Sister Kyle: I love Christmas but I hate Samoan cocoa.

It's almost Christmas!!!

Who's excited to skype?!?!

I can skype for a solid 45 minutos with family on Christmas day and I asked if I could have multiple skype convos with my family since they are dispersed in different countries/continents. I got a yes and I asked how many convos/how much time I can use and my answer was to "be a good missionary." Translation, skype all day! I kid, I kid. So I don't know how all you Kyles, Danners, Possins, and Yams want to do it; that mess if for you all to figure out. What are your secret skype combinations?

We have a lot of fun things planned for this next week including carolling as a zone, Christmas Eve steak breakfast with the whole mission and our Samoan unit Christmas dinner. What I'm most excited for though is the Polynesian dance fest this Friday! We get to go to all the fun events because we need to support our new unit even though we can't participate in the dancing.

It's so much easier to do missionary work during the Christmas season because even though people are stressed, the Spirit of Christ is in the air. We have been reading a lot of Luke 2 with families and discussing the importance and significance of the birth of Jesus Christ. There is one less active family that we have been focusing on for a while and finally, after many days of being barked at by their angry dogs, we got to visit with the mom. She invited us in and we sat on some folding chairs that she found for us because the only other furniture around were matresses in the living room. The house was a refrigerator because the heat wasn't on since it makes them sick. We froze as we taught this sad widow. She said that for Christmas, she wants her and her children to come back to Church and remember their covenants so that they can all live again with her husband. We've been helping one of her sons to get back on track and even though he's kind of intimidating and has lips tattooed on his neck, he is doing all the right things to get his life back in order. This woman told us about how she thinks everything will come back together with her family when her other son gets out of prison. She said that he really didn't do anything too wrong; he just beat up his girlfriend. Yikes. Later, I found out that he beat her up with a knife. Double yikes. So, the mom just lives with one of her daughters and stays in her bed all day because the house is so cold and she says her sin is watching so many movies instead of taking the time to read her scriptures. Most of her children are alcoholics and so she stays in bed most days, feeling the pains of their mistakes. We got to help her remember Jesus Christ and His atonement. We promised her as she got her life back in order now, she would see improvements with her family. We ended our lesson singing Silent Night/Po Filemu to try and bring Christmas to her sad house. Teaching this lady was really an answer to prayer for me because finally I felt like I was fulfilling my purpose in my new area. The Church is true.

I love Christmas but I hate Samoan cocoa.

I'll email again on Christmas Eve. Happy Christmas!!!!

Love, Sister Elva