It was SO GREAT to be able to talk to all y'all on Christmas Day!! 

Africa, Honduras, Virginia, and Korea at once - truly amazing! It made 

the day a lot better and more 'Christmasy' to be able to see y'all and watch

 presents being opened - especially our super big secret one (SURPRISE!!) 

and Josh's super big secret one. I hope somebody recorded that, cuz his 

reaction was priceless.

   But let me back up......   After last week's mopey days, 

I snapped out of it - finally accepting that y'all were NOT magically going to appear 

on our doorstep for Christmas - and started cooking like a madwoman for the 

36 elders that WERE going to appear on our doorstep.  With that many elders

 skyping home, we decided to split the 2 zones and have half Skype on Christmas

 Eve and half skype on Christmas Day. We had a Christmas party for them on 

Christmas Eve.  I told your dad that my goal for the party was for them to have a

 lot of fun and laugh for a few hours, cuz missionary work is hard (as in, very!) work. 
     So at 5:00 pm, they all came over and we crammed in the apartment for food 

(BBQ chicken sandwiches, homemade Mac & Cheese, chips, apples, and chocolate

 cake and ice cream.  They LOVED the Mac and cheese, and ice cream is a special

   treat cuz it's so expensive here ($6-$7 a smaller container)  
 

 

Then we did a white elephant ( that was funny!) gift exchange and watched a movie while half the group took turns (40 min. each) Skyping their families.

After everyone was done, we all listened while one elder read from Luke and then watched the church's Nativity video. We gave them all cookies and a pen for their party favor and then split up 3 ways and took 2 cars and a van (crammed full!) to take them all home.

      It was really fun - a little crazy and chaotic - but fun!! I think they all had a good time.

Christmas Day we were pooped from the night before, so we had a lazy morning. I made lasagna for dinner and then we called y'all!! Yippee!! While we were talking to you, the second batch of elders came over to Skype. They got a kick out of seeing you guys.

The next day, I got a text from Mariana, our medical student seminary teacher. She couldn't go home for Christmas cuz she had to do her internship at the hospital. She wished me Feliz Natal and said she missed me so I told her to come over. She had asked me about work to earn money for a mission a few weeks before and I told her that I didn't have anything, but I would think about ideas. I had thought of a few, so when she came over, I told them to her:
Piano teacher (she took the church's piano course), English teacher, or applying at one of the two new hotels that were just built. She was willing to try anything so we made fliers on the computer for her to hang up at the Intl. School here in town and at the grocery store.

 

When dad and I were grocery shopping yesterday, we saw them hanging up on the bulletin board. She was fast!

 

I also did a resume for her and told her that if she got an interview, I would practice with her and help her choose her outfit.
The next day, Dad had to pick up 2 missions calls from the equivalent of Fed Ex at the airport so we went out there but had to take a 40 minute detour because a section of the road was out. Yuck!! But I love delivering mission calls! The people are SO excited, even more than in the US, because they've worked so hard to even be able to apply. The first guy that we took it to was ecstatic - he kept pumping his fists in the air and grinning like crazy!

 He called 5 of his friends, including one of our missionaries, to come to the church and watch him open it. His father is dead and his mother isn't a member, so he wanted to do it with his friends that were members of the church. I wanted to wait and watch him open it, but 20 minutes could be an hour in African time, and we had to head out out with the other call, but he texted us later and said that he's going to Angola.
On the way home, we stopped at a new resort that was built by the Chinese. It just opened and it is something else!

 

 We don't know who's going to come to it - Dad says it's a white elephant. We'll see..... But we asked about employment at the front desk so we could tell Mariana about it.
Later that night, Mariana texted me and said that she had an interview on Saturday. She had taken her resume and gone to two different hotels, including the Chinese one, and ended up getting interviews at both places. I asked her if she wanted to practice and she said, "Sim!" (Yes!) so she came over. I told her what questions to be prepared to answer and then we practiced a mock interview in English and in Portuguese. (I told her to pretend that I spoke Portuguese...;). I even had her knock on the the 'office' (bedroom) door and introduce herself to me - we did the whole nine yards.
The Kretlys flew in later that night. Their youngest son and his wife came from Brazil to spend Christmas with them. Pres. Kretly had never met the wife in person because their son got married after they left on their mission. Their flight got delayed (a common occurrence, it's rare that a flight is on-time) and they didn't get in until almost midnight, so we didn't get to bed until 1am - yawn!
The next morning, Kretlys, Dad and I, and Sandi (Larry had a medical call) went to a crocodile farm. They raise them and sell their hides and meat. They supposedly feed them on Saturday but they had fed them early because of Christmas, so we didn't get to see that but it was still interesting. One pool had 400! one-year-olds in it and another had 2-3 year-olds and the last had 6 huge ones that are the breeders. They kill them when they're 3 years old. They had a restaurant and we ordered crocodile appetizers while we waited to go on the the tour, such as it was. It was kinda like tough chicken but tasted ok. ;)

