December 21 2015

So this Christmas is going to be interesting. Today (monday) Elder Page and I and the 2 sisters who are also here in Jíhláva are going to a Christmas party hosted by our Branch at 5:00pm, which for me, is in about 50 minutes. I say that the Branch is hosting it, but the reality is that the Branch President called Elder Page and I last night when it was already dark and asked, "hey, will you talk to the sisters and plan the activities for our Branch Party? it is tomorrow at 5:00. Thanks BYE!" So what's REALY happeneing is Elder Page and the Sisters and I are hosting this "branch" Christmas Party. don't worry I'll get some Pictures. At this party we're going to be including some Czech traditions that we've been learning about during our English Presentations in the School here in Jíhláva. We last did a presentation about Christmas in the US, and compared it to Christmas her in the Czech Republic, and the kids have been telling us about some interesting traditions. We're going to be cutting apples in half, the wrong way, horrizontally, and when you cut an apple like this, it will either have a star shape for the core, or it will have a cross. If the Apple has a star, it is good luck and suggests success and luck in the year to come. If the Core is a Cross, it means that you will die in the upcoming year, so we're bringing apples for the little kids to learn their fates. The other thing we planned for this Party, is that we're going to be doing a nativity with all the kids. Elder Page grabbed a bunch of his ties that he doesn't really care about and we grabbed soem extra bed sheets from our appratment and such, and we'll use those to help the kids dress up and reenact the scenes in the Nativity. We'll make sure to get pictures so don't worry. Also, this is just being thrown together so deon't expect anything too grand. After the Party we'll (the Sisters and Elder Page and I) be going over to the home of one of the Sisters' investigators, and we'll be having dinner there. If the opportunity arrises, I'll try to get some pictures. Tomorrow, Tuesday, We're all (my entire Zone) going to Brno for a Training. I am really excited about this training because this is the training right before Christmas, and we're going to take some time during this training to go out and looks at some of the Czech Culture stuff going on in the bigger city Brno. The bigger cities will have the more elaborate celebrations so that's why we'll be getting to go see some of that before the actual Training starts. Once again, I'll get pitures... maybe even some with me in them. :) haha. Wednesday is the only normal day we have this week, we'll just be doing regular procelyting, unless our plans change which they ALWAYS do. Thursday is obviously Christmas Eve, by mission rules we have to be in our appartments by 5:30pm... this because the Only people who will be out alone walking the streets on Christmas Eve night will be people who are not celebrating christmas, and here in the Czech Republic, that's almost nobody, and so there will only be bad news out onthe streets if we go out and talk to the people there, they're all gonna be drunk. On christmas, we will be working our tails off, we'll be going to an Alzhiemer's center to sing to the patients there, we'll be singing in Czech, and we'll be there for an hour. After which, we'll all go get lunch as a district, and then we'll work out butts off until about 4:00pm when we start our Skype Calls! my call is at 5:00pm here, and Utah is 8 hours behind I think... so it should be about 9:00am in Utah when I skype home. I suggest that you get on the Computer about an hour before that though (family) and DAD, use your phone to check and make sure that you understand the time difference so that our call will actually happen. I don't think we'll be having a christmas dinner on Christmas, but Elder Page and I are going to have a dinner with the Sisters here in Jíhláva on Saturday "boxing day?". So that's the plan for this christmas. I know that you all will have a good christmas too.