29 December, 2013

 These are the fun missionaries that spent part of Christmas Eve in our home. Our friends, the Barlow's, were also here.  We had a lasagna dinner, short program, candy bar game, and lots of visiting and finding out all about the missionaries. There were only 12 missionaries in the MTC over Christmas, so the Temple missionaries divided up the missionaries and had them in our homes. It was a great experience for us, we just wish they could have stayed longer.

On December 23 we had Christmas Dinner at President Burk's home. Our activity that night was to fill these Christmas stockings with goodies for the missionaries. The two young men who were in our home were so cute when they saw the socks. They were excited that we would remember them. We had the missionaries with us check to see what was inside the socks. Other sets of missionaries decided not to check inside until Christmas day.
   Christmas is celebrated a little different than in the states. Families have their celebration on Christmas Eve. They begin in the early evening and continue until at least midnight or after. They have a late dinner with family and friends. There are fireworks exploding all evening, with the majority of them being lit at midnight. It is very noisy! Santa is not a big part of their celebration, but they do exchange gifts. Christmas day, after they have slept in, they eat leftovers and light off firecrackers at noon.
   New missionaries began arriving at the MTC on Thursday, December 26th. It seems nice to have more than 12 missionaries there. It was way to quiet with only 12 missionaries.
   It was wonderful for us to be able to see and talk with all of our children on Christmas morning. Talking to family and thinking about the Savior was what made Christmas for us this year. We felt blessed because just after we finished talking to the last of our children we lost internet connection until Thursday morning. We didn't know how much we appreciated technology until we arrived here in Guatemala.
  We are looking forward to the new year and hope all of you are well.