The 1 yr old babies

 

The huge breeders

 

Indiana Snelson

 

The whole gang

 

While we were there, Mariana sent me a text and said that she got a job at the Chinese hotel! 3800 metacaiz a month, 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. That works out to be 50 CENTS an hour. And those are decent wages. Boy, we have it good and have no idea how good we have it. She was very excited! I told her I was a proud mother and she said I was just like her mother. ;)
After the crocodile farm, we tried to go to the local Chinese restaurant but it was closed so the Kretlys suggested trying the new Chinese hotel. We drove there and the restaurant had us order on an ipad because they don't have menus yet. One ipad for 8 of us to use.... Then we waited an hour and 20 minutes for our food and then they didn't bring my order or Pres. Kretly's order so I was starving when we left. You win some, you lose some.

We saw a family from our old branch, the Balanga's, - the ones we had over for dinner - at the hotel. The wife has been sick with typhoid fever for 6-7 weeks. We took her dinner a couple of weeks ago and she was so weak, she could hardly lift her arms to hug me. I was worried about her so I wrote down the medicines that she was taking and I did some research online. The medicine was an old one that's no longer used so I copied the information and translated it to Portuguese and we gave it to them.
I was so happy to see her! She said that she changed medicine and was feeling much better. I feel so bad for the people here because most can't afford to go to the doctor and if they can, the care is so antiquated. And they don't have the know-how or resources to research and get accurate information. She's lost about 20 pounds and she was thin to begin with.

Sunday was a little crazyish. It was killer hot and the kids were restless. Nobody stood up to lead the music in Sacrament Meeting so I led it. But one thing was cool. A man was baptized a few weeks ago, and he blessed the sacrament from the first time. He was nervous but he did so well!
And there is a boy in Primary that has come faithfully for 2-3 months and is one of the most active to participate and answer questions. I found out a month or so ago that he wasn't a member but wanted to be baptized really bad. On Saturday, he was finally baptized and was confirmed during the meeting, along with 4 other people. After the sacrament was over, the man sat next to the boy and they shared the songbook. The man is very tall, especially by African standards, and it was so cute to see him bent over the book that the boy held. After the meeting, I congratulated both of them and asked to take their picture. They were thrilled.

 

We muddled through primary. I taught the principle of being like Jesus and taught them to ask "What would Jesus do?" Then I gave them different scenarios and asked what Jesus would do. I had a sign that said "Sim" (yes) on one side and "Nao" (no) on the other side. I'd say the scenario and then ask would Jesus do it - yes or no?
I had a problem coming up with scenarios. Every one I thought of wouldn't apply to them. 'Your friend asks you to go to the movies and your little brother wants to come' - they don't have movies. 'You are riding in the car with your sisters and they want to sit by the window' - they don't have cars. 'You get a new doll/car and your sister /brother wants to play with it' - they don't have toys. These poor kids. 

   I finally did these: 'You are outside and you see 1 mango on the tree. You're hungry and so is your little sister. What would Jesus do?' 'Your mom tells your little brother to go get water from the well and the water is heavy. What would Jesus do?' "Adapting to local circumstances" has never been more applicable....
During the 10 minute break, I asked some of the kids about their Christmas. I quickly learned not to ask what 'Father Christmas' brought them because the answer was "Nothing." Zero presents. That is a foreign concept for them. These kids....I wanna bundle them all up and take them back to the US. So, really count your blessings and REALLY be grateful for them because "we are the lucky ones" as your dad would say.
After Primary, some of the older kids climbed a mango tree with a stick and knocked a few mangos down. It was like a piñata at a birthday party. The kids were all scrambling to get one!

We love you and LOVED, LOVED, LOVED talking to all of you!! Love you, Mom

PS There weren't mosquitos in the Christmas tree, but I did use mosquito netting as the tree skirt around it. ;)

34 year Anniversary!

Dear Aubrey,

It was wonderful to be able to see and speak with you on Christmas Day. You are a great missionary! How blessed we both are, to be able to serve missions at the same time!!

