to have worked, and we had such fun filling the box with oranges and nuts and potato chips and a few little gifts for each.  Do you think that black children play with white Skipper dolls?

Another touching thing was delivering gift cards.  The ward had a little project to give the missionaries gift cards for Christmas.  Everyone brought them from any eating establishment, or Walmart etc.  We of course didn't really need ours, so suggested we give them to someone in the ward who did.  They agreed, and we gave the little packet of about 15 cards from the ward to our nearly homeless friend Bill.  I wish you could have seen his face.  He is an adopted man with no siblings or parents living, so he seldom gets any gifts.  He walks long distances for meals, as he has no car, and doesn't cook at home.  He could not believe this sudden treasure from the church people that he barely knows.  He commented numerous times about the McDonalds card which was only $10.  He said how he could probably get three breakfasts just from that one card.  I will remember the joy on his face for a long time.

Tomorrow we go to Dublin.  We can't wait to see our sweet friends there.  Most of the people have family, so we are only taking a regular gift to Mildred - our 85 year old black friend.  We finally found a red and white afghan with deer and moose and snowflakes all over it that reminded us of home.  We are hoping it can be like a warm hug coming across the miles to her on chilly days when she is all alone, and we are back in our Utah home.

Christmas Jar

Before we left on our mission,  we talked about starting a Christmas Jar and collecting all the change we could before the next Christmas; then finding someone to give it to, who really needed it.  Do you remember?  We have been trying to do that, but it has taken longer than we anticipated to fill our jar.  It has been such fun watching and thinking about the growing money, and wondering who we could surprise with this gift.  We wish it was more, and the jar was bigger, but we decided to give it away this year anyway.  We will save it and give it as a New Year's Surprise instead of a Christmas one.  We still have a few days to figure out how to keep our surprise a secret.  We'll let you know how that goes in the new year.  Did any of you try this?  I can guarantee that it will add many warm moments of love and fun as you make plans to surprise someone, and never let them know it was you.

Christmas Zone Conference

Just a few words about our time together with the Young Elders and Sisters.  It was wonderful to be together and feel their love and support of each other, and us.

We held regular District Meetings - two Districts together while the President interviewed each of us.  The Young Elders and Sisters instructed us using the scriptures and missionary materials.  We are always amazed at their creativity, knowledge, and teaching ability.

Next, we had dinner together - pizza, fruit, candy - easy to fix, eat and clean-up - smart!

The President got special permission for us to see a movie, complete with popcorn - what?  They showed Ephraim's Rescue - about the power of Priesthood blessings in the lives of the pioneers - particularly the hand cart companies.  Very appropriate except for the one kiss.  Our President knows how to lighten up and the casualness of the Christmas celebration was a nice change from all the hard work they do.

Last, we had a brief Christmas-y program with a lovely gift from the Cottles (our mission President and wife) - a pen engraved with our mission and motto, with a stylus on the end, in anticipation of the coming use of more technology throughout the missions.

Early Christmas!

At Last!
We have been thinking of going back to the 60's or whenever these things were popular - to have a space to put a few necessities without always having to skip in and out to the bedroom.  We used all the standard arguments:
                                  We really don't NEED it.
                                  This is a MISSIONARY apartment.
                                  We can STAND IT few more months.

But in the end, when we saw this, and it was less than $20 dollars, we decided it was worth it, no matter how un-cool it is.  Now we have had it for a whole week, we wonder how we survived so long without it.  This is exactly what we needed in our tiny bathroom and we are HAPPY!   HAPPY!!   HAPPY!

New Investigators and Friends

Our Ward Missionary Committee is starting a week night class for less actives and new people who want to come together to discuss Gospel principles and have a place that is more informal where they can learn from each other and not be afraid to ask all their questions.  Basically we will use information from "Preach My Gospel" emphasizing using the Book of Mormon to answer life's questions.  The Mission Leader will teach it most nights, but this week the Young Elders led the discussion about the Restoration of the Church.  We did indeed have a good discussion.  The only people there though were the ones we "carried" to the church with us - Robin and Bill.  They came Sunday as well, to all our meetings and then joined us for dinner with another older single gentleman, Ken.  Dinner was a perfect setting for them to visit, and become better acquainted.  We should do that sort of thing every week!

Doug was the narrator for our Christmas Choir program last Sunday.  They held it a week early as many choir members are leaving early for the holidays.  The music was beautiful, and the comments from the Bishop, and the former Bishop were perfect.  And of course Doug's rich voice also added to the spirit.  Not many people can project their voices to be heard without a microphone, and as you know he does that easily and well.  We wonder what the ward has planned for this week that will continue that special feeling.

Also this week:  Several new people have requested information about the church.
                           Delivering Christmas Baskets / Turkeys from the Ward.
                           Zone meeting, Pres interviews, Christmas Devotional all day Friday.
                           Christmas Visits to Dublin on Monday - our Preparation Day.
                           Christmas Eve Dinner and Family Home Evening at our home.

Stay Tuned!  We are trying to use and enjoy every minute of this last Christmas here in Georgia.  We will try to take a few pictures, but it is not always appropriate or convenient.

We love you and miss you.  Can't wait to hear all your holiday excitement.                  

Christmas is Coming!

A Touch of the Season

We hope some of you were able to catch the Christmas broadcast from the Conference Center in Salt Lake last night.  We took Kathy and her family and picked up another single sister.  Actually we had to make two trips, but we were glad that they were able to come and experience the Christmas spirit.  We couldn't pick out Ryan in the choir, but I'm sure he was there somewhere.  The music was beautiful.

