It was an exceptional busy week. We made gingerbread houses Sunday night as a family. Together we created a winter village. We love this family tradition. Allie joined me in my drive to Lake Jackson for their reward lunch for posting the how-to video. Our assistants, along with many of our other missionaries, are now creating all kinds of short how to videos on how to make the best use of the technology. Each night on our private FB page a new video pops up on how to invite members to be involved on FB, or how to add profiles to the progress records, or how to stay focused on finding; this is what we were hoping for.
Our Christmas Conferences were Tuesday and Wednesday. Each day we had a program of Christmas music and narrative presented by the missionaries (Jessie participated too) followed by a talk by me and then President. Afterward we separated to two movie choices….that were stories of change (repentance), finding your true self and one in particular focus on our family stories, Beauty and the Beast and Moana. Next up was a wonderful feast of steak, chicken, sausage and all the best sides you can imagine. We then had a delightful talent show followed by a mission slide show. Amazing days filled with joy! After the conference on Wednesday, Jessie had her Christmas Hip Hop performance at her studio. It was a fun, funky routine. She added her own personality and pizazz. She is loving Hip Hop!
We had on Skills Training on Thursday morning. The training is held after the new missionaries have been in-field after 8 weeks so as they see the essential skills they need, they can understand how to apply them. Bode had another win with his basketball team. We hope the whole season looks like this. ;) Jessie’s Jazz Christmas performance was tonight. Aaron, Allie and I got to see her perform. Jessie loves to shine on the floor especially to this cute routine. Bode has a basketball game before school let out for Christmas break.
The kids finally got out of school for Christmas break on Friday! Yeah! Zac had a hair apt in Houston so I found a neighborhood to go see lights. It was raining so we just drove around but the lights were amazing. Almost temple square worthy. ;) Afterwards we stop a little burger joint for dinner. Fun night!!
A recent challenge we haven’t seen much at all since we arrived is we have a lot of sick missionaries right now. It has been far colder than we’ve experienced to date and the locals say they’ve never had anything quite like this year. At one point this week we had over half of our sister companionships down and out with some kind of sickness. Praying we’ll get back to the warmer Houston weather we know and love.
It’s Christmas Eve Eve! We have a tradition to go to breakfast with the Meyer family at Jeramiah’s in Ogden. While we have been on our mission we have gone to a different restaurant each year trying to recreate the tradition. It’s been ok but not the same. This year, I decided to make a big Jerimiah-like breakfast instead. I think we all enjoyed it more than going to a restaurant. Later that day we did an escape room (which we conquered) and then saw the new Jumanji movie. It was well spent family time.