DECEMBER 17, 2008 WEDNESDAY

Today we woke up to a real snow storm and it’s still snowing tonight. We got about eight inches of snow all together. This evening we were going caroling to less-active members and investigators so we were hoping it would quit before tonight. No such luck. To make matters worse, the AP’s called around noon and told us they wouldn’t be able to come at 6:00 because they were busy with new missionaries who arrived today. So instead of driving to each address, we would have to take the tram and then walk through the slush and snow. They also were supposed to make the Christmas cards with the photo of us six on it and then bring them when they came. Since they wouldn’t be here at 6:00 we had to go pick them up. They did meet us in between so the trip didn’t take us as long.

Mom spent the day putting together our Christmas gifts, but she ran out of stuff so we had to make a trip to the store to get more. While she was putting the gifts together, I translated some more of Fabian’s book. I’ll be glad when it’s done. Diana also decided to pre-cook some potatoes and get some other things to feed the missionaries after we got done caroling.

Elders P&M and Naeide met at our apartment at 6:00 and we started out on our wet but happy excursion into the snow/slush/cold. We rode tram 7 to Mattenhof, got off and walked to the first home. Nobody there. I remembered later that they were on vacation to Thailand until January 5. So off we went to the next one which was only a few blocks away. The Kummers were home and we were welcomed with open arms. That didn’t help our singing any and we were pretty awful. The light was bad and we couldn’t read the words in our little hymn books, but the feelings were warm and you can’t help but feel good when you sing of Christ’s birth. The next home was some distance away (about 15-20 minutes), but it didn’t take long to get there. The slush was hard on the shoes and the feet, especially Diana’s and Naeide’s, but we arrived in good spirits ready for another round of singing. The Lord was smiling on us this time because first, we got to go inside of a building, and second, both the mother and daughter were at the same apartment although the mother has her own in a building down the street. They invited us in and we had a good time singing with them. By then Elders E&E were done at the mission home so we waited for them to pick us up. While we waited, we had a snowball fight, Diana instigating and right in the middle of it. The Elders finally arrived and we inflicted our singing on two of Elders P&M’s investigators and one of Elders E&E. While walking back to the van, Naeide said she had ice cream toes (meaning very cold toes). After that we came home. We found out the DL’s were fasting and we didn’t want to invite the others and exclude them so we just had them drop us off at home. When we got home, we ate it and it was delicious. It was a lot of fun tonight as we went around bringing the gift of joy (Christ) into their and our lives.

We received a nice little package of goodies and a Christmas card from the Priest Quorum in our ward. It is nice to know we are remembered and that effort was made in our behalf to be included in celebrating Christmas.