December 22

My  questions:

1) Has someone offered the use of their home and internet on Christmas Day? 
2) Have you received invites for Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day?
3) How is the weather there in Blanding?
4) Does Blanding decorate much for Christmas?
5) How is it trying to be in three wards at the same time on Sundays?
6) How long have the three Elders you are living with been out on their missions?

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Mom,

Merry Christmas! Those pictures of the He Is the Gift advertisements at Times Square are awesome! I knew that they were there because I had heard about it, but it's cool to really see it and see how the Church is really out there! I hope a lot of people have watched it.

1) Yes, the Einerson family invited us over and their son Cole is on his mission in France right now and they will be Skyping from 9-10 so I'm not sure if 10 o'clock works best for you guys with the brunch or what. The Einersons said we can do anytime other than when their son is calling. If 9 o'clock works better a few other people offered the use of their homes so we might be able to call them and see if I can do it over there. 

2) Yeah, we have some invites for Christmas and so we should be able to stay busy sharing the Christmas story with members and others all throughout Blanding! 

3) The weather is getting colder, but it's probably not as cold as up there. We have had some snow and it has been raining this morning. 

4) Yeah, there are a good amount of Christmas lights up! There are a few houses that are pretty decked out! 

5) It's pretty crazy. Yesterday we went to two ward councils, and then Elder Salmon went to 7th ward with the ward mission leader over there and I went to 1st ward with the new ward mission leader there who was just sustained and set apart yesterday. He was the high councilman responsible for missionary work so it's cool to have him with us there now. He has a lot of pretty awesome ideas on how to get the missionary work rolling forward in 1st ward. 

6) Elder Salmon and Elder Thomas both came out 6 weeks before me, so they've been out for 19 months. Elder Ball has been out for 22 months, he goes home in February.

We had some pretty cool experiences the past few weeks. First, just how the Lord prepares people and puts them in our path. We were out meeting people in a trailer court about a week and a half ago and met a guy named Ferris who was working on his car. We got talking and we asked him where he was from and he said 5-Points (an area that I covered in Bluff) and I had actually taught his mom while I was in Bluff! We asked if we could come by and share a Christmas message with his family and he said that would be fine. Then the next day Bishop Moses from 1st Ward calls us and asks us if we could be witnesses for a wedding on Saturday. So we showed up Saturday morning and asked him who was planning on getting married and he said Ferris and Rayleen! As their family showed up for the wedding at the church we had also just met Rayleen's mom over at her apartment complex and helped her take her trash out! Then Ferris's mom and sister who I knew from Bluff showed up and so it was just so cool how they had decided that after being together for so many years to get married and take a big step in keeping the commandments of God and how we had so much contact with them and their family and we're looking forward to working with their family because they are both non-members.

Secondly, we got to have a big dinner at Brother Bennett, the seminary teacher, with him and his wife and an active young man, a less active young man, and a non-member young man (who are all enrolled in seminary) with the active young man's family and we ate smoked ribs and cornbread and shared a message and it was such an awesome opportunity to work with members!

I love you all and will talk to you on Thursday! Merry Christmas!

Elder Schaelling