 

Inasmuch, as today is our 34 year anniversary, I want to express my love and respect for your good Mother. How blessed I am, (indeed our family is), as a result of our wonderful marriage. I love your Mom. She opens hearts and doors in an amazing way. 

How blessed we are as a family, because, we have the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. As you serve in Honduras, you seek to find those 'elect' "among all sects, parties, and denominations,...who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it" (D & C 123: 12)

"mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts; (D & C 29: 7) The Lord "will gather his people even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, even as many as will hearken to my voice and humble themselves before me, and call upon me in mighty prayer." (D & C 29: 2)  Meanwhile, "the wicked, for they will not repent;...for behold, my blood shall not cleanse them if they hear me not." (D & C 29: 17) "for they cannot be redeemed from their spiritual fall, because they repent not;" (D & C 29: 44)

The elect, hear, humble themselves, pray for forgiveness, repent and are baptized. Sadly, there are some that you meet, similar to Aaron "they would not hear the words which he spake. Therefore, when he saw that they would not hear his words, he departed" (Alma 21: 10-11) Likewise, when your investigators stop progressing, you also need to depart and look for others.

The 2014 Mutual theme is focused on a portion of  the verse in Moroni10:32: “Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness” 

The way we come unto Christ is by repenting or "on conditions of repentance" 

"For, behold, The Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance." (D & C 18:11-12)

No one can come unto Christ, without repenting. 

"he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins. And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance;" (Hel. 5: 10-11) 

This is the "covenant of the Father" that by exercising faith in Jesus Christ unto repentance we can obtain a "remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot." (Moroni 10:33)

 President Harold B. Lee said: “..to be truly righteous there is required a daily pruning of the evil growth of our characters by a daily repentance from sin.”  (Harold B. Lee,Decisions for Successful Living, 93 - 94.)

President Ezra Taft Benson said: "The Lord is pleased with every effort, even the tiny, daily ones   in which we strive to be more like Him. ... God’s gifts are sufficient to help us overcome every sin and weakness if we will but turn to Him for help. Finally, we must remember that most repentance does not involve sensational or dramatic changes, but rather is a step-by-step, steady, and consistent movement toward godliness.”  (First Presidency Message, ‘A Mighty Change of Heart’. Pres. Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, Oct. 1989, p 2)

Christian writer Max Lucado pointed out: "God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus." (Just Like Jesus, p. 3)

This week on Christmas Eve, we, together with the Dilles, hosted the 36 elders that serve in the Beira area.

 

 

 Sure love you,

Dad

Feliz Natal!

Feliz Natal kids,
  Or, 'Happy Christmas'!! I'm jumping ahead, out of order, and writing about this week cuz it'd be weird to write 

about Christmas in February.  So, I was thinking the other day that this is the first Christmas - in 33 years -

 that we've never been away from you kids. And in a word, it stinks. Totally STINKS!  Christmas is definitely the

 "family" holiday and although we're used to not being home for Christmas, not having you guys with us feels 

empty and kinda lonely and I don't like it at all. Big sigh - SIGH...!! Ok, the pity party is over but now you know 

I'm missing you more than usual. :(  And I'm not usually a 'missing you' kind of mom.  But it's Christmas....... K,

 Moving on:   Here's our tree. Dad calls it our Charlie Brown tree and thinks we should do this every year cuz 

it's so easy to put up.  He's such a sentimental guy.  No ornaments so I used curling ribbon. But then Sandi 

crocheted some stars for us!
 

We had our second practice for the Christmas program that we're doing for the members and investigators. And it just so happened to be on Brooke's birthday so she got good wishes from us AND 40 elders! They all wanted to hold the signs. The guy on the far left is from New Zealand and is doing the Hakka stance.
The whole gang - two zones!

Some random pictures of people working. Here's what the dish-washing looks like BEHIND the restaurant - Yikes!!

Here's a guy I saw painting the steeple on a mosque. I don't know how he got up there because the scaffolding didn't reach it.

With a roller brush and no safety harness. Oh Africa....

When we went walking a couple of weeks ago, Dad said, "Why don't you keep walking and I'll stay here and enjoy the scenery?" (You know him and his scenery.)

