It's beginning to feel like Winter. . . .

      This week started off with our Washington DC North Mission Christmas party.. We met at the temple visitors center on Monday morning for our mission picture.  There are 127 junior missionaries and 40 senior missionaries.. After the pictures were taken Sister Matsumori shared a Christmas story with us, then the young sister missionaries sang a beautiful song and then a group of them played in a strings quartet. Both songs were wonderful, what great talent we have in this mission.  After the music President Matsumori shared some stories with us all.  We then watched the movie "Kung Foo Panda 2".  The DVD was flown  from Australia since it wouldn't be released in the US until Friday.. it was so fun to sit and watch with the young missionaries.. they just laughed and laughed and we laughed at them . After the movie we all went next door to the church building for a Christmas turkey lunch.. It was a really fun day and the launch of a wonderful holiday season.

 with President & Sister Matsumori

 Sister Brown and I with Santa

 Sister  Knorr & her husband leave for home in Gilbert, Arizona soon. . ..

     We attended a special Christmas performance presented by Sister Haleigh Vance and her strings students at a local senior apartment complex.  She had students from the age of 4 to 14 and they entertained the residents.  Sister Vance is the bishops wife of the 2nd ward.  She and her students are so very talented and the music was really enjoyed by those in attendance..

      Wednesday was a full day, we started out leaving our apartment at 11:00 to drive up to the temple for our shift.  It was a wonderful day of service, that I always love.  I worked in the baptistery and a young peoples group from a Spanish branch came in to do baptisms.  I was talking to the Branch President and found out he was from Peru.. I told him about my grandson serving a mission in Peru and he wanted to know where Dylan had served and we had a wonderful talk about Peru.. There were 14 young women and 7 young men in their group and they were so cute.. What a wonderful way to end my shift at the temple.  We then went over to the visitors center to see the group that was performing there that evening.  It was "Harbor City Music Company Show Chorus".. They are a group of 60 women, ages 14 to 75 that perform all over, even internationally.  They have won many awards and the music was amazing.. They performed for 45 minutes and we loved every minute of it.  Arrived home about 10:45.. long, fun day.

      Thursday we helped at the funeral for one of the sisters in our ward that had passed away.  She had gone in for open heart surgery and died on the operating table.  We had only met her once and only for about 5 minutes, so we volunteered to help with the luncheon after the service. Selena Thomas was the one in charge of the luncheon and had planned on sitting around 60 to 100 people.. When we arrived at the church and looked in the hall where the tables were set, they had set enough for about 150 to 180 people.. Selena panicked and said if all the seats were filled we wouldn't have enough food.. We assured all would be ok.. she was really panicked. She had worked so hard to get families to donate the food and had prepared the hams, herself.  We set the tables with a salad at each place and waited for the service to end.  The wonderful thing about the luncheon was that all the tables were full and we not only ended up with enough food, but had food left over.. miracles do happen. It was a special day filled with such a wonderful spirit. 

     We have been asked to help the Relief Society by serving on the enrichment committee, and met with the chairman of the committee on Thurs. evening. We are excited to help out and help inspire the sisters to new and different ways with food, with new recipes, and ideas on how to utilize those staples they have at home. We will be responsible each month to come up with snacks or tastings to go along with the theme of the activity.

     It has been a beautiful week, weather wise too. . . mid 60's and high 50's.. until Friday and then a cold snap happened.. the high for the day was 44 degrees and the lows were in the 20's.  They are predicting snow this weekend.  We are on the 3rd floor and our apartment stays cozy warm..