The phone call, an eye opener, hard work is the best cure, secret Santa, Christmas service, and bikes bring laughter.

Oh my goodness gracious I can’t even explain how great it was to talk to you on Christmas... best Christmas present ever! So good to... kind of see you all and talk to you for WAY too short. :) I really just want to thank you for always being there for me and being who you are. Seriously you two are the best.

This week was a bit difficult over here, to be honest. Scary, sad, and nerve-wracking. But don’t worry, all is good now and we’re happy once more. Here’s the story...

(Jess is happy to share most all that goes on in her mission, but she asked us not to share this story in her blog.)

Our district met together on Christmas morning before we began our service project.

But, these past few days have really turned around. We just decided that the best cure to not think about all this is just hard work. So we put our shoulders to the wheel and pushed, hard. And to tell you all the truth, we have laughed and had some of the best times these past few days. We’ve grown closer and she knows that she has a family in me and I think she trusts me more and we’ve talked a ton and it’s been really good to talk it out. She still isn’t big in to the whole hugging thing... but we’re working on that. :)  It’s amazing what the knowledge of this gospel will do for people and how it can truly help them overcome all problems and challenges that come in life. So don’t any of you worry, we are now incredibly happy and today she found out that they were waiting for her, but we came in a little later than they thought, so they thought that she wasn’t going to call. And we now have a new date to talk with them! I’m thinking it is this Wednesday! WAHOO!

I talked my comp into pulling our mattresses downstairs on Christmas Eve to sleep by the tree.

WHEW. Ok. Well, I would like to switch gears a little bit from this subject and talk about other things - happier things! We found a family of five! And in our first lesson, we invited all of them to be baptized, and all of them said, “yes!!!” It’s amazing! They are truly chosen and I am unbelievably excited to see where this road takes them. We contacted the husband in the street and we were super nervous to do so. He is huge, meaning really strong, but lean, and had a look of anger on his face. Once we talked with him, he completely changed. He is seriously one of the nicest, most caring individuals I have ever met. He immediately invited us to his house for the next day to meet his wife and children. Whaaaat? Booyah. So we went to his house, and oh my goodness, I almost started crying. So he’s the kind of person that I would imagine has a beautiful wife and kids and they have a good, happy life, right? We entered their house and his wife has arthritis and can’t move on her own and doesn’t have any teeth. She broke her leg and can’t move until February and he doesn’t have a job, because he has to be there to carry her everywhere, even to the bathroom. Their kids are amazing and humble and kind and I feel incredibly blessed to know them. Truly an eye opener and I feel so grateful to know this family. They said they weren’t going to have a Christmas because no one in their family works, and they’re struggling to live right now. So my comp and I took them presents. We gave them all that we had to give, bread, candy, perfume, necklaces - whatever we thought we could. And with all this, we included pictures of Christ. My comp wanted to put our names and give it to them, but I told her how we have this tradition of ditching our presents on their doorstep and they don’t know who it’s from, so this is what we did. It was great and the next time that we went to their house, we found the pictures of Christ on their mantel-type thing. It was great to be able to do this for such a wonderful family in need.

For our Christmas Day service, we helped clean and organize a woman's home, so she could enjoy the day.

FROM THE MISSION MOM...

Thursday- CHRISTMAS DAY (December 25th) 

The schedule for the entire mission was to have district meetings go from 10:00 am -12:00 pm. 

Then each district (or companionship) worked together on a service project for a minimum of 2 hours. Afterwards missionaries went back to their areas to eat lunch, call parents for one hour, and continue with their planned appointments. President requested that the district leaders send us on 

Saturday a few pictures from their service projects to share with you at home- hoping to share with 

you a glimpse of what your missionaries were busy doing on this holiday. Thank you to the district leaders who responded and provided the following pictures.

Painting and helping a woman prepare to move.

Cleaning a car

Filling buckets with dirt to make cement

Hoisting the buckets full of dirt to an upper level

Caroling in the hospital

Painting

Cleaning up glass, rocks, and dirt from a room so it can be used

More cleaning

Yard work

Treat bags to kids in a remote area

More painting

Cutting the yard grass with machetes

Caroling to a single 19 y.o. mom with 4 children. No front door, just a drape.

And more painting

Our district enjoying a Christmas meal together after all of our hard work

Well, I love you so much! Truly, thank you so much for always being there for me. Thank you for your love, your friendship, and your kindness. Thank you Grandpa and Grandma for the wonderful Christmas money gift you gave me and thank you “Grandma” Nancy for the money you have so generously given me for my mission. I can’t thank you all enough. I am so blessed to have this support network and know such incredible people. Mom and Dad - I’m pretty sure that I’m going to talk to President Egbert to see if we can Skype each week. ;) 

Some good old fun after a challenging week

  

You are all truly amazing! Thanks for all you do every day and every moment! I love you with all my heart. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Love you!!!!!!! :)

HERMANA ANSTEE :)