He spent one day with Robert Wagner (and MANY other days in weeks past) helping him to build a storage "shed" on his property. It's actually a building. They have been setting the posts, trying to get it done on days when it is NOT freezing and the cement will set.
He has been helping Sheila remodel a bathroom that will meet the needs of her handicapped daughter.
About every other week he will call Pat Sutton to see if she needs anything. Last week, he visited her and got down all her Christmas decorations.
While he is out "serving", I have several lessons to prepare each week. On Mondays, I tutor Daniel Wagner. We try to teach him a missionary lesson after that. We are hoping he will be baptized before we go home.
On Tuesdays, I teach seminary.
On Wednesdays, I help with Activity Days. Every other month it is my turn to plan and do.
On Thursdays, I tutor a pre-calculus student here in Rensselaer, and three students in California.
On Sunday, I teach a 45 minute Primary class, then do Singtime.
Add to this, monthly zone meetings with our Mission President, Relief Society meetings, Missionary Correlation meetings with the other sister missionaries and the Branch President, and District Meetings (which I'm sorry to say we don't get to very often) and you can see that we stay busy.
We also try to visit as many inactive families as we can fit in. This week, we visited several families inviting them to the Branch Christmas Party. We spent 6-8 hours at the church on three different days decorating.
We almost never take a P-day (preparation day). So, last week we planned a trip to Chicago.
We took our neighbor, Stacey.
Even though she has lived here a lot longer than we have, she had never been to see the Chicago sites.
I couldn't get the camera to focus on the lights. This is the restaurant where we ate.
It is called Ed Debevic's. It is super fun there.
Everyone gets a hat.
I thought the balloon hat was cheesy. The "balloon" lady was not the best.
This is the coolest MacDonalds I've ever seen. Really fancy.
The lights along the Magnificent Mile were so beautiful. We walked about 6 1/2 miles.
And, of course, we visited the Bean again. If you lay on the ground, it looks like you are standing up. Always a lot of tourists there, so we fit right in.
This was in the Nordstrom Mall. All glamorous!!!
We actually had to stop for the geese to cross the road. And they were NOT in a hurry.
The worst part of Chicago is the parking. It costs a fortune. Seriously. We pay about $40 every time we go there, just to park. This time we parked under Millennial Park. There is literally a city beneath the city in Chicago. The streets are three-levels deep.
There are stop lights under the streets. It's crazy.
One of our branch members gave us a Christmas Tree to put up, complete with decorations.
Thanks Fernandezes. (How DO you spell that?) We love it.
I snapped a picture of Craig relaxing after working on the Christmas Party craft. He is drilling holes and stringing twine through sticks. He's handy to have around.
We've gotten some very nice gifts from the members. We got this Goody Bag with all kinds of good things in it.
We each got a neck scarf from our Stake President's wife. She made scarves for ALL the missionaries in our district. Don't look for us in this picture. We're behind the camera. All the missionaries are wearing their scarves, but Craig and I got ours the day before and didn't have them at the meeting. Our Mission President and his wife on are the far right. We love these kids.
We feel our time coming to a close so quickly. We wonder if we have done enough, helped enough, served enough, and loved enough. I get sad thinking of these wonderful people we will be leaving. We still have a few months.
Oh, and one more thing. We are NOT looking forward to winter.
