A Very Merry Christmas Week

Our gingerbread house with our melting reindeer

At the temple with John and family!  :D

For our Christmas Eve party with the Westbrooks we exchanged ornaments - the only requirement being that they be hand-made... So I made one in the shape of Utah - cute, right? :)

Sister Ostvig used one of her Christmas presents to dress our tree up like a ninja turtle...

Christmas Morning with the Grovers :)

Sister Ostvig and me hiding out underneath the playground (this picture was taken after we were a little wet but before we got completely soaked)

Hey y'all!

I hope you had a most wonderful Christmas!  It was so good to see and talk to you on Christmas day! :) The few days leading up to Christmas we were kept busy with less actives and part member families - I think we ended up having a "traditional Christmas dinner" (you know - ham, potatoes, and all the other fixings with some minor variations) three nights in a row... it was great. :)  We had dinner on the 23rd with the Glenns - the parents are ward missionaries and one of their YSA sons (who has moved out, but he was home for Christmas) is less active, so it was good to share the Christmas spirit with them.  We also had a fun adventure when they gave us a ride home and somehow Sister Glenn managed to drop her keys in a storm drain outside our house... :/  but don't worry - we enlisted the help of the the Grovers and their kids who are in town for Christmas and one of them managed to get them out. :)

On the 24th we had our Christmas dinner round 2 with the Westbrooks - I don't know if I've told y'all about them... one of the daughters was baptized (as a convert) when Sister Ostvig was here before and they've been mostly active since... just with a few times here and there where they struggle to come.  Sister Westbrook's husband isn't a member and his family came over for Christmas Eve and so we had fun getting to know them and sharing more Christmas spirit with them. :)

And then the 25th we spent the day with the Grovers. :)  I love them so much - they seriously have become my family out here!  We opened presents, had breakfast, talked to family (yay!), had Christmas dinner round 3 (this time with mac and cheese instead of potatoes to keep the grandkids happy ;) ), and even had a gingerbread creation contest (I would say gingerbread house contest, except my group was the only one that stayed traditional and made a house... other structures included an oil rig, the Eiffel Tower, and a working aqueduct.)  Ours was pretty creative though - we had Santa's sleigh made out of different candies, complete with reindeer sculpted out of chocolate flavored taffy.  Unfortunately they started to melt, so by the time we were done it looked like our reindeer had been run over by the sleigh... :/  We just called it "the last house on Christmas night" - those poor reindeer were exhausted!  haha :)

Oh, and while I'm speaking of Christmas I must say thank you to everyone who had an input in the quote/scripture book that my mom put together - I LOVE it!  Thank you thank you thank you!!!! :)

On to our other adventures this Christmas week - we have had SO much rain... we got caught outside in it on Saturday, and tried to seek shelter at a nearby park... but here in Texas, when it rains it pours and NOWHERE is safe (unless you're inside)... so we got drenched.  Oh well, it just adds to the fun, right? ;)  

Also, COLIN CAME TO CHURCH!!! Remember him?  he's the 10-year-old son of a less active member.  We've been meeting with them pretty much every week since I've been here and every once in a while his mom will come but for whatever reason he won't come with her... but this week the whole family (except the dad, who not a member and actually kind of anti-mormon...) came!! YAY!  We really want Colin to be baptized, but he needs to be in the habit of coming to church EVERY week.  This is a good start! We're SO happy! :D

And then - Honorio got a calling! Yes, he's still not a member, but he comes enough that they gave him a calling.  He and his wife Jennifer are going to be teaching in primary!  He's actually really excited for it, because he worked a lot with the kids in one of the other churches he used to go to.  And they'll be teaching the kids that are turning 8, so hopefully those kids that are getting ready to be baptized will have a softening effect on his heart!

I think that's all for the week - we're looking forward to a very busy post-Christmas schedule where all our investigators will be able to meet with us again. :D ... at least that's what we're hoping for. ;)  I love y'all and hope you have a great week!

Sister Ririe