CRUNCH....

When we first bought our Chevy Venture, I pulled out of the lot and took a post with me and also took the front off the car! Welllll, the adventure continues.....

Last Sunday we were looking for the Billerica Ward. The church site listed the address as Old Concord Rd. So our GPS took us to the address and it turned out to be a dead end into a forest with water!! The only thing near it was a gated apartment community. I pulled in to the gate but of course, couldn't get in. Someone pulled up behind me so I started to execute a beautiful three point turn. But out the back window I couldn't see the security post when people put in their secret number that opens the gate. Oh the sound of tinkling glass and the crunch of a dent........


So Monday morning we took it in to the body shop, rented a car and tomorrow we get the car with it's new back window......Merry Christmas...the Elder gets a new car window!!!


I was so mad by this time, it was late and we had no phone number for the chapel so I announced we were going home and I got on some road not knowing or caring where it went. And of course, we ran right into the chapel.....on Concord Rd. That's a big difference!!! So we did find the right place.......

Other than that, the only excitement around here is the "Big Ice Storm of 08". Thursday night an ice storm invaded central and northern MA, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. People were awake all night hearing trees cracking and falling. They had to keep running outside to make sure the tree didn't fall on a car or the house. A million people without power, water, heat and the temps were in the single numbers for 2 nights. Our ward was hit pretty hard. Bolton was completely a war zone and power isn't expected to be restored there for 3-5 more days. Boxboro, which is right next to Acton was totally without power til today and a lot of people in our ward live there. And here on our street there was nothing----the only emergency we had in this apartment was getting up to the bathroom in time. It was cold and rained solid for 2 days but we had no ice, no trees falling, no power outage, yet just a street over there were branches down and ice on the road. We went out for a ride Friday afternoon and saw huge branches on power lines and the most fascinating thing was the stalagmites (are they the ones that come up from the ground??) on the ground where the trees had dripped but it was so cold it formed upside down icicles on the road!! The streams had over flowed onto the roads and some places were a mess. I guess we live right on the line of the storm and it happened to be the right side to be spared!!

It was amazing the good attitudes of the people in the ward and they way so many people opened their homes to everyone without power and water. One family invited everyone to bring their bathing suits and towel and swim in their basement. One person said they had no power but they had lots of white and dark chocolate and would barter for Twinkies. People were loaning out generators, freezers, food, clothing and just about anything you could think of. At the chapel there was a multi community church choir concert and afterwards the ward was open for anyone who needed to stay there overnight. Everyone except the people in Bolton are just about recovered now. But it was truly amazing that we had NOTHING!!! But I'm sure we'll have some stories to tell before the winter is over.

For those of you that know Michelle King (Steve is the mission pres of the Atlanta Mission). She sent us a Christmas card and said if we ever ran into a Karen Cooprider--they were roommates at BYU. Just happens that Pres.Cooprider is our stake president and in our ward. Karen was telling me they had some pretty great times back then. Someday I'm going to get her to tell me some of the better stories......

We continue to go to a different ward every Sunday and find at least a couple people that are job seekers but it's so painstakingly slow to get bishoprics and stake presidencies to call people that we can work with. They have so much to do that it's not high on the priority list and so we just keep contacting them and ask how things are going.......nag, nag, nag!!!

We are going to New York on Wednesday. We'll work in the employment center on Thursday; they're closed on Friday so we'll see the sites in Manhattan, see the Lion King Friday night and then go up to Poughkeepsie for the employment Christmas party Saturday. We'll probably volunteer to work at the hospital on Christmas Eve and Day so they other volunteers can have the time with their families. We're doing our orientation tomorrow. Dad has a red vest and I have kind of a salmon colored one and we have our badges too......we'll take a picture tomorrow.




I had to post these pictures. The homes around here are not too big on outdoor decorations. Candles in every window seems to be the decoration of choice and wreaths on every window also. And we don't see many colored lights---most are white. These two homes we saw Wednesday night up in New Hampshire. Not the best but you have to do it when the sun goes down in order to see the lights!!

For you sports people, we went to the Foxboro ward today and Gillette Stadium is in the town. What's so important about that stadium????!!!! It's the home of the New England Patriots!!! They creamed the Oakland Raiders today, by the way :-) It's a huge place and has a shopping center in there behind the movie theater!!!









We didn't have addresses for some so here's our Christmas card to all of you. We're happy to be here doing what we've been called to do. People just seem to enjoy having missionaries around. Our work is challenging but there is a great need. And we know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. Especially at this time of year, we're so very grateful for our families that support us, and our friends, neighbors and the new friends we've made here. We're especially thankful to be members of the the true church. Our best wishes for the holiday and the new year.....