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. ;)