  So, now we walk about 15 minutes and then he sits and I walk/jog between seawalls so I'm in his sight. The other day he took a picture of me......

and then I took a picture of him:

After I run a few laps, I start asking if he's ready and he'll smile and say, "Why don't you do another one?" so I turn around and do another lap. I feel like Forrest Gump. I don't know if he's really enjoying the scenery or hoping I get extra serotonin. Probably a little of both. He doesn't look much like a missionary here.....
This week I met a very nice lady from Portugal. She comes every three years to visit her mother and her brother that live here. She lived here for 20 years before she moved back to Portugal. She was very gracious and sweet but she didn't look like a missionary either....;)

 I really love meeting new people. Everybody's got a story - everybody!

Eating mango and lichee fruit:

 

Saturday was the Christmas party for our little branch. When they had the planning meeting last week, I volunteered to make brownies - 80 of them. It was one of those, "What was I thinking?" moments later the week.
When we got there an hour and a half after it was supposed to start, they still weren't ready. I had taught the kids a Christmas song last week so I decided to practice it with them. They did pretty good so I asked the branch president if they should sing for the party. He said "Yes!" Then they asked dad to give the message. We're getting used to the 'last minute notice' thing but sometimes it still throws us. Scenes from the party:

The ladies cooking:

The ladies posing.......

Dad with Elder Christenson, from THS, with his comp, Elder Fernandez, from Cape Verde.

This is Zeka. 

He's one of our institute teachers and he just passed his medical physical so he's got everything done for his mission. He was SO excited to tell us!! It takes awhile, like a year or two, for the people to be able to save for their passport, yellow fever shot, medical exam, and dental exam. But then the church pays for all of their mission expenses. It was a huge accomplishment for him!
This is where the kids ate.

  Finally, our photo shoot today for our Christmas 2013 picture.

 It was only moderately successful. I wanted to be in the sun because you can't see the kids when we're in the shade. But we ended up being 'half in, half out'. First mistake. Second mistake: I forgot to take the picture when there were 45 kids. Third

 mistake: I didn't try on the nose before the big shoot.

 I guess my actual nose is too small cuz it wouldn't stay on. I even traded with dad on the last pic and it still fell off. "The best laid plans"...

MERRY CHRISTMAS little darlin's!! We love you and can't wait to chat with all y'all in a couple of days! Woo-hoo!! ~mama

PS My kids sang GREAT!! They got big applause. SCORE!!! :)

"He knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it." (2 Ne. 9:20)‏

On Saturday night December 14th, while we waited at Hotel Trivoli with the Dilles 1 1/2 hours for our dinner to arrive .......(you can read all about that experience on Trip Advisor under the initials KGS- :-) Mom and Sandi discussed the final details for the missionary portion of the Christmas fireside the following afternoon. I innocently asked who was responsible for broadcasting the First Presidency Christmas Devotional which was to occur prior to the missionary's singing.....After a few moments of silence, it appeared that no one had been assigned this task!

The zone leaders (Peckham & Martinez) left our apartment shortly after 10 PM as they started to download to a flash drive the devotional. Prior to going to be about 10:15 PM, I noticed that they had started to download the devotional in English. No problem, I cancelled this and started to download the Portuguese version and then went to bed.

Our download speed has been very slow for the past week. We pay for a speed of 6.0 and the speed has never been higher than 2.....I went to check on the result of the download at 4 AM Sunday but some type of error had occurred. I restarted the download and at 6:37 AM I sent this text to the Zone leaders: "The download was not completed...I have restarted it twice, the remaining time continues to increase, currently 3 hours 9 minutes remaining with 15% completed...suggestions ??"

After 30 minutes, when I had not heard from the Zone leaders, I offered this prayer: Heavenly Father, I know that thou knowest everything and can help with any problem. If it be thy will, please help me to complete this download. I began the download again, and it was completed in less than 10 minutes! I texted the Zone leaders: "Prayer works!!" 

Indeed, as Jacob said: " O how great the holiness of our God ! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it." (2 Ne. 9:20)

After the download was completed our speed has again returned to the previous slow speed....

Here is Mom leading choir!

 

 From left E. Schachterle playing the piano, Houston, Sorenson, Galland, Lynn, Ensaldo, Oryang, Lake, Mendes. 

 

These seven (7) men/young men from Dondo all received the Aaronic Priesthood and were ordained Priests on Sunday, December 15th!!  I explained to those present that Priests can stand in the circle and even act as voice when another priest is being ordained. The 16 year old on my left, accepted the invitation and immediately after he was ordained he ordained the next one called up!

Sure love you!

 

Beaches and the big Primary debut!

  Hey kidlets,

Sandi and I were working at the church this week and decided to take a look at the baptismal clothes. They were in sad shape so we decided to take some home and wash them in our washers.

