Wildbreeze in O-Town: 'Tis the season to be jolly and joyous. Falala.

Dear Family,

Merry Christmas, almost! I'm so excited. We're all so excited.

So Skyping on Sunday!!! We were told that we can Skype for as long as we want to.

By the way, I'm writing this email in our fancy magical shiny new car. It's a 2017 Chevy Malibu and it has all the technological doodads that no missionary needs. It has wifi. WIFI. IN THE CAR. It's the greatest, at least until it runs out.

I got a MASSIVE mystery package in the mail this week. Looked up the address in LDS Tools; it came from the Gallahers' house. :) (Off the blog records: $50 shipping. Wow.) In it is a Sister missionary stocking, filled with things. Looks like ward Christmas letters at the top. I've got people around me who think it's bad luck and would kill me if I opened it early (I had that quite literally beaten into me this week by Sister Parish, haha), so I have no idea what's in it other than that. I'm excited to see. :) Please thank the Gallahers for me. [The package is from Sister Stevenson's ward.]
I love love LOVE all the pictures of Leni! Cathy sent me George pictures this week too! I'm glad you all (or most of you) are getting together for Christmas. Please take lots of pictures! Those kids are so stinking cute, and I can't believe how big they're getting! Leni doesn't even look like a baby anymore! Have fun for Christmas! Watch Muppet Christmas Carol!

Also it's currently blazing hot. It doesn't feel like Christmas today. :P

This week!

Last Monday was probably the best P-day I've had so far. I kind of just told myself that I wasn't allowed to be stressed out. :P I also managed to take some time for playing piano and sketching. We wrapped presents when we got home. :) I love wrapping presents. We wrapped up the packages we've gotten too.

Tuesday we got our beautiful lil car. The mission office was crazy busy and full of missionaries getting new cars. The North Sisters might be getting their own car at some point, but we're not sure yet. We like sharing with them.
We delivered some of the things that we baked last Saturday, as a "thanks for all you do, Merry Christmas!" The Cruzes gave us banana and zucchini bread. They're so sweet; we adore them.

We tracted around the apartment complex in our area again. We've got a referral somewhere in there. We know the building but not the apartment number. And we've met some cool people just knocking around. We heard a car not starting, and went to see if we could help/talk to the person. We had a great conversation with the woman, who was super interested in how similar our doctrine was to what she grew up with. After a few minutes and a prayer, her car started up. Not sure if anything's going to happen there; we didn't get her info... But we were definitely supposed to talk to her.

Went to Enrichment, which was super fun. We made popsicle stick nativities. They're adorable. Mine is slightly falling apart. We also got to know some of the sisters better. :) Including Sister Egg. Brother Egg is in the bishopric, and he is the happiest, kindest person ever. Sister Egg, on the other hand, is the most sarcastic and sassy person in existence. We love her. She's hilarious.

Wednesday apparently we weren't supposed to go to GKTW, because they had a large group of volunteers come in. None of us got that info/listened though. And they were grateful we were there. We were in the Cafe again, serving food. I wrapped a ton of brownies and chocolate chip cookies. Also found out that Sister Powell loves Hamilton and the other musicals I was listening to at home. :D

That evening we went on a temple tour!!! We took Sister J___ (can't remember if I've talked about her before; she's a less-active/fairly recent convert that we visit pretty often because she lives a short walk/very short bike ride away). They talked to us in the stake center for about an hour about what happens in the temple and the importance of them. Then we went over to the temple and walked around. It's gorgeous. (I'll send a couple of the pictures, but I think I'm just gonna send home the SD card tomorrow. Merry Christmas, pictures!) It was late at night, so it was all lit up. We could just see the chandeliers sparkling in the windows. Sister J___ loved it. She was so happy and grateful to be there.

There we met 3 people from Brazil who drive past the temple regularly, and came in to ask about our church. One of them speaks decent English, one of them understands a bit, and the other doesn't speak much. We've got a couple Portuguese Elders, so I hope they're able to get in contact with them again! There was someone in the temple who is from Sao Paolo, and he talked to them for a while about the church and temple.

We got in bed SO LATE.

Thursday we had Zone Training Meeting. Sister Lamborn and I gave a recap/follow up on the last ZTM, and took probably too much time doing so.

We didn't drive back home in an attempt to save on miles. We've used so many miles this week. So many meetings and parties. We went to the North Sisters' service and helped there for a bit. They do service at Community Hope Center, which helps homeless people find jobs, homes, etc. We sorted out Christmas gifts for kids (based on age/gender). It was super cool, I felt a little bit like Santa. :) The people there are amazing too, and so fun.

Our Zone was all invited to the church to learn self defense from a couple of black belts (one of them is in the Kissimmee ward). They taught us what to do if someone grabs us or tries to stab or swing at us.

Friday we did not plan much at all. We met with the Relief Society president to talk about visiting teaching and how we can help support the sisters in the ward. (And then this Sunday ALL of the women's presidencies were released, haha.)

That night we went to the Quispe's for a little Christmas party. It was just a few people and cookies. They wanted us 4 Sisters to sing. The other 3 like me singing alto, and I think it's fun too.

Saturday we went to Sister Afu's house. Hah. She is interesting. We thought we were going to help her cook, but she wouldn't let us. Instead, she fed us. Tons of things. And we sang and played piano for her.

And then the ward Christmas party! We helped serve food. There was a talent show and they wanted us to sing again. :P Two of the youth sang the duet from Waitress, which was GREAT. And Sister Jones and her grandkids made it too! They're not members but they had SO much fun, and danced for the show. The Burtons gave us Christmas gifts; coloring books, cookies, and little airplanes to put on our bikes from their granddaughter.

Sunday was great as ever. Dunno what to write about it though. :P

We went to the Munoz family's house for a pre-Christmas dinner. You might get pictures or something from them; they asked for our parents' info.

This week we didn't teach much... but we served and we planned for Christmas. Sister Lamborn and I are going up to spend Christmas morning with Sisters Parish and Angelo. :) Church is at 9, combined with the Kissimmee ward for just sacrament meeting. We're planning out proselyting for Christmas day. We're so excited.

I love how much I learn about the gospel and about myself every week, even weeks that are rough or when we haven't done much. I've just learned and grown so much the 8 weeks that I've been out here, plus the time in the MTC. I love it here.

Dunno what else. I'm excited to see and talk to you. Love you all.

Love,

Christine