December 3-9, 2012
It was p-day but all I did was go grocery shopping because I was totally beat after that. Don went on a hike with the Elders for the afternoon so I had time to rest.

Here are the Elders before the hike. 

Elders Ottley, Gaylor, Heldt, Carr, Dunkley, & Solomon

In the afternoon I prepared a FHE for a group of Seniors that meet every other week together. It is a neat group. They started this group when there was only one ward in the Dalles and it started over 20 years ago. So most of the group is in their late 70's and 80's. When the ward split they decided to keep this group together. There are about 20 Seniors that belong to the group. Anyway I prepared a Christmas questionnaire that Walter Kindt shared with us years ago. I also chose some quotes on Christmas that expressed the true meaning of Christmas to close the lesson with.  All went well and we were invited to join the group for FHE every other week.

Tuesday we had a lot of organizing to do. Now that we are teaching several families and making visits we just had to fill out forms so we could now what we taught to who. We did get out to visit a couple of people too.

Wednesday we traveled to a zone conference in Vancouver, Washington on the "Doctrine of Christ"

We learned that the doctrine of Christ is Faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.  The part I really liked was that this doctrine is what we really live on a daily basis. We have faith in Christ and we repent and then on Sunday we partake of the sacrament to renew our covenants and be cleansed again from our sins. As we do this week by week we are enduring to the end. It seems so simple. It was a powerful meeting and I went away so excited about the gospel and teaching it to others so that they could share this joy I have.

Thursday the Dalles Elders,  Don and I went to Hood River for interviews with President Greer and a Zone meeting. Our interview went well. Each time we meet with them we understand our responsibility much better. We are not like the Elders and we don't have the same responsibilities as the Elders. We are to organize the way it works for us and we are to set our own pace and just keep moving forward. I mentioned that Kim was coming down for the weekend and that I felt guilty that we wouldn't be out visiting less actives and they told us that when our kids come visit we are parents and not missionaries. That was such a comfort to me. Our zone meeting lasted till 1 pm. so when we go back to the Dalles we had a dinner appointment with an investigator. S. had a special Christmas dinner for us and the Elders. She is an artist and gave Don a picture of an owl she had  drawn and a cut mini bag she made for me. After the dinner we taught her the Restoration lesson. She has been coming out to church for a couple of months and is progressing. 

 Kimberly and Tony arrived in town late Thursday. Tony had to work from our home on Friday so Kim and I went shopping for cookie ingredients because we planned on baking on Saturday. When Tony finished work we all headed to Goldendale for their Nativity display. This was so wonderful. They had three rooms of displays from different areas of the world. The rooms were decorated professionally. Each display was breathtaking. The refreshments were also in three different areas of the cultural hall each area had food from that area of the country. We all enjoyed it. 

Then we headed to the Dalles 1st ward Christmas dinner. We had fun eating and singing and watching the program they had planned.

Saturday while Don was gone to a meeting Tony and Kimberly and I went to Staples to look for a computer for Don. They told us the one we wanted might be on the truck later in the afternoon so we came home and started baking. We made 6 different Christmas treats, 5 cookies and some peppermint bark. It took us most of the day. Tony picked up the computer with Kimberly while I did the clean up. Tony set it all up for Don and he ruined the surprise when he walked into the room before Tony was done but he was pretty surprised anyway. In the evening we went to the Dalles 2nd ward Christmas dinner. The part I liked best was the kids performing the nativity. It was so cute. When we got home Olivia opened a few little gifts I got her for church on Sundays. She is such a doll we really enjoyed having her here with us. After she was asleep the four of us played our favorite game sequence. 

Tony and Kimberly left Sunday morning as we went to our ward and spent the day at church. When we got home on Sunday we were exhausted but so happy we got to see Kimberly and her family.