Candycanes and Contacting

December 14th

Hello family, 

How are you? I hope you are all doing well. We had a good week this week. I am excited to tell you all about it! :D

On Monday night, our ward mission leader (John Henry) invited us to go caroling with some members of another ward. So, we went. We stood on a street corner and caroled, handing out invitations to the crèche. It was really fun. 

On Tuesday, we had some appointments and then did some errands that we weren't able to get done on Monday. We then had dinner with the Plomgrens. It was so fun. :) We were then going to go see Betty, but she was going to the crèche, so we went to a street that some members told us about where all of the houses do crazy Christmas decorations. They were right! Every house was lit and there were all of these amazing decorations. One had a giant Christmas tree with ornaments the size of my head! Another had lights on every square inch of the house. There was even a Hanukkah house on the corner! It was so much fun to take a minute and look at all the houses. :) 

On Wednesday, we went to Kathy's house and decorated it for Christmas. She was out running errands, so we did all sorts of things to surprise her when she came home. We hung paper snowflakes from the ceiling, strung lights, decorated her Christmas tree, and more. It was so fun! (And she texted us later that night that she loved it!) We then had service at the horse ranch. We had fun working with one of the kids we were with last time. I had fun talking to their parents, too. :) After that, we had dinner and Sister Hall had language study. It was a good day of service. :) 

On Thursday, we were at Zone Conference all day. It was super fun to go and see missionaries who I haven't seen in a while. This Zone Conference was all about acting in faith, and about how that will lead to miracles. We applied this to studying/planning, finding, and teaching. It was good. We had some great ideas after that! We then had dinner with the McKees. They are so great! :) Our appointment with Sione fell through, so we went home and did weekly planning because we knew that we wouldn't have time on Friday. 

On Friday, we went to the crèche to help them take down the decorations. We found out that one of the women in our ward was taking down the decorations and fell off of a ladder (it broke under her) and shattered her shoulder! D: Anyways, we helped take the decorations down and then went to a lunch appointment. Our RS President's daughter got home from her mission on Wednesday, and her mom invited us over to talk about missions. It was so fun. We also went and visited the woman who broke her shoulder. :) We then tried out a new method of contacting. We had both heard about missionaries that were going contacting with candy canes (giving them to people and asking if they wanted a card about "A Savior is Born"). So, we decided to try it out. People actually stopped and listened to us! We were amazed! Isn't it amazing what human beings will do for food (and with a little bit of the Christmas Spirit)?! :D After that, we had dinner and came home so Sister Hall could do language study. 

On Saturday, we went to a surprise party for one of the elders whose birthday it was. It was fun. We then had lunch and went to do service at sunrise. It was a rough day to be there. One of the residents was in a really bad mood and was lashing out at people. We then went to the Ward Christmas Party. It was so fun. We had dinner and then they did a cute Christmas program. After the closing prayer, Santa Claus came. :) We then went and saw Kathy before going home. It was a good day. 

On Sunday, it was raining so much! Anyways, we had church and that was fun. Our RS President's daughter gave her homecoming talk. :) After church, we visited Marta and told her all about church. We then had lunch before going to see Bonnie. That was fun. We then went caroling to people with John Henry, this time to people in the ward who could use some Christmas cheer. :) It was fun. We then had dinner before stopping by a surprise birthday party for a member of the ward. We then went home and Sister Hall did language study. 

Today has been good. We got up early, because we were invited to come to seminary. That was fun! They did a review of the Old Testament and then had breakfast. We then went home and did our studies. The rest of today should be good. We have our errands to run, and then we will be hanging out with the zone. 

Have a great day. I love you!!!!