We are always grateful for the reminder that what we need to be doing is drawing nearer to the Savior; following his example more; watching out for and helping those around us.  We all need to be more aware of "what will happen next" in our own lives, as the holiday impetus fades.  Thanks Sister Wixom.  We had never heard of the story of how Bro McFarland wrote Far Far Away on Judea's Plains, in the middle of the night, with only a crude homemade lantern to light the page.  We will think of it differently now.

We especially liked the message from Elder Russell M Nelson regarding the foreverness of Christ's gifts to us - his atonement, his peace that can heal each of us in our area of need, as we accept it and live as he has taught us.

The broadcast always reminds us of the the real meaning of Christmas and poses the question of why we get so caught up/ or mired down in all the other fluff.  We don't get in to the stores much, as missionaries, so it was almost overwhelming to visit Hobby Lobby this week.  We had to search hard for this tiny nativity amongst the aisles of glitz.

 I'm giving you a close-up so you can see the sweet faces.

Here is our cute little tree.  Doug didn't even mind setting it up.  The lights are already on it, and he didn't have to do any of the ornaments.  The only thing he cared about was placing the star on the top.  Remember - he chose this one last year (insisted on this particular one actually).

The rest of our Christmas reminders:

We love this season, and are looking forward to the remaining December days in Georgia - sharing the warmer weather, and the special spirit of our Georgia friends.

President Monson urged us to walk through the remainder of this Christmas season with a tender and caring heart.  That would be our wish for all of you.  We love you and miss you especially during this special season.

Georgia Thanksgiving

GA Is Cold This Year!!

I sent all my thick sweaters home last spring, as I never wore them at all last year, but it has been chilly this fall.  Last year, everyone put their crowds of Thanksgiving friends outside to eat.  This year, everyone crowded into the homes.

We had Thanksgiving here.

We turned down the wonderful invitation to join the huge Webb family, which includes many of the black portion of our ward, because we thought we should prepare dinner for those that might not have a place to go.

Earlier on, we invited Bill - our closest neighbor, about 5 blocks away.  He is kind of like a homeless person except he has a home with a bed, a chair and a dilapidated couch.  He is a veteran who was hurt in a car accident a few years ago, so he can't work much.  He cashiers at a service station on the weekend, to give him enough money to eat.  He mostly frequents McDonalds. He walks everywhere. He is very gregarious, and shares what he has with the truly homeless.  He is a church member, though we have yet to see him come.  We would gladly pick him up, but so far he hasn't found work that will give him time off on Sunday.  He is an interesting person with knowledge about lots of things.  He is very chattery and friendly.


The Greenes

Finally we thought to invite Kathy Jo and her family.  We were surprised they did not have a place to go for Thanksgiving  They were so grateful to be invited; it seems they didn't have much food left at the end of their month.  When I went to pick them up, KeAysha had a friend there, so we added another plate, and included him.

We had our usual spread, which doesn't even compare to the southern feasts with 7 kinds of meat, many vegetable side dishes, beans, macaroni and all sorts of desserts.  We knew the teens didn't especially like tossed salad, but we were not prepared for them totally boycotting almost everything.  They didn't eat tossed or fruit salad; sweet potatoes, dressing, pickles, vegetables, or gravy.  That only left meat, rolls, and mashed potatoes - dry!  We thought - oh well, take it or leave it.  We only made pies for dessert - 3 kinds, mind you.  They would not even try them.  Wouldn't you think they would just take a little piece?

from left:  Deon, friend; KeAysha 15; MeKayla  9; Caleb 7; Kathy Jo

It all turned out well in the end.  We had a very nice afternoon, and decided we had a lot more to learn about the black culture.


The Durtschis

Friday, we were invited to a 2nd Thanksgiving dinner in the home of a member who has an investigating friend boarding with them.  The couple is in the process of moving, so they decided to have the meal at their new home.  We thought it would be like our special Thanksgiving that first fall in our cozy, warm, Hyde Park home - wrong!

It was very cold this week, and their heat would not work, so the turkey wouldn't thaw.  They had to buy another one at last minute, so it would get done in time.  Only one burner on the stove worked.  Try fixing Thanksgiving dinner with only one burner!  They also had to rip out all the carpets the day before due to the previous owner's dogs, but they had set up a plywood table on boxes, and we feasted there on the under flooring.

Our new Elders came with us, and were meeting this family for the first time.  Miraculously, it all worked out.  I should have taken some pictures.  The Sister is the Seminary teacher for our ward, and she is a very spiritual lady.  Her husband teaches technology for the business department at GA College.  Robin, the investigator, does some kind of top secret research for the government, from home.  She had made an interesting banana/ sweet potato suffle.   We couldn't even help them clean up, as the Elders had asked us to accompany them to meet with Sister Hooda (our E Indian friend), for the first time.  We have had some interesting visits - no matter the conditions in the home, the people are warm and gracious, and we feel very close to them and will always cherish their friendship.

Thanks to all of you who checked in and sent texts and pictures of post Thanksgiving activities - getting ready for Christmas, etc.  It is fun for us to share these special occasions.  Technology has some amazing applications.  We thought of you all -  the Canadians too, even though we know you celebrated long ago.  We are grateful for each of you, and what you have added to our lives.  May you all enjoy the special feelings of this Christmas Season.  I for one, have never been more grateful for the Savior - his birth and mission; his atonement and resurrection, and the scriptures that testify of Him.

We love you dearly, and hope you are finding time to ponder this miraculous gift as your busy season unfolds.