Boxing Day

So if Christmas Eve was perfect, and Christmas Day fun filled exhaustion... what do you do for Boxing Day?

After installing the bathroom door lock, much of Boxing day was spent recuperating.  We gathered wood.  We showered.  Some napped...

Oh.. and the big guys.. Caleb, Duncan, Elowen and Esther went to feed the Elk... on a sleigh.

I've since heard phrases such as, "That was the best ever"... "I want to do that again!" ... "That was the  most fun."... "Sam was hilarious!"

... so much fun it's its own post!

But other than Elk...

We continued the excitement with colouring

We pulled off some high fashion.

There were a few trips to gopher hill.  

Sledding happened a few times each day.

But when it was too cold to sled any longer they headed inside to entertain themselves in other ways.

... playing with the spinning top... body style.

We tidied a bit and mopped the floor while we listened to an audio book and prepared to end the day with a live facebook chat with a favourite author.

Some may have nodded off a bit while listening to the book.

A successful day when people are exhausted.
It's possible some hot cocoa and apple cider were partaken of... but I have no photographic evidence..

Two days into the visit.
What will we think to do next?

Such a lot of fuss

Christmas bells, Ice rinks, Friends visiting and goodies couldn't top this Christmas surprise.

It was 'given', jointly to Caleb and Elowen.  However neither of them took it home with them.  Neither of them installed it... but ...

both of them were ecstatic to receive it and to use it while they were here!

It was the most sought after installation after Christmas.  

Patrick wasted no time and read the instructions and went straight to work...

... installing the lock on the bathroom door. 

Dec. 26, 2019

Week 9 -- Feliz Navidad

This week has been crazy.

Christmas as a missionary is a little strange all are days are focused on Christ so when there is a day dedicated to him it's not much different then any other day. But it was fun to spend time with members and party with my zone. 

As for the rest of the week... Where do I start the last three days of the week (not including Sunday) I had blitz's in three different places all day we went to so many houses looking for people to teach and we found a lot mainly for the English sisters but every one matters. It has been an exhausting week it has been really hard to come home from a long day of blitzing and then stay up and help my companion with his district leader duties but it has been fun.

I can't talk about the people I am teaching specifically but they are making great progress and we have one on date to be baptized. 

Speaking of baptism the ASL elders had one this week and we attended. It was such a spiritual experience to seen some one get baptized it always is and it is really cool to watch the ceremony in ASL we had are zone leader translate for us.

Élder Noble

Just a funny trick of the light... a flashlight only... but perhaps the force is stong in this one.

A Christmas gathering

Some p-day silliness on Christmas day.

We had a fun visit on Christmas day.  He called a few times through out the day.  We were able to put on a fun show of ringing our bells for him and his companion.  We even took him out on the sleds for a quick romp in the snow.  

https://www.facebook.com/jordan.hunter.5473/videos/2523164034476461/

https://www.facebook.com/jordan.hunter.5473/videos/2523214311138100/

https://www.facebook.com/jordan.hunter.5473/videos/2523284097797788/

Christmas Day

Christmas Bells...

...were ringing.  This was a hit Christmas morning.  We kept it a fairly sensible and simple Christmas.  We had decided on one fairly large family gift... I had had a few ideas but none that truly included everyone... Then while up late one night I stumbled across Merry Bells..  I was intrigued.  I watched a few videos and hmmed and hawed... I finally caved and made the purchase at over 50% off.  I had almost forgotten about them until the package arrived.  

Who knew they would take over Christmas!  They were played almost exclusively from dawn to dusk and even later... and they were played almost daily for the next two weeks.  

They became proficient in next to no time!

They mastered all the songs in single note and moved on to harmonized ringing!

Then they decided to increase the difficulty... the sped up the songs!

Ring a ling .. ding dong..

Partway through the day the Walkers arrived to join our festivities and Whittaker had requested we play a game.  A ridiculous hat wearing, oven mitt wearing, fork wielding, unwrap a chocolate bar that has been wrapped 50 times kind of game.

While all of this was going on, some of us worked on the 1000 piece nativity puzzle and enjoyed a video chat with Miles.  We even paused the game and played some bells for him and his companion.

No holiday is exempt from chores... especially when chores mean keeping us warm!

The exhausted but happy sledders had used up every bit of daylight careening around on the sleds and finally called it a night.  The sled made one last trip across the yard filled with firewood.

After a long winters day of sledding and ringing bells, a warm winter's evening of fun and games was enjoyed.  It had been a day of fun and lots of nibbling on goodies and treats.  We had left over soup from the Ranch nativity and all the extra cookies plus martinelli's juice.  Walkers, Caleb and the girls and of course us, filled our little house with fun all day.

Bell ringing really happened all day long and included all.

Christmas Angels

Christmas Eve has become the highlight of the season... as it should be.

It was made even more special this year because of our special guests.  Caleb and Esther and Elowen arrived on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.  We were eager for their arrival and to begin enjoyng their visit.

We began with the bonfire and the Nativity at the ranch.

This year 230 people enjoyed the camaraderie and the unseasonable winter warmth.  

Shepherds, Angels, townsfolk, census takers, wise men and the holy family.  

The warbling tones of the violin streaming Silent Night, Holy Night

Mary singing a lullaby to her newborn infant.

