Merry Christmas Week

Well.... I didn't really manage my time too well this morning and thus I don't have much time to write so.... I will do my best to get all of the details out. :)

First things first, I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I know that my Christmas was great! Especially since I was able to Skpe with my family. :) Christmas morning started out at the Stake Center doing the scripture Read-a-thon. After that we headed to the Clifton's to do our Skyping.  That really was THE best Christmas present ever. So great to see my family.... but then so sad to have to say bye to the for another 5 months until Mothers Day roles around.  I am just super grateful for the time we did have to talk. We had dinner with the Clifton's that night with was a lot of fun. I like seeing the different traditions that different families have and I am looking forward to incorporating into my life at some point. :)

We had dinner with the Skogstad's on Boxing Day which was fun! Brother Skogstad found out that I had a blog and this is the conversation we had at church yesterday...

Brother Skogstad: "So.... I found your blog.... and then I read it."

Me: "Perfect! I will give you a shout out tomorrow."

So.... Here is my shout out to my newest blog follower, Brother Skogstad and his wonderful family. :)

The week really was good and pretty busy. Janet and Norm both came to church yesterday which was really great. (I think I have talked about them before?? haha) Janet loves everything about church and is really looking forward to getting baptized. :)

I know I am forgetting a million things to say but I just have no time... sorry. :( I will prioritize better next week... but... hopefully some of these pictures make up for it.

Christmas Day Read-a-thon

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year... we will be doing more of the Scripture Read- a- thon and then back to the regular mission grind at the first of the year. Well... talk to all of you next year! (that is the lamest joke in the book but... I felt I should use it. haha)

OH!!! Remember how I wrote once that I am REALLY good at getting dinner appointments... well... I have a classic example of this. :) Yesterday we went to church with a completely empty dinner calendar and within one hour of it being passed around the combined RS/Priesthood meeting (which we taught by the way) we went from 0 dinner appointments to about 20 dinner appointments... we are getting fed everyday this week but Saturday. haha Sister Colvin thinks I am a mooch... which I probably am... :) But I promise I am a classy, mooch. :)

Christmas Eve Morning with Anne

Sister Griffin and I

Merry Christmas from a couple of kids from Morgan, UT

At the Read-a-thon - very fake glasses of one of the Elders

One of my favorite Christmas presents - Duck Dynasty flash light.. to go along with my Duck Dynasty shirt

I survived the Ice Storm "Ontario 2013"

So this week went form being not too exciting, to quite exciting thanks to the Ice Storm that hit Ontario Saturday night into Sunday! People had told us that a storm was coming but we didn't really know what to expect or didn't know if it would be as bad as they said it was going to be.

The mission had us park our cars Saturday night and then just work around our homes to keep us safe. It wasn't so bad when we went to bed and we had arranged rides to get people to church and we had also been called and asked to teach Gospel Principles AND Relief Society the next day.

So... we woke up in the morning, started getting ready, it didn't look too bad outside and then we got the news that church would be canceled (I was bummed yet also a little relieved considering the 11 hours that had passed since being told we needed to teach in church hadn't given us much time to prepare. haha) And then the power went out.... and then the tree next to our house spit into 3.... and.... it just went on and on from there. I will let the pictures tell the story. haha

We survived, though. The power came back on later at night and the apartment warmed up nicely! I feel like I need to make a tshirt... something along the lines of "I survived the Ice Storm" "Ontario 2013" haha



This street was closed with all of these trees down


It honestly feels like such a weird week without going to church. I live for Sundays because I feel like they give me the boost to get me through the week. I guess I will just have to wait until next week for my boost! :)

So it is Christmas and that is a little crazy to think about! The mission is doing a scripture read-a-thon so Christmas Eve we will be reading the scriptures from 12-9 and Christmas day we will read from 9-1. (and we will also be doing that on New Years Eve and New Year's Day) Not sure how I am going to stay awake for that many hours but... it should be a lot of fun, and a cool experience to be able to get an overview of the scriptures like that. We will be reading the Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.

Our Christmas Card

Well, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! It is weird to be away from my family and friends, but I am grateful that I get to be here with such wonderful people! I am also excited, of course, to be able to Skype with my family Christmas day! It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was Skyping them on Mother's day.. and now here we are... 7 months later!