Darling Family!
I hope all is well and that everyone had a splendid Christmas! I was surely happy to talk to the lot of you!
Christmas morning I woke up around 6 and asked my companions if they wanted to get up, considering the joyous day, but they grumbled at me. But eventually they woke up at 6:30 since they have to, and we quite enjoyed opening our gifties! Thanks so much to all of you for your family Christmas cards and gifts and such! We had Christmas brunch at our ward mission leader's home (that's their tradition, to have the missionaries over for breakfast on Christmas every year). We ate eggs benedict (we had two plates, but past Elders and Sisters have taken down six plates, eek!), sparkling orange juice, and ended with pulling Christmas crackers! It was a lotta fun! We then booked it to Mina's house, a Muslim lady who enjoys coming to our ward. Hopefully we can start teaching her officially, but she needs an interview by President Jeppson first, for her safety. She made two chickens, beef, rice with dried fruit in it, pickled jalapeno vegetables (I was not warned that they were spicy), yogurt with beets and garlic, pasta, and almond cookies. It was a TON of food! Later we visited Dawn and Judy for a nice evening.
The rest of last week is as follows:
We drove to Pennsylvania to visit the Europeans in our ward, the King family. They are amazing! So talented! I attribute the cool kids to their not having their own cell phones. Instead of texting all day they develop artsy, sciencey, and musical skillz. Their mother, the Young Women's President, asked me to accompany the Young Women on guitar for the Christmas program on Sunday. Woof! I haven't played in months, but I took the guitar, practiced, and come Sunday I played classical Silent Night, while they sang it in German (Stille Nacht). My companions and I also had to sing in the program, so we practiced Joy to the World half in English, half in Portugese (Mundo Feliz, Naceau Jesus).
We suprised little Peter with a visit, and in his prayer, about three times he said, "And thank you for the lovely surprise of the Sisters coming to visit!" I want to adopt him!
Alex Boye came for our Missionary Christmas Party. He sang and told crazy stories! Get this: the night before he came to sing to us he was singing at a company's Christmas party. The boss, a Mister Nielsen, served his mission in Alex's hometown in London. As a missionary Elder Nielsen visited a Ms. Wells to bring her to Church. They knocked on the door, and two big young men stood in the doorway. They told him their mother wasn't going to Church. "Why not?" "Our car is broken." "If we fix it, can she come to Church?" "If you fix that car, we'll come to Church!" they said, laughing uproariously! Elder Nielsen took the car's keys. Neither he nor his companion knew anything about cars. He sat in the driver's seat, prayed a really heartfelt prayer that the car would start, closed his eyes, and put in the key. Nothin. Again! Nothin. Finally, ch, ch, ch, vroom, ROAR! The doors of the house flew open and the two young men came out wide eyed! They grabbed their mom, hopped in the car, and drove to Church. The car was missing pieces from the engine and shouldn't have worked, but it did! One of those young men who answered the door introduced Alex Boye to the Church when he was sixteen, which answered Ms. Wells prayer that there would be more Black choir members in the Motab, a large concern of hers. Crazy!
We met a man named Isaiah Mormon and gave him... a Book of Mormon. And we got a return appointment!
Little Peter got confirmed! It was all in Spanish, but it was amazing and the Spirit was so strong! I'm so excited for Little Peter and the things he's going to accomplish in God's Church. He's gonna be such a great missionary!
We visited the Izquierdo's, one of the best families of all time. They told us to write down our gift to Jesus this year and put it in a box. On Christmas we opened the box whilst singing Happy Birthday! Sister Izquierdo grew up in Nauvoo and her father's job was restoring old Church sites. He got to keep an item of his choice from the town general store. He chose the door handle. Six prophets, including a young Joseph F. Smith had used that door knob, and she let me touch it too! I've basically shaken hands with six prophets!
On Christmas Eve all the utilities were closed, so we gathered with our zone to play games. We came up with a Book of Mormon adventure game (which we'll be playing when we get home!), some other games, a white elephant, and gaddianton robbers (mafia). It was a blast!
Well, I love you guys! And I love this Church and I know it's true!
Sister Mugglesby
