The Fun Continues With Abe's Family, Missionaries Put On a Talent Show

The day Sarah left, we had an office staff meeting in the morning at the mission office and then Glen was doing transfer planning all afternoon with the assistants.

We got together with Abe's family that evening for dinner at Coyote Grill in Carlsbad Village.

Friday was our mission talent show, lunch and devotional. We had gotten permission from Elder Cook to continue on with this tradition. This year we held it at the mission office church building in Vista. 

The assistants had reserved us seats on the front row. 

That turned out to be a very good idea as Newland and Wynne had a perfect view of everything that was happening.

The talent show started out with reindeer sister missionaries pulling a sleigh (two office chairs), upon which were our M.C.s for the talent show--Sister Robinson and Sister Harker.

They got up on the stage and rolled out their naughty/nice list which had a few ground rules on it for the audience to remember for the talent show.

Somehow they had rounded up a shepherd's crook to have on hand to pull off any performer who went overly long. They were a pretty comical duo with several costume changes along the way.

We were very pleased with the quality of the performances. It was all around good entertainment!!

Abe gave his smile of approval about all the great acts performed by the missionaries.

We all gave our M.C.s two thumbs up on their job of keeping the show moving along and giving us some laughs while at it.

We had When Pigs Fly cater our meal. They are always so happy to be a part of the missionaries' Christmas each year. We are always so happy they are always so willing to cook and serve for us.

It wasn't long before the M.C.s were coming our way with their plates of food. We have a standing joke with them that they will sit at our table whenever there is a meal. Generally speaking, the missionaries avoid sitting at our table, but not them.

These two sisters don't have that stigma at all and very eagerly join us and bring their happiness, good cheer and light (this time Christmas lights) with them.

After lunch we went into the chapel and had a spiritual devotional. Several of our missionaries did musical numbers and several came prepared to share their testimonies of Christ.

We showed the video Jacob made for his ward party about Grinch Jr. who came to realize what his father had told him: "Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

Jacob did a wonderful job inserting our missionaries' photos in the video to personalize it for our group.

We also showed the video the assistants had made of the missionaries with their converts and the missionaries reciting lines from "The Living Christ" with a little message from Glen and me to finish it off.

At the end of the devotional we spoke for a few minutes. We handed the missionaries a couple of little gifts from the mission presidency as they walked out of the chapel.

These are Glen's counselors in the mission presidency: President John Burgon and his wife Elaina and President Israel Marín and his wife Herlinda. Such good people!!

We stopped by the mission office on our way out to show Abe and Klarissa the transfer board. It is behind us.

Those wooden panels open up to reveal magnetic cards with all the missionaries in our mission so Glen can move them around as he changes companionships with each transfer (and oftentimes mid-transfer as well).

Benihana was the decision for dinner.

Good choice as it provided entertainment for the little ones while the food was being cooked at our table.

Next morning plans were made to go to the beach--after playing cards and dominoes, of course.

Abe had Newland take a picture of him in front of the house in Oceanside where the movie Top Gun was filmed.

We have our own version of Tom Cruise right here!

The kids enjoyed some play time on the playground and in the sand.

When Newland saw this beach ball, he jumped up on it and started doing yoga poses.

Wynne didn't want Newland to be the only one doing yoga poses on a cement beach ball. She just needed a little parental help with balancing as she was striking her pose.

Some big rocks further down the street called for some more yoga posing by both of them.

We ate at Jolly Roger restaurant in Oceanside Harbor. 

Later Abe's family decorated a gingerbread house. I am so happy they left it with us because I have really been enjoying looking at it and remembering the fun time they had working on it together.

Then it was popcorn time!!!

We invited Elder Hadfield and Elder Eddins over for Sunday Christmas Eve dinner. They work in a Young Single Adult ward and don't get as many dinner appointments as other missionaries who work in family wards. 

They gave us a message and a gift before they left. They had actually given us some gifts the night before when they did a ding dong doorbell ditch. When we opened the front door, we found a little battery-operated, lighted Christmas tree on the porch.

The assistants wanted Newland and Wynne to have a Christmas tree and provided the little table-top tree for their enjoyment. There were also bags of Hershey's kisses.

At the missionary lunch, there were Hershey's kisses on the tables. We ate all that were on our table and the little grandkids wanted more so I started walking around to all the tables with Newland and Wynne asking if the missionaries would share their chocolates. Now they had their own two bags full!

We were very touched by their thoughtfulness with the tree and the candy, but were even more touched when we saw and read the beautiful letters they had written to us. Such tender feelings of love shared about the time they have spent working closely with us as the assistants.

Elder Hadfield and Elder Eddins told us they had a re-gifting theme going on this year. The tree had been a gift from one of their mothers last year, but they hadn't been using it this year. They said they were re-gifting all the unapproved socks they had been getting and gave Abe a pair which Newland put on and was modeling for us.

Later in the evening when Klarissa was freezing and Newland had gotten hot, he took off the socks and re-gifted them to his mother so she could get warm.

Abe and Klarissa packed up their stuff, including the little Christmas tree, and headed out at bedtime to make their move to San Diego for the rest of their vacation where Klarissa's parents were going to be spending Christmas this year.

On Christmas morning we enjoyed a walk by the beach. 

This decorated-for-the-Christmas-season beach tree made for a great photo op.

We spent some of our day watching the electronics training videos on our missionary portal so we can learn more about how that works when our mission becomes a smartphone mission. We don't have iPads yet, so it is all new to us.

That evening we met Abe's family and the Jacksons at one of the few restaurants that was open on Christmas.

As if that hadn't been enough food, we went to a different place for dessert. Wynne took it very seriously as she was using two of the little plastic spoons to consume her gelato.

We had a great time hanging out with Abe's family.

The little ones had been sick when they arrived and then we learned Abe got sick right after Christmas and now Klarissa has been ill.

Feel better quickly everyone! The new year of 2018 has begun!! Let's make it a great one!!