Catching up on Holiday Events

I can't believe that it has been almost a month since I last posted. That is pretty bad!!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. It was great to be able to Skype. We were able to see the grandchildren open their Christmas presents and say hello to our kids and other family members.

On the Monday before Christmas, we opened the gate to the Mission Home compound and invited people to come and watch some Christmas videos with us--Nora's Christmas Gift, The Other Wiseman, and the Nativity. We just sat on the ground and projected the picture on a white sheet on the wall. The tricky part was making it so that the small generator didn't make too much noise so that it drowned out the sound of the movie.

On Tuesday (December 22), we had 3 new elders come in--kind of an interesting time to get to your field of assignment.

We spent Christmas eve with President and Sister Squires. We had a "Jerusalem" dinner--lentils, flat bread, cheese, grape juice, olives. We then watched a Christmas video.

Christmas Day I got up and made cinnamon rolls--gave some to the Squires and whoever else came by. Elder Bird and Intsiful came singing Christmas carols to us. We asked them if they wanted a cinnamon roll. Elder Bird remarked that he had told Elder Intsiful that they had to just eat the "good" stuff today as they would be offered lots of food--they quickly accepted the cinnamon rolls.

We had a nice dinner with the Squires and the Assistants--beef (a rarity because of the price), potatoes and gravy, jello, vegetables, rolls, and apple crisp. We then spent the rest of the day talking with family, etc.

On Tuesday, December 29, we had 3 missionaries who came to be set apart and leave for the MTC in Ghana. They were originally scheduled to go into the MTC on Christmas Day, which some of them were pretty excited about, but the MTC doesn't start a session on Christmas.

On New Years Eve, we went out for Chinese food and then came back and played Phase Ten with the Squires. Elder Jones stayed up for the ringing of the New Year and actually talked to the Phil Jones family. I went to bed (just shortly before midnight). New Year's Day was VERY quiet.

The typical New Year's eve here in Sierra Leone (at least as far as the church is concerned) is spent at "Watch Night". I'm not sure where the tradition began, but people will gather together at the church building to express and share thanks to the Lord for preserving their lives to see another year.

We are glad to be out of the holiday season as far as traffic is concerned here in Sierra Leone. The traffic and the foot traffic congestion is awful during the holidays. Everywhere you went there are lots of people.

It was great to see and talk to some of you during the holidays. As always, we enjoy this time of year, but it is always good to be back to a routine and setting new goals.