December 27 2010

<<Editor’s Note: We got to talk with Richard on Christmas Eve.  It was very nice to speak with him.  Richard’s comments about Hope was because she was in AZ attending her grandmother’s funeral.>>

Christmas Dinner Elder Brickey, Elder Mackelprang, Brother Ravonsheed

Hello Y'all!

:P Dad, other than Leah's crazy pictures of everything, you're the only one to have written me this week. Talk about depressing. Today has been a very bad P-day. Since we have to take the English Elders to do their laundry, and do ours at the same time. It's just a plain time drain. It's irritating that all we managed to get done is shopping and finally emails, with the libraries being closed this week. :( So I really, really hope that we figure out some time saving ways to get our laundry done faster... because this is just ridiculous. We're still not done with laundry, and we're using a LOT of miles to get it done... *sigh* at least in Fairfield we were pretty much 1/2 way done with laundry by 8AM in the morning, but together we'll find a way to make everything pan out.

I've seen on news-clippings that the entire east coast got plastered with snow. I'm sure you've been enjoying it all. I hope Mom has been enjoying the the warm Arizona weather! :) She’ll enjoy getting some of the Arizona sunshine she misses during these winter months.

Leah must have sent me like 20 pictures today, I was kind of blown away when I saw her name dominating the screen when I opened up my email today, it was a nice change to the few emails I usually get each week. By the way, Sayonara Leah! Have fun in Idaho! :)

I'm sure Jenna is loving her kindle. I wonder if she'll ever prefer that over real books though.

I'm also sure that Joshua's ecstatic about getting a gecko. I feel that those would make awesome pets. :P

I'm not sure I can forgive you for buying an Ipad Dad... but we'll see what you do with it ;-).

Christmas. It was a fun morning. I slept in until 7:30AM; I know, I'm crazy right? Elder Brickey (my new comp) had been up a little while earlier and had already gone through all of his gifts. :) He had more of the Christmas spirit in him I guess. He got a lot of professional artwork from his brother in the form of pass-along cards / bookmarks. It's some pretty impressive stuff. I enjoyed all of the little snacks, and things I got from the Christmas package. It was really nice. I especially liked those Christmas Bark things. The new shirts fit like a charm. They are _SOOO_ nice! I love it! I've received several Christmas cards from the ward members back home, and from various relatives. So it's been nice, but I especially enjoyed a special letter from my waiting girlfriend Kayla Swesen. I got some pictures a good letter, with a humorous RM dating application. Words cannot do it justice to describe it, so... I'll leave it at that. Later that Christmas day we went to visit our investigators for tamales... but wouldn't you know it; we got dogged. On Christmas. So we went up to Santa Rosa and spent the majority of the day in Santa Rosa with a more "Americanized" Spanish family for most of the day. We came back to Rohnert park for an appointment later that afternoon, but we got dogged on that one too. We then had dinner with the Gaecominis family, who is an English family in the Rohnert Park 2nd ward along with the other Elders. It was a very nice dinner, with lots of laughs, and good food. So yeah. That's my Christmas for this year.

I love you all, and I hope that you enjoy your holidays and vacations as we look forward to this new year. In which I'm coming home. Weird thought isn't it?

I know this church is true, I know that Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw. He really saw God the Father, and Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that we can come closer to Him by doing all the small little things that we say in Primary: Saying our prayers, Reading the scriptures, and going to church. the diligence we have to these steps will in great measure affect how our faith strengthens or weakens in the long run.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year,

Elder Mackelprang