Days leading to Christmas

Wow, so much going on in preparation for Christmas!  We hope you all had a great Christmas with loved ones.  For those with missionaries in the field of service, we hope you had the opportunity to visit with them. 

We have decided to break up this post into two pieces. One is related to interviews and the ongoing work, and the other will be dedicated to Christmas celebrations.

We are in the interview cycle again.  Here are the interviews, district councils from the past two weeks.

Another group of missionaries met their Teacher Improvement Program or TIP certification.  We had a nice lunch with them.  It started with a little grilling and ended with a nice meal.  The grill is so helpful.  I'm not so good at working with charcoal, but we still get an occasional good meal.

 Grilled brats, special Sister Turner baked beans, shrimp pasta salad, chips with a dessert of Root Beer floats.  They sacrifice a good part of a preparation day to enjoy this treat.

Our missionaries in the Suwon and Gyeonggi zones did a service project for the Light the World campaign.  For a local welfare center, they filled boxes with donated items from shampoo and laundry soap to rice and cooking oil.  Sugar, flour, and scrubbers and a few other things.
It was a Helping Hands Center activity.  Here we are in our vests.

We have some amazing experiences teaching the people within our mission boundaries of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Many are responding with joy and love to our message.  We so enjoy meeting with them.  We can't attend every one of the ordinances, but the ones we do are a sweet experience.

This woman lived in the Philippines and in the US and saw missionaries.  She never talked with them, but was impressed by the light in their eyes and the joy on their faces as well as the good things they did for others.  When she returned to her home country she called and asked missionaries to come teach her and her children.  Her 11 year old son was baptized with her.

 Each has a special story of how they met missionaries. Each has a love for the message and their new family in the church.

Finally, for all the "Transformer" lovers out there, here's one for the kids...  This guy was about 18 feet tall.  He may be advertising for a tire company or the movie "Bumblebee" or both...

As quick as we can, we'll publish the next blog with reference to all the Christmas activities.  There are lots of pictures of all your favorite people in this mission (besides us...).  Things are accelerating.  Announcements about the future of the mission to come within two weeks.  Stay tuned.
All our love and best wishes for a Happy New Year!