New Photos from Aaron

Two days before Christmas the missionaries were able to claim their packages.
Elders Barnard and Jackson at one of their baptisms.

We got a photo CD from Aaron the other day. I was having some trouble getting them loaded onto his blog. Actually I'm still having trouble getting them on it. It works on mine though. I suppose I have set something wrong. I will put a couple of photos with each post until I run out of ones I want to use. If I can get Aaron's blog straightened out, I will try to put something on there.

As an update on the missionary situation here in Salem, we are now in the process of painting the blue bedroom. It is actually the only room in the entire house that we haven't painted. It will be an off-white when you see it next.

Missionaries Coming to Salem ! !

For those of you who regularly read Aaron's blog and saw his recent response to my e-mail, you may have realized that Salem is getting missionaries toward the end of this month. We haven't had missionaries here for over five years. That's 'way to long. The other news is that the elders are going to living in our home! This seems to be something new that the church is doing to try to make better use of mission funds. Not only that, but it gives us an opportunity to help with missionary work and (as the letter we got from the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission said) it is based on the principle of consecration. I really like that idea.

For family members who come to visit, it will complicate things slightly, since we will now only have one extra bedroom and the front bathroom is set aside for the missionaries. Of course that doesn't mean we don't want you to visit. We just have to work around the complications. We think this will bless our family and the Salem Branch area. Yea!!

Christmas 2009

In case you read Amy's blog about Mike's treasure hunt for his Christmas gift, she mentioned one of the clues being hidden in the "kissing ball". Well, I managed to get the picture that goes with it. Actually, they had to do it a couple of times for me to get the picture I wanted. I don't think they minded though.

Here is a picture of our "letter tree".

Andrew discovers the presents under the tree.

Yum ... Zach's present tastes really good!


Christmas was celebrated on two fronts this year. We drove to Edwardsville on Christmas Eve and spent time with Laura. That night we slept at Amy's, staying long enough to see Zach open his presents. He was very excited to get Star Wars Leggos -- both a video game and real leggos. Then we went to Michael's home to deliver presents & Christmas letters. Unfortunately Sierra wasn't feeling well. She was happy though to open her Barbie things. We took Danny a scooter; hopefully he will have a place to ride it. Right before we left for home, Dustan called from his mission in California. It was good to be able to talk to him for a few minutes, before turning him over to his mom. Poor Danny has missed his big brother a lot and got very emotional talking to him.

We went home, arriving about 5:00 P.M. That gave me almost an hour to prepare dinner before Aaron's phone call began. We were only able to talk to him for 40 minutes. (Dustan got 2 hours.) Aaron sounded really good. His mission is going well. Amy, Jeanette, Karen & their families were able to come down and spend about three days with us. We exchanged our letters. Some of us were still writing them for the first couple of days. It was really nice to read them. The little ones opened their presents. Zach got a scooter too; I think he liked it. He was on it a good bit of the time they were here. Andrew got a "Little People" nativity set. It tasted good he said.