ELDER OLDROYD: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well Christmas was basically amazing this year! It was one of the most memorable unforgettable experiences! Christmas Eve night we surprised the Alliance Elders and had a little sleep over I guess you could say. There are reasons why we were able to have a sleep over, but I really don’t want to say haha. We were being obedient don’t think that we weren’t! Some members gave us a perfectly cut Christmas tree. Yes it was a real one haha. We have a 2014 Nissan Frontier so we have a little bed, we threw the tree in the back and we were on our way after we got done with a Christmas party the Wright’s invited us to. Prior to that party our Ward Mission Leader Brother Brew had us and the Sisters (Olson & Ebersole) over for dinner in West Virginia! Anyways, we get inside the Alliance Elders apartment (Houser & Ravsten) and put this Christmas tree up. Elder Shin had lights that he got last Christmas and we were decorating our Christmas tree. We were all so excited and were feeling the Christmas Spirit! We plugged in the lights to find out that only half of the one stand we have is working haha. So we had a leaning Christmas tree because we didn’t have a stand with a half strand of working Christmas lights. It was a missionary tree that’s for sure! But Elder Shin and I slept on the floor fairly close to each other, I woke up in the middle of the night to find Elder Shin really close to me. I guess he moved in his sleep and he was basically just about cuddling with me haha I shook him awake telling him to move over! It was funny. I woke Elder Shin up and told him that we should jump on the other Elders to ask if we could wake up and open presents and to wish them a Merry Christmas. You know, just how the little kiddos do it? That was us that night. I jumped on Houser and Shin jumped on Ravsten and they both got freaked out haha it was hilarious. Fun time! We woke up and we jumped in the car to surprise The Rootstown Elders (Barlocker & Greenland) of course we took our Christmas tree with us and all of our presents. Prior to this we told these Elders that we would have a 3 way phone call and open our presents over the phone with each other. We called them and I said okay are you ready to open some presents?? They said of course we are! I told them well first off you have to open our surprise gift we have for you, do you know where it is? They of course had no clue and then we knocked on their door for them to open it with us standing on the porch with our Christmas tree in hand haha. It was great. We then had a white Elephant tie exchange, opened up our presents (Which I thank everyone who sent me something, It truly does mean a lot to me! I wasn’t expecting so much!) After we opened them up we made Norwegian pancakes (Not sure if that’s how you spell it) and feasted. You might be wondering if they were good! Umm…. It tasted like missionary Norwegian pancakes, let’s put it that way haha. In a short answer, they weren’t that great. We then went to their church and played Christmas basketball. Then we went back to the Wright’s house for lunch and had Prime rib!! After that we booked it to the Clark’s and was able to Skype! Which was amazing to see how grown up everyone is. It was really neat! After that, we went over to some investigators house for Christmas dinner! There was about 25-30 nonmembers. Not one was a member… yet. She got us Christmas gifts and stockings packed full of stuff which we were not expecting. They are the sweetest people you will ever meet. They actually are moving to Florida on this upcoming Friday because he just retired from working in the coal mines for who knows how long. It was a really fun day and a great week. It was great to be a missionary and I can’t believe it was my second and last Christmas on my mission. It’s truly a sad thing but I made the best of it. Truly a non-forgettable Christmas. Thanks for being a part of it!

There really is much else to say, I wish I had more time to talk to you guys and sorry I wasn’t able to have more one on one time with each of you. Let’s plan for that on Mother’s Day. I would love to be able to talk to you guys one on one. Sound good? I loved being able to see you and it was truly a blessing to see how big you guys are getting! Oh! Elder Shin and I along with a member sang in church yesterday. We had a three part harmony going which was really neat. We sang “O come ye, O come ye Emmanuel” It sounded really nice! Have a great week guys! I will talk to you soon!

Love Elder Oldroyd