Christmas in Coshocton! 12-25-2017

Merry Christmas everyone! Christmas in Coshocton has been wonderful!

We had been invited and had made all preparations to visit our daughter Laurel and her family in Connecticut this Christmas, but our Pathfinder once again had some bigtime trouble, and we didn’t dare drive 1500 miles in an undependable car in snow in the winter.  We were supposed to leave right after church on Sunday, but instead just came home and adjusted /made new plans.

Christmas Eve day, we went to church and had a very nice service!  Many members of our branch gave us missionaries sweet and thoughtful gifts.  They are so wonderful!

In the evening we had a delightful Christmas Eve hangout with all of our kids and most of our grandkids. We absolutely love our mission, but we have to admit it was a little hard at first to see families gathered for the holiday but we recovered quickly and enjoyed visiting with everyone!  How grateful we are for technology! We watched kids open their jammies, and be wild and crazy, it was so much fun! Last week was also fun when we got to skype with Katie and Elisabeth and watch them have their Christmas in North Carolina with Ryan and Lea!

So, after our plans changed, we were invited to enjoy a yummy Christmas Eve dinner with President and Becky Jacobs and Sisters Hall and Humpherys! We had a great time! We then returned home to our cozy warm apartment with snow falling!

Christmas morning, we found a true white Christmas- the first real snow since we arrived in Ohio! We opened our stockings and then had a fun little breakfast! We received some very fun presents from our kids: a calendar with photos of Ryan, Lea and girls,  a blanket with all of the grandkids with us from the Wihongis and a calendar with all of the family pictures in it for the remainder of our mission from the Gregg Blanchards! Last Christmas the kids gave us a calendar for the first part of our mission, and this is the final half! Great gifts!! 
My sister and brother sent fun packages too!  
We received a very special framed picture of the saying on the wall in Dustin and Amanda’s home – a real treasure!

Paul went out and shoveled all of the walks and driveways for all of the widows in our cul-de-sac!  What a great service from a great guy!   

We then used the day to just catch up on everything that we had let go the last while. Staying in jammies most of the day – a real treat– yea!

We went car shopping in the evening, because after this last car problem, we decided it is time to say goodbye to the Pathfinder, trade it in and get something we can rely on! We will be off to Columbus tomorrow to get the job done!

We then returned home for our traditional oyster stew and fixins’ dinner.  A great holiday! Not what we had planned, but it was a wonderful day!!

We are so blessed with so many spiritual gifts!  The chance to serve this mission together, our family, and the Gospel are at the top of our treasured gifts this Christmas!

 

Twas the Week Before Christmas - 2 Open Houses, 2 Nights of Caroling, 2 Service projects, Many Meals and a Missionary Music Devotional! 12-17- 12-24, 2017

We decided at the beginning of December that since we would only have one Christmas as missionaries we would pack the month with as many things as we could! We have had so much fun!  This last week before Christmas, we have  hosted two open houses in our home, gone caroling with members two nights, had a youth service project, served at the community meal provided by the Methodist Church, taught institute as well as supported the Missionary Music Fireside in Columbus.  We enjoyed a delightful lunch with one of the wonderful men from Paul's Bible Study group, and had such a rich discussion about the church! We also served multiple dinners and a lunch to members and missionaries in our home throughout the week!  
It was a busy fun week, and now off to church to have a quiet and reverent Sacrament Meeting to remember the Savior of the World whose birth we celebrate.  What a gift Jesus Christ is to us and what an amazing opportunity it is to be in the mission field this Christmas time! We are very grateful and hope that our service and lives reflect Him who we represent! 

Service Project

Missionary Christmas Devotional

Young Women Christmas Service Project-12-20-2017

We got to be a part of a very special service project this Christmas! Two young women who have been attending our branch have a grandma who runs a domestic violence shelter.  In Young Women class I asked them if they wanted to do a service project this Christmas season, and it was a very enthusiastic YES! They said that they would contact their grandma and organize it and that is exactly what happened!  They texted me and told me that they had talked to their grandma and she would LOVE some help for a few moms and kiddos that would be in the shelter during Christmas.  And these darling girls planned everything, all I did was drive, push the shopping cart and pay with the donations that we had been given and smile a lot! At Walmart, we ran into the sister missionaries buying their weekly groceries, which was so fun!

We had a blast!  Not only did they want to get the “requested” items on the list of food and clothing, they wanted to get some fun extras like jammies and goodies! They carried the list, did the careful selecting and checked sizes and colors so that they would be perfect! They also bought Christmas stockings and stuffers for the kids and their moms! Then we came home and wrapped and wrapped (5 rolls of paper) and labeled and boxed and loaded the items in the car and delivered girls and boxes back to their home ready to deliver to grandma.

We talked about what a fun morning it will be for two moms and their children!  And it all happened because of two beautiful young women and their extra special spirit of Christmas! What a delightful five hours! It was a privilege for me to be a part!

An Interesting Day at The Inter-Denominational Bible Study Group 12-20-2017

I attended the weekly Bible Study Group as usual early Wednesday morning - we had one of our better sessions. The text for the day was from the Catholic Lectionary: Luke 1:26-38, the annunciation to Mary. In the middle a good discussion on the role of Mary in the Christian world, Roger Cane, a really nice Methodist, said out of the blue "You know, I’ve had the young Mormon elders in my home and I've read half of the Book of Mormon. So what I want to know is 'how does the Book of Mormon stand with regard to what we're discussing right now? I mean, why do I need the Mormon Bible?" 

Where that question came from, I'll never know!  It was totally random and out of context!  But I spent the next few minutes explaining to the group the history and the purpose of the Book of Mormon. I held up my Bible and explained the role of the Bible in our church and also that the Book of Mormon begins in Jerusalem and is a story of a family descended from Joseph and their migration to the Americas. I told them that the purpose of the Book of Mormon is to be Another Testament of the divinity of Christ and is record of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas written by their prophets. They seemed to handle it pretty well, they didn't throw me out! What a golden opportunity!!  I should have given Roger $20 for providing such a terrific set-up!  He's a good friend and a nice guy, he's also the guy who invited me to join the West Lafayette Men's Golf League, so I know the intent of his question wasn't antagonistic. Also, he and his wife Carol were among the members of the Bible Study Group who responded to our invitation to come to our home for a Christmas Open House last week. (He's the one sitting in the brown chair)

Branch Christmas Open House - 12-16-2017

Saturday night, December 16^th, we hosted an open house for all of the members of our branch! We made sure that everyone was invited! This is open house number two of four, that we will be hosting this December, the other two will be next week. It turned out to be so fun!  We had lots of people attend, and the sister missionaries got to visit with all of them! We had four nonmembers, three less actives, the new branch president, President Jacobs and Becky as well as some of our stalwarts! It was a great evening of visiting, hot chocolate, treats, and missionary  Christmas spirit!