Christmas Eve!
We had a district meeting today on Zoom with our cute young missionaries. As usual, it was conducted with great care. Our district leader is amazing and keeps us all accountable for what we have committed to. He is a kind and gentle young man, but he is serious about missionary work, and he is causing miracles to happen in lives of individuals. Our ward mission leader said that we have never had missionaries who are so diligent....and we've know a few sets here in Oxford that we thought were the best of the best.
They asked me to share a "treat" at the end of the meeting - a spiritual thought! So I talked about light. I told them how painters did not have the ability to adequately portray light until the advent of oil paints in the 15th century. Since then they are magnificent showing light dispelling darkness. Relating that to the Savior who is the Light of the World, we looked at some scriptures together.
As soon as that was over, we set out to deliver goodies to our young adults who are still in town. We delivered nine and will deliver another 4 tomorrow. Angie will come and spend the day with us. She has been a member for 6 months and we so love her. Another young man that we adore will come in the evening for pie.
I worked on sweet potatoes, and a banana cream pie for tomorrow's meal, and just a few minutes ago, put a pork roast in the crockpot. Tomorrow morning, I will make the orange jello salad (without orange juice, which isn't as deficient as it sounds....but it definitely is missing a vital ingredient), cook some red cabbage the Danish way, get the potatoes cooked, and voila! - we'll have a Christmas dinner!
Sometime in the afternoon, our cute young zone leaders came by to wish us Merry Christmas and deliver homemade brownies which they had wrapped up in cute Christmas wrapping, and some candy. Their car was loaded up with gifts for the rest of the zone (6 other companionships). I'm certain they were on the road all afternoon, but they were so excited to be doing that, and so happy delivering gifts.
For a young person with a testimony, this missionary experience has to be a most incredible experience, and one filled with emotional as well as spiritual growth.
We sent out Christmas messages to everyone else, and got some cute answers back. For two hours in the early evening, we participated in a Zoom Mission Christmas Eve Party. It was surprisingly fun. There were a few announcements and a short and sweet spiritual thought, then we played Kahoots - Christmas Edition. There were six rounds of questions. You sign in on your phone, and answer on your phone. Speed is important as well as getting the answer right. They were all multiple choice with four possible answers.
We laughed and tried our best. On the 20 questions about the Nativity, we came in four of 59. On the 15 question Around the World match, we were 54 of 59!
We had a lovely visit with Erin, and then watched "Christmas Carol" - one of the older ones in black and white. We never tire of it, even thought we could almost recite it word for word.
I feel bad because there were so many fun moments when I could have taken pictures, but just never thought of it! My loss! But here was the final picture of the day. I sat on the couch to type, so that I could bask in the warm glow of our tree. I love this time of the year!

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