Thinking about Jesus Christ

Being on a mission is such a great opportunity to think a lot more about Jesus Christ, to try harder to follow him, and to be brave enough to talk about him all the time.  That's what the missionaries do and it rubs off on us too.  We love it!

Our mission nurse talks way different than I do.  She's always saying:  Heavenly Father told me this, Heavenly Father told me that, Heavenly Father made this happen, etc. etc.  At first I felt like a schmuck because he doesn't talk to me all the time like that.  But then I decided to really pay a lot more attention to my thoughts.  Chris and I are both doing it and we say to each other:  Heavenly Father told me...… And it's true!  We aren't making fun of her, we are trying to be more aware.  I still don't talk like that except with Chris but I'm thankful for her example and we are both realizing that he talks to us all the time.  We just don't give him the credit.

Christmas week

Christmas on a mission is great!  Especially if family comes. We had a wonderful week.  Amy and her family decided to come for a visit.  From Denver it's about 11 or 12 hours driving, depending on how often you stop.  Monday morning we bought a little Christmas tree so it would be a little more festive for the boys. They arrived here Monday afternoon, Christmas Eve.   The two little boys were ecstatic to find we have a forest in our back yard.  Almost everyone here does.  Thankfully we live in a duplex, not an apartment.  They went exploring immediately. 

We went to a Christmas Eve devotional at the church from 5:00 - 5:45 pm, then we came home and made fondue for dinner.  Then we had a little family devotional with a musical number on the piano from Rex and on the violin from Oliver.  It was very nice.  Christmas morning we had fun watching the kids open presents.  The cute thing is they weren't even interested in their presents until their mom opened what they got for her.  They just couldn't stand it until she finally opened her present.  

Making fondue for Christmas Eve dinner in our "spacious" kitchen.  We had to wash dishes every day or we didn't have enough silverware.  Amy loved watching me make pancakes in an old trick or treat bucket.  Well, I use what's here. 

We got to tune in on missionary grandson Isaac's video call with his mom and dad.  It was so good to see him and hear him.  We loved his testimony of the Book of Mormon and I am going to try hard to never miss a day reading from it like he recommended.  We know our other grandson, Xan, had a good call with his family too.  It's been fun to see on facebook all the missionary's posts about their calls to their family.  

We went for a walk.  There's always somewhere fun to walk here. 

Don't forget to notice the little boys down in the ditch.

We went to the movie, Mary Poppins, in the afternoon and loved it.

Amazeum

Wednesday we went to the Amazeum where you can do all kinds of interesting things. Very fun!

We are conducting an experiment with different kinds of chocolate to see which one will pour down a slanted cookie sheet the fastest.  White chocolate wins.  It has the least viscosity.  Great word, viscosity. 

Drive Through Safari

Thursday we went to a drive-through Safari park.  We all loved it.  Some of the animals would walk right up to our car and stare in the window.  We were lucky to see them feed the lions and tigers. They also had a petting zoo and places to feed animals. I have a ton of fun pictures of animals, but I won't post them all.  Later in the afternoon, we went to the office for a little while and Amy and Ryan took the kids to the swimming pool. 

Ryan's favorite were the baby camels.

Oliver loves snakes.  He's the only one that would hold one. 

Friday morning we went to the Walmart Museum and after lunch they went home.  Now it's very lonely here and we spent Saturday cleaning.  Great week!