December 30, 2013

Before I post her email from today, I'll report that the family was all together (with google hangout) when Jenni called.  She looked great!  She was her happy self.  She and her companion sang us "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas"  They changed some of the words to make it more missionary appropriate :)  "...the mistletoe, hung where you can see.  Nobody waits for me, but that's the way it ought to be." They added some fun harmony in there too.  It was fun to hear them sing together since music has been a big part of Jenni's mission so far. She sounded happy to be a missionary and we're so grateful for modern technology that not only lets us hear her voice, but see her lovely face!

Now, for her email:

Dear Family!

Christmas is gone already, I can't even believe it.  Not much to catch you up on, because we got to talk on Wednesday!  We had a great Christmas day with the family of my Branch Mission Leader.  It was so fun watching their little kids get so excited.  I can't believe that December is come and gone! It is definitely crazy!

The day after Christmas, we went to visit Sapphire, but she was just leaving town so we rescheduled. She is the girl that has a baptismal date. Walking back to the car, Sister Bunderson heard someone playing a keyboard, so we investigated! Cause she loves piano. A few backyards away, 2 men were out jammin Gospel with a little keyboard.  We joined them :)  Not only was it very fun, but we got to teach and invite them to church.  

On Saturday, we went out to a Branch activity on the very border of our area.  We drove through miles and miles of dirt roads. Finally we drove up to their house; a huge, beautiful white southern palace! We learned a new phrase 'as southern as possible' ASAP.  When we are on a road marked 60 mph and the car in front of us is going 15, we call that ASAP. 

We've been having nightly snowball WARS. Sister Bunderson's cousin sent us some yarn balls that we use as snowballs. Our apartment is huge and built like a perfect snowball fight arena, especially in the dark. Ya'll know that I can't see in the dark and so Sister Bunderson whuped my trash! It was very fun! I can't just blame the dark... I am just bad at snowball fights.

So something that was interesting that we tried for food was eggs and rice. For breakfast, they eat fried eggs BARELY COOKED, put on rice and stirred together.  We were fed that a while back, and I'm pretty sure the eggs were rotten, so it was death.  They will also do this with grits.  I think it wouldn't be too bad, but I'd have to make it myself, I'm losing my trust with Southerner's ability to fully cook an egg.

They also mix rice with anything that needs to be stretched.  We had lasagna with rice.  Some lasagna, lots of rice, all stirred up.  It's not bad.

It was so fun to talk to all of you this week!!! I'm glad that we could get the whole family together! It made me so happy! :) I love you all and hope that you all had a great Christmas and have a happy new year!! 

Love

Sister Merrill