December 19, 2021- Time for an Update!

Hello and Merry Christmas to All!

I'll start this months update--quiet, peaceful Sunday morning looking outside at the snow covered trees bare of leaves. Our first real snowstorm last night has left about 6 inches. Listened to the plows through the night, and we plan to head to church later this morning. Also have choir practice--the Manchester ward choir director asked Mom to accompany "Sing a Song of Christmas" for next week's Christmas program, and I got roped in. Fun, fast song with a few twists that make it a good one for the program, but we'll see how our final two hour practice unfolds.

I'll start from recent to last month. Our big highlight was hosting Cathy and Doug Jolley over Thanksgiving--that's Mom's story to tell. We had a Senior Missionary Christmas party last night--ham and such, then games and decadent holiday cheesecake desserts. More treadmill time. It coincided with the BYU bowl game, so a few of us were distracted. We really enjoy our MMA (Mission Medical Advisor) Elder (Doctor) Hales and his wife--they've served two other missions to New Zealand and England, and cover a lot of ground supporting multiple northeastern missions. Sister Hales told a funny story about getting left at a truck stop for three hours on their honeymoon trip when Elder Hales thought she was tucked into the back seat of the car asleep. Didn't find out she wasn't there for an hour and a half when he started to get sleepy and asked her to drive. She was waiting for him in the 24 hour coffee shop when he rolled back in for her.

The last two weeks have been very hectic with 3 Zone Conference Christmas Parties--South Royalton VT at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial, Nashua, NH, then Yarmouth, Maine. We'd go up the day before to set up and decorate, then either spend the night in a hotel or home if it was close. The format began with instruction and reviews in the morning for the missionaries, then they did the Nativity with dress ups and sacred carols before breaking for lunch, games and fun caroling. Mom had different levels of local help for the meals--SoRo was great--the local team cooked the turkeys and other items and helped clean up. Yarmouth's Relief Society did everything--wonderful! Nashua was all on her and the senior ladies. Biggest group of missionaries--over 90. But there was plenty of food to send home and no one goes hungry.

The party included a pass-the-gift left/right game while Sister Beck read a story, and a 'Tell the Truth' game where three participants all try to convince the group 'This really happened to Me". Mom got to participate in "I tackled a football player', and I in "I balanced an egg on a nail". Amazing the convincing stories we can conjure up on short notice. Then, with varying talent at the piano, we sang carols, ending with Silent Night and a kneeling prayer. For me, it was so sweet to sing, linked arm and arm, with our wonderful young servants. I will treasure that memory forever.

I'm still trying to keep my drivers safe--slide offs, fender benders, and vandalism have my list of damaged cars longer than anyone likes. (Also includes the MP, but I can't say that out loud). Next task will be to distribute and activate 102 new gas cards and swap out 12 old cars for some 2022's that are inbound. We usually swap at 60,000 miles, and they are plenty ready at that point. But when's the last time you got a new car after just 60K miles? The Church does it at that point to retain re-sale value. First wave of what may be as many as 40 total new cars.

Enough from me. Thanks for the calls, gifts and prayers. I love you all! Here's Mom!

Hi to All,

Dad gave a pretty thorough update so I'm not sure what more to add. The Jolley's did come for Thanksgiving - that was a surprise but we definitely enjoyed the time together. We are getting seasoned in how to balance office work and visitors - so come visit!

One fun thing we were able to do as a Christmas celebration - We (Dad & I) got to see the Boston Pops Orchestra! Right here in Manchester. It was an unexpected treat - I saw a marquee advertising the Holiday Pops concert - thought whatever that was might be a fun Christmas treat. So later that day I googled to see what it was and found out it was the BOSTON POPS!!! I was pretty excited about that and the tickets just happened to go on sale that day - at 6PM!!! I was able to get us decent seats and we had an enjoyable evening with the "Pops". They played many Christmas favorites and we discovered some new favorites as well. The concert was not complete until they played Sleigh Ride-It was perfect!!! (it is the Boston Pops who play Sleigh Ride on the Christmas album that all of us like and try to replicate every year)

In mission news - We have several of our "visa waiters" (we're not supposed to call them that) headed out to their permanent assignments as windows of opportunity open for them in their various assignments. Dad and I are not involved in any of the arrangements for their travel or COVID testing/eligibility for travel but we hear a lot about it. One of the recent "adventures" has been identified as a miracle. When the 2 missionaries arrived at the airport with all their paperwork completed and triple checked, they were accompanied by the nurse and her husband (They take them to the airport and make sure they get through security)The ticket agent was described to us as being unwilling to work with them, told them they didn't have the right forms filled out, that there was a bar code of some sort missing on one of the papers and was not going to let them leave. There was a virtual solid wall up between the airline agents and the missionaries. They tried to resubmit their paperwork - all on cell phones which was no easy task and had to do it multiple times. As the time is ticking closer and closer to their departure time, there is panic and prayers happening. The missionaries go back to the ticket counter and were asked the question - "what are you going to do in Argentina?" And one of the elders pointed to his name tag and said "we are going to teach the people about Jesus Christ - in Spanish." The senior couple with them told us you could see the wall come down and as she looked at their paperwork for the "missing" info- she said you've already filled this out - and they said yes we have- 3 times! She handed them back their paperwork and told them they could go. Suddenly they had what was needed and were allowed to proceed. Definitely a miracle. It's always humbling and at the same time gratifying to see how actively involved our Heavenly Father is in our lives. We just need to learn to recognize that.

We enjoy the time we get to spend with the missionaries. Some we get closer to than others. I'm sharing only a couple of pictures because sharing them all would be boring for you. The out of ordinary attire is due to the Christmas sweater contest that was part of the Christmas party activities. Some creative, some perfect and some just.......

The picture of Dad and 2 missionaries - they are all from Blackfoot - so he feels a special connection to them. So wanted to share that pic with you.

We hope that all of you are doing well and ready for Christmas. Thank you for your love and support. We hope to be able to visit with each of you sometime during the Christmas season.

Love you all,

Mom