Early Christmas

We had an early Christmas this year.

JoDee and Maryle arrived Thursday night. They went to the temple with us and afterwards we went to the Victor Village Inn where Mike works. We ate wings and Mike and JoDee sang karioke. Amber was also with us it was a lot of fun. Friday night Mike and Amber came over and we played games. We sure love to be with you kids. Thank you for being you.

Our two daughters sequestered themselves down in our basement for several hours with paint and glue and pictures they had printed off of the computer and made us an early Christmas present which they presented to us before they left. They said they didn't want us forgetting any of them while we are on our mission. They even left room for us to add more pictures as the expected grandbabies arrive. A picture of the finished work of art is below. Isn't it wonderful!
We said goodbye to JoDee and Maryle at 6am Sunday morning and drove up to Ogdensburg. The roads were great. We picked up one sister, Diane, for church and had another family come that we had invited last week. Diane has been inactive until the sister missionaries tracted her out a week ago. Last Sunday was her first time back to church in about 7 years. Yesterday she read a scripture in the Sacrament meeting Christmas program! She is excited to be back.

The Christmas presentation on the birth of the Savior was a collection of scriptures foretelling the birth of the Savior and an account of His birth. It was written by our branch president and he had almost every active member of the branch reading a scripture and being part of the presentation. We sang about five different Christmas hymns interspersed with the readings. It was a wonderful sacrament meeting and everyone felt the spirit. There was an investigator there, also, for the first time and two of the members knew him and one will be picking him up for church next week. We think the branch is making some progress. We feel that this was also an early Christmas present. We just love it here !

We hope you all have a joyous Christmas together. We know several families will be together in Utah and we are excited for you. May you all find love and kindness and remember the great blessing of the Prince of Peace. We miss you all but are too happy here to be sad about it.

Merry Christmas.