One day, it was the lowest tide that we've ever seen. We could walk way out on the sandbar and around the seawalls that we usually have to climb over. Here's your dad:

While we were walking, we found a sand-dollar. That was a first and I got excited. Then we found another. A woman, with her 3 kids, noticed us and called us over to give us a sand-dollar. Then she bent down and picked up another one in the water. Dad asked her how she was finding them. She said she felt them and dug them out with her feet. So, we tried it and pretty soon we were master 'sand-dollar finders'. 

We learned how to spot their little breathing holes in the sand too.

Those 4 little bumps are the slits you see on the top of a sand-dollar.

The shrimp sellers came by and this time Larry and Sandi decided to give it a try and they bought some shrimp too. It's so great having home-delivery service!! No more roaming the beach looking for shrimp to buy - although that was kinda fun....;). Here's Pedro showing us the catch of the day:

Saturday we went with the Buenos to a beach that's about an hour away. It's called Rio Savane. On the way there, we stopped to visit a 90 year old blind woman that the Buenos met in a village. 

 

 

 The people were starving her and she was dying. They found the African equivalent of an old folk's home and got her into it. Her name is Fatima and when we talked to her, she held my hand and chattered away to me, but I had no idea what she was saying because she spoke Setswana. Not that I could've understood if it was Portuguese....

Here's the community toilet/shower:

 The toilet. Not quite sure what the purpose of the broken cinder-block is......

The shower - well, more like a spit-bath...

 

Then we were back on the road for the beach! When we got there, the tide was really low and we walked to the island, rather than took a boat. Kelly said this was the first time they've done that in the seven months that they've been here. Here's Buenos, Dilles, and us:

 

The entrance down to the beach

 

Being a 'senior couple' does have its advantages - we can go to the beach and swim!!

 

Kelly's son caught this crab and got it to hold onto a shell

 

Afterwards, we had dinner at the beach's restaurant

 

Here's the whole gang - Buenos, Kelly's 3 sons, Dilles, and us.

 

On the way back, the tide had come in and we had to take a boat back to shore.

 

In case you're thinking "Ooh nice! Caribbean water"...

 

   We passed these guys on the way back home. Pedaling along......

 

Do you see the kickstand? Look on the left side of the bike. They all prop their bikes up with a big stick that they carry with them just for that purpose.

 

Sunday, my kids sang in Sacrament Meeting. I had planned it all out. Dress rehearsal? Check. Reminded Luisa? Check. Electricity working? Check. And then the pianist didn't show up.....big sigh!
So, not only did we not have a pianist, but I ended up playing the piano on the fly for Sacrament Meeting - something that makes me kinda nervous because:

 a. I'm not the best pianist,

 b.I'm a lousy sight-reader and

c. I have no idea what we're singing because I can't read the titles. 

But I muddled through and Luisa was a star. She had all the Primary kids sit on the stand for the whole meeting. I wouldn't have done that because some of them are holy terrors, but they were really good! Usually Sacrament Meeting is pretty chaotic with kids playing and wandering around the chapel, and in and out of the chapel. It was the quietest that it's ever been! So, I did some quick shuffling and had Maria, the quiet one, play the first note to cue us and planned to sing a Capella. She was so nervous. I explained that I would show her the note and she just had to play the one note.
We got the kids lined up there, Maria sat at the piano, and we started to sing. The kids did great!!! However, Maria kept playing the note.....again and again and again. I finally gave her the signal and she stopped. Oh Africa..... I gave whistle suckers to the kids in Primary for doing such a good job. They LOVED it but I'll rethink the whistles next time. I did one last Sharing Time to model for them. I told them the parable of the wise man and the foolish man and had sand from the beach and water for them to pour on it and then on a rock. That kept their attention. Then I taught them the song.
Afterwards, I broke the news to the gals that this was my last Sunday in Beira. Luisa said, "Sista, é foto.", so we took a picture. They're so goofy!

 

and with their kids...

 

I was pooped when we got home, but I had invited the Balanga's to dinner to thank her for buying me the funky pants from S. Africa, so I had to get cooking. We had lasagna, corn, garlic bread, and chocolate cake.

 

Twinners!! Ok, not really, but sort of.....

I slept good that night.
It looks like all we did this week was play, but I'm sure we did a lot of spiritual things. ;). I just don't take pictures of them. :)
We sure love you and pray for you - every day......well, actually lots of times each day.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo, mom