A little Holiday Cheer!

Hello Family:

This week has been full of the Holiday spirit! ha ha… already! But I love it! Hands down this is my favorite time of year!

Earlier this week we stopped by to visit Carolyn Winters. She wasn’t in her room so we asked where she was. They were all downstairs decorating gingerbread houses! So we went down and found her. We ended up staying down there for well over an hour helping these sweet old women make their gingerbread homes. This might sound funny, but you know the quote about “helping the feeble hands that hang down.” That thought ran through my mind over and over as these sweet women’s old shaky fingers couldn’t get the candy to stay on their little houses.

There are so many ways we can serve those “feeble hands that hang down!” I hope our whole family will look for those opportunities to strengthen and loves those around us, especially this Christmas season! Will you do that?

We helped the Jackson family set up their tree. Ashli, the 16yr old, was just baptized this last March so we’ve been working with her quite a bit. I love her guts! I’ll include some pictures. AND we helped Sister Haruch set up her tree and décor. Needless to say Mom they have been putting us to work. But it gets us into the Christmas spirit!

AND it snowed this morning! Our first snow! It must be Christmas time! Every Christmas season the Cincinnati North Stake decorates the Stake Center with a collection of Nativities from all around the world! It is the neatest thing! We took Becky and Terri with us to go see them. The picture is of us and the Underwood family dressing up as the Nativity scene. ha ha… It’s been years since I’ve done that! Reagan Ladle and I were the angels who sang “Glory to God in the Highest!” ha ha

This week has been wonderful! We had some wonderful lessons with Mary and Tori. They are doing so well. Mary is still trying to recover from her hospital visit. She is seriously an inspiration to me! I love her so much! We are also working with a woman named Abi. She’s from Nigeria. Who would have thought the Cincinnati Mission would be so cultural!

We also meet with a woman who just moved her from Cambodia. Maria has only been in the country for 3 months. She was baptized in 2005 in Cambodia but hasn’t been to church for a while. So we are working on getting her back to church and softening her husband’s heart so he will let her. I love the cultural diversity here! It’s been so much fun!

I just have to add: Sunday was wonderful! It’s incredible to me how fasting can bring such an abundance of the Spirit! I leaned over to Sister Underwood, who is a recent convert, during Sacrament Meeting and asked her if she was going to bear her testimony. She said, “I’ll go if you go.” I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to get her up there! ha ha. So we went up. Testimonies are sure a powerful thing! We should take every opportunity to share them! When we live the gospel we truly are blessed!

And how about the Christmas devotional! Wasn’t it beautiful! I’m sure grateful to have a living prophet! I love him too!

Lots of love… I know. ha ha. So naturally I love you all too!

Thank you so much for your support and encouragement!

I love it.

Sister Painter