Christmas

Today has been a very unusual Christmas for us.  We went to two different church services this morning.  Mom was asked to play the keyboard at both of them and the branch president reviewed the birth of Christ as contained in Luke and Matthew.   We had only the one hour service.  Mom, another senior sister and two young sisters had made rice crispy squares and popcorn balls to give to each of the members at the end of the meeting.  

We interact with 9 different branches or groups.  Most of them are pretty small and none of them have pianos or organs.  All use the electronic keyboards, such as the one mom played today.  Only two of the nine have church buildings, one has a small building with an added temporary structure for classrooms, another is made up of only temporary structures and five of them are rented facilities such as schools or other businesses.  If one excludes the missionaries, there are never more than 2-3 cars in the parking lot.  Most walk to church—some of them several kilometers.  It has been raining the last two days so all of these members have to walk in the rain to get to church.  We love the rain because it keeps us much cooler and makes it more enjoyable.  Members come to church in whatever clothing they have.  They try to dress up but many just don’t have dress clothes.  But they are always clean and well groomed. 

We have visited some of the members in their homes that past couple of weeks.  We can only drive to their homes on dry days because once one leaves the main road that passes through the town, everything else is dirt roads, most of which are in very bad repair.  We have to be careful or our little car will get high centered.  It is very humbling to see their small, simple homes but they are always so kind to us.  The lucky ones in these little towns have had a well dug for them, but the majority use water from a community well and carry it on their heads or in wheelbarrows to their homes.  So Christmas time is a good time to count our blessings.

Mom and I bought each other one simple present.  I gave her a new watch since hers died, and she gave me a small set of speakers for the ipod or computer so we could hear music.  We both opened our presents about 4 days before Christmas so we could enjoy Christmas music and she could be able to tell what time it was.  We know some of you have sent packages to us, but so far nothing has arrived except a Christmas card from Chris and Jennifer.  We are told that it will likely take about a month to get here for a package so we look forward to celebrating a continuous Christmas season for a couple more weeks!!!  A letter takes about a week just to get here from Johannesburg.  We sent each of you a Christmas card and would be interested how long it took to arrive.

We spent all day on the 24^th preparing a special meal for 8 elders in the area, and then arranged for games, a gift exchange and other activities.  I used my ipod and new Christmas present to provide Christmas music throughout most of the activity.  As evening approached,  we watched the First Presidency Fireside, which we downloaded from the internet, and then had a testimony meeting.  We think the Elders enjoyed the day very much.

We hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas day.