It's been a really busy and fun week.  We've had our regular office responsibilities and holiday fun all wrapped together.  I've got some missionaries with a leak in their ceiling from the upstairs bathroom down to the kitchen.  It's been months trying to get it fixed.  He finally fixed it and then they didn't have water for a couple of days.  Then they didn't have any hot water.  On and on.  We moved 4 sisters into an apartment at transfers and I found out they don't allow 4 so now I've got to figure out what to do with 2 of them.  I have a funny life.

We had a missionary that had to go home to resolve a medical issue and he came to stay with us Monday night.  He was so sad.  When he arrived at our house with his companions, he was just sobbing.  We took them all out for a hamburger and he was sniffling all through dinner.  He kept saying, "This is not how I imagined myself going home."  We tried to comfort him the best we could.  The next morning we took him to the airport and gave him a big hug and I love you!  He seemed to be doing better that morning.  Life doesn't always turn out the way we expect.

We closed the office Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday and Thursday.  President & Sister Strong took a week off (as much as a president can) and rented a house by the lake so they would be at least a little bit removed.  Their kids all came to visit during the week and we tried to leave them all alone unless there was an emergency.  I can't wait to talk to him tomorrow about the two sisters who are going to be homeless.

Christmas Eve we had a nice little devotional here by ourselves.  Christmas morning we facetimed with Curtis's family and watched them all open their presents.  We loved that.  In the afternoon we went to the Marshallese celebration in Springdale and watched our missionaries dance.  I wish I could post videos here, but pictures will have to do. They are actually screenshots from a video, so not the greatest pictures. You will notice the Marshallese ladies sew pretty strips of cloth on our missionaries' white shirts.  And they made some of the girls a dress.  We had some food that was really interesting.  The missionaries told us not to eat the raw fish or we might get sick, but Chris tried a bite.  It was a wonderful, wonderful day and ended perfectly by us making another trip to the airport to pick up our son Bill and his family.

The next day we went to the Drive through Safari, lunch at Smokin Joes, Walmart museum and town square, walk to the waterfall at Tanyard Creek, the Glass Chapel in the forest; then that night we went to the Forest Lights. We took a couple of missionaries with us.   Friday morning we went back to the airport again so Bill's family could pick up a car for the rest of their trip to Louisiana to visit Kaytee's mission.  Then we went to work.

 That afternoon we drove to Springdale to inspect some apartments.  What a joy that was.  Those missionaries have made a lot of progress with cleaning up and cleaning out their apartments.  Amazing how that changes the whole spirit in the apartment.  When I texted them earlier in the week about us coming on Friday, I told the Marshallese missionaries they better get rid of that broken book shelf before we get there.  And they did!  Then they said they needed room for some of the stuff that was on the floor.  We showed them several shelves of stuff they could just throw away.  This is our life.

Saturday we cleaned and washed sheets and towels from company and in the afternoon I did some cooking to get ready for Amy and her family to come.  They bought an incredibly cheap airfare on Cyber Monday.

Wonderful week.  We've been getting texts and pictures from all the kids all week.  Adam's family was in Hawaii, Keith's family was in Grand Cayman, Mary's family was in Chicago, Bill was here and there, Curtis and Amy stayed home this week.

Nice Sunday today.