Christmas Party, Popcorn Balls, & Baptism for the Dead (Week 13)

Santa's Reindeer -- Donner and Blitzen?

Hi everyone,

Today, we had a white elephant gift exchange for district preparation day.  I got a mine-craft cow.  We did it before we emailed.

Transfers are next week, and we find out the details on Saturday or Sunday.  However, we already know Sister Taylor is getting transferred, because President Berry called and asked her to be a STL (Sister Training Leader).  She'll move to a STL area.  Our president asked her to come to MLC (I'm not sure what it stands for, but the STLs and Zone Leaders go to it).  [Dad:  If it follows convention, I suspect it means Mission Leaders' Council.]  We had to miss district meeting for her to go.  I think I'll stay in Winter Garden, but I'm not sure.  Since 20 Sisters are going home and only 5 are coming out, they need to shut some Sister areas down.

The stage decorations for the Ward Christmas Party.

The Ward Christmas party was extravagant.  I don't really know how to describe it.  They brought in a cupboard for a decoration.  Basically, there was way too much effort put in.  Mostly it was the Relief Society President and her family. We made rice crispy treats for it.

Our deluxe Rice Crispy treats -- eat your heart out, dad!

We also helped bring out the food, and we helped clean up afterwards.  Each table had it's own Thanksgiving meal.

The dining area for the Christmas Party

There were also lots of activities.  I'll send some pictures of it so you know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, it was nice, just too much effort.  I think it stressed out the RS president.

The dessert tables!

After the party, they gave the Elders and us these popcorn balls.  We didn't really want them, so we stuffed them in Elder Uber's backpack.  The next day, after church, we saw the popcorn balls on the hood of our car.  We visited a recent convert on the Elder's side to borrow a violin for me.  We saw that the Elders had left their bikes there, and decorated them with some of the popcorn balls.  After that, we found mormon.org cards on our car, so we took the cards and two popcorn balls and put them in their helmets.  It was fun.

I liked the singers.  They are really good; one is an opera singer.

This week we helped a family move from a hotel in Winter Garden to a house in Winter Garden.  We were able to teach them one lesson.  We have another appointment scheduled.  Arald is the father.  He is almost blind and is disabled.  He is a single parent.  Halt is 15, Mara is 14, Erak is 13, Crowley is 12, and Gundar is 11.  They all are very creative.  They play instruments, write, read, draw, and the boys play video games.  They are great.  I'm looking forward to going back, even though they are a bit of a handful.

Miracle: We had a lesson with Jason about baptisms for the dead.  He said he would do it for his brother, who passed away.  During the lesson his attitude about baptism changed.  He agreed to work towards January 10.

-- 
~Sister Aurora Pack