Testimonies born of a Saviour born to redeem the world.

Afterwards... a bit of silliness... Cookies and cocoa and some clandestine rearranging of ornaments on the Christmas tree.

Then back to the main house to enjoy soups and visits... with some amazing masseuses.

We tried to get a photo of the lanterns that lined the driveway from the bonfire to the barn.

A spectacular first evening of a visit!

Dec. 24, 2019

Week 8 - Surgery and Christmas Devotional

Week 2 in Texas

Any way this week was a lot of the same. we did the same service projects as last week. We had a Christmas devotional this week and all the missionaries that are going home this transfer shared there testimony's, turns out are zone leader is leaving this transfer he is such a cool guy. 

I taught my first lesson in Spanish without help from my companion and I about passed out I was so nerves but I must have taught with the spirit because they want us to come back. 

Other then that we didn't do much. I had an ingrown toenail removed witch made walking way less painful. 

I'm looking forward to Christmas

I love all you guys have a great day

I'm trying to get pictures but it will probably be next week. 

From Élder Noble

Week 7 - Weekly

He never had an interest in social media of any type...  and now he has a facebook account.

Hola hermanos

This week has been hard, but a whole lot of fun.

Munday was my last day in the CCM it was bitter sweet and on Tuesday at 1 in the morning, I left.

That's when the fun began Tuesday around 10 I arrived In Texas for that day we mainly went through all the rules again and some orientation on the mission I met the mission president and his wife, they are super out going (I'm sorry if my emails don't make much sense gramerly learning Spanish has payed a toll on my englesh) after we did all the orientation all the elders stayed with the AP's for the night.

We then met are new trainers/companions my new companion is Élder Condie he's from Saint gorge Utah. We went to lunch with a member (brother sedgely) he told us about his conversion story and how he joined the church he has a ton of miracle story's he is quite a character. 

After we moved all my stuff in we went trackting and met no one we had two people cancel on us and we biked about 12 miles just to find out are contact was stuck in traffic so that was fun. 

As for service we had two

Daly bred:

We handed out food and to the homeless and sorted out all the donations that we received. 

Other then that did do much that day

Shilow farms:

We cleaned up a ton of trash weeded some garden beds and taught a lesson to the man in charge. 

Whiteboard:

This was more an activity more then a service we went to a streat corner and asked people as they past by what is happieness it was really fun. One of the people tryed to Bible bash with us but we can't so we stud there and he told us why are church was wrong and we should only believe in the Bible. So that was fun. 

Other then that my first week in the field was really fun. 

If any one that gets these emails knows some one that wants to get them please send me there email and I will add them to the list. 

Also if there is anything else you would like to know please let me know and I will be happy to add it. 

From Texas 

Élder Noble

He is serving in Denton, Texas.  His P-Day is Monday.  They have all their cleaning, laundry and tasks taken care of early in the day.  His call this week came early and was cut short because the ASL (Sign Language) elders had arrived to take them shopping for the week.  The ASL elders have a car while the spanish elders go everywhere on bikes. 

Arrow of Light

Whittaker had a grand finale for his almost 11 years of scouting.  He earned his Webelos and Arrow of Light award in under six months.  It is typically is done in two years.  It helps that he has sat through eleven years of Scouting meetings and likely completed each rank more than once in that time.

Scouts should start at age 2... they're adorable then!

Although I won't miss the required uniforms and patches and redundant parts of scouting... the boys had a lot of fun.  Now we will have fun doing new things.  

Onward, Upword, Forward... etc.

Week 6 - Texas Time

 No P-day this week.
So no phone call or emails from Miles
He traveled on Tuesday.
Monday is P-day in Texas... he missed it.
Wednesday was his P-day in Mexico... he misses it.

Thankfully... President Chapman sent out these photos at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport

The missionaries from Mexico CCM (MTC).

Then they all went to another gate in the airport to wait for the missionaries arriving from Provo.

So here they are.  All new missionaries for the day.  Arrived safe and sound. 

And tired!... He had to be up at 3am for his flights.

Next contact should tell us where his first assignment is and fill us in on how traveling went and how he likes the change from Mexico to Texas.

https://www.facebook.com/brian.highfill.3/videos/10220968924156291/

Week 5

He woke me up....

It was 6 am here.

He was off to the temple again.

He called again later.

We were running all over town.

He ran errands with us and waved to people at Ridley's, Cub Scouts, and the thrift store.  He was passed around for a bit at the church to say hi to friends.  Liam had a chance to tell him that he had chosen to honor Miles as his Eagle Scout Mentor.  He has a pin waiting for him when he returns to add to his uniform.

He seemed a bit down.  Said he and a few others hadn't felt too well that week.  Also a missionary from his district had gone home and the rest were just somber about it.

He's eager to be headed to Texas next week.
He's packing his suitcase... says that I'd approve of the schedule.  They leave Tuesday at 3am but have to have their luggage all packed and weighed by Sunday evening. 

His Spanish is really coming along.  Thankfully.. .'only Spanish' doesn't apply to calls home.  He joked about some of the lessons that they had in Spanish that week and the silly phrases they came up with since they could only use their limited vocabulary.  They did a lot of mock teaching and then there were some actual teaching done via skype.

Til' next time.