Christmas Post!

Merry Christmas everyone! Ho Ho Ho!

 

Yeah Christmas as a missionary is an interesting thing. The holidays aren't very fun times for missionaries since everyone has hectic plans and usually is either sick or out of town. We only had 3 people come for sacrament meeting between the two wards. Oh well. It'll get much better once everybody starts coming back. I'm sure you're all wondering what I did for Christmas. While I don't like how the season makes everybody's schedules hectic I always love Christmas no matter what. 

 

Christmas day started with the Spanish Elders coming over to the Connolly's (which is where we're living) and helping us make a fort. That's where we had our studies. After the fort we opened presents. I am extremely grateful for all the gifts I got considering that I wasn't expecting very many this year. I got:

• An EFY CD (Thank you Becca)
• A lot of healthy food and peanut-butter filled pretzels from Trader Joe's (Thank you Dad)
• Long pajama bottoms and gloves (Thank you Grandma & Grandpa Boothe) 
• A mountain of candy (Thank you Connolly's, Mortimers and Grandma Barbara)
• A gift card to Carls Jr and McDonalds (Thank you Connolly's and Grandma Barbara)
• 3 awesome ties (One came from my zone leader, Elder Bouwhuis, one came from our newest baptizee Aussie and one came from Elder Mortimer)
• A hand-knitted scarf by some members in the Black Hills ward
• Stamps and envelopes (Thank you Grandma Barbara)
• And a whole bunch of other random crap like a slinky, a backscratcher and a finger skateboard. (Believe me I got more than that but it should give you an adequate idea of what I've got right now)

Needless to say I came out like a bandit. Our room right now is super messy because we have so much junk. I'm giving some of my presents away because

 

a) I have too much stuff and I don't want to carry it all with me

b) I genuinely like giving people things and I have a lot to give.

 

I also got two huge stockings from Elder Mortimer's family and the Connolly's. Elder Mortimer, my companion and my trainer, loves Carl's Jr. and got about 60 - 90 dollars worth of it in gift cards. Yeah he's pretty happy right now. Since I also got a gift card to Carls Jr guess where we went? Yeah big mistake I don't even like Carls Jr.

 

Afterwards I got to call home. Man it was awesome talking to Ryan, Garit and Dad! I loved every minute of it. Afterwards we went to Angela and Aussie's. Angela is a recent convert who was baptized right before I got into the mission field. Aussie is her daughter and it was her baptism that was on December 18th. They are so awesome and I always love coming to their place. I think I can honestly say that I love these people.

 

Anyway after going there we stopped by several people's places and absoultely stuffed ourselves silly. I'm sure I gained weight from that.

 

Before I end my post there's one more thing I'd like to bring up: TRANSFERS! Today is the day where we find out whether we're being transferred or not. Elder Mortimer and I are so nervous since he's been up here for about 10 months and he keeps telling me that I'm going to take over the area. Yeah that's a scary thought! I hope he gets to stick around for another transfer but I have no control over this. This will be my first transfer! It's amazing how much I've grown since the time I first got here! And that's just 6 weeks!  The next transfer goes from December 27th (tomorrow) to February 7th.

 

Well that's it for me. I love you all and pray continually for you.

Love,

Elder Boothe