Kate's New Year Letter

Sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas-- I'm excited to try out those new songs on the player piano-- especially the swing ones!

I'm so glad you were able to call, even though we lost our phone-- either if fell out of my pocket or was stolen--- and I got to talk to William, Reid, and Owen! That was a Christmas miracle for me. We asked the Thuesons to email you on Thursday when we found out that our phone was gone, but I guess the email didn't go through until yesterday. I'm so glad Sister Engbjerg let me use her phone to call you.

I had a wonderful Christmas too-- we baked cookies and went around with the other missionaries visiting all the people we knew would be alone on Christmas and sang carols for them. The Neto's invited Sister Hulme and I over for Christmas Eve (Susan didn't end up coming though) and that was great-- they are amazing. They shared a spiritual thought with us and we had barszcz czerwony (beet soup with dumplings in it) and these little meat rolls with chicken, ham, and cheese (almost like chicken cordon bleu). Before we left they gave us a box of really nice chocloates, a couple of which we gave to our security guard because we felt bad that he had to work on Christmas Eve. He was so excited to get a present that he wrapped his arms around both of us and gave us each a kiss on the head. It wasn't even awkward because it was just like a big grandpa hug-- and we totally made his night.

Then I stayed up most of the night finishing the scarf that I crocheted for Sister Hulme for Christmas-- she stayed up working on her Christmas present for me-- a cheesy book of inspirational quotes that she crossed out, wrote in, and drew hilarious pictures in for me-- it's pretty funny :) (Sister Hulme also gave me a cool I Love San Francisco shirt that I'm wearing right now) I stuffed our stockings full of chocolate and fell asleep in a chair in the living room. Then the elders came over at around 9:00 and we made Mama McRae's biscuits and gravy-- soo good-- and left to deliver cookies and visit more lonely people on Christmas day. The best part of the day was driving around in the office elders' huge transporter van singing the Dixie Chicks at the top of our lungs and realizing that it was Christmas-- even if we couldn't find the people we were trying to visit and even if they weren't home :)

Then we dropped off the rest of the Christmas presents for the North Warsaw district-- we got each companionship a little gift and card that said it was from a different companionship in their district-- for example, we got Sister Galbraith some chocolates and a poinsetta with a note that said it was from the zone leaders, we got the zone leaders a some cool boxer shorts and cookies with a note that said it was from the other sisters, we gave those sisters some eyeshadow and bright pink nailpolish "from" the Irelands, a senior couple, we gave the Irelands a some warm socks and gloves and some kiwi fruit from Elder Brown and Hinckley, and we gave Elder Brown and Hinckley a a couple of old ties from Sister Galbraith. Then we gave the office couple, the Thuesons, two mugs and some hot chocolate from the entire North Warsaw district. It was great when we picked them up later that day to go to President Engbjerg's-- they asked us if the North district was ours or the other district, we said it was the other district, and they said they had gotten such a nice gift from the missionaries in that district. We affirmed that those missionaries were really amazing people and that it was really nice of them to get them such a nice gift. Hee hee. Sister Galbraith was thrilled to get her chocolates and now the zone leaders and the sisters are just starting to figure out that the people who their gifts are supposedly don't have any idea what's going on either... I don't think they suspect us yet though. Beautiful.

To top it off, President Engbjerg invited our district over to the mission home on Christmas day. We got to meet his mother in law (who only speaks Danish) and his sons who came in from Denmark (they all speak perfect English). We had delicious Danish food, starting with a round of different kinds of fish, then a course of different kinds of meat (including bacon in applesauce) then crackers and with all sorts of gourmet cheeses, then fruit salad with pudding and chocolate in it for dessert. It was all so good, but I wanted to try all of it, so I could only take a little bit of each thing or else I would never make it through the whole meal.

You called right as we were leaving the mission home, and the phone ran out of batteries and died while we were in the car-- I'm so glad that Sister Engbjerg was able to call you and that you were able to call back! After I got off the phone with you I was so tired that I just rolled over and fell asleep in the middle of the living room floor. I finally got the energy to get up and crawl in bed, fully dressed, and I forgot to even set an alarm. The elders called at 8:20 the next morning and woke us up-- then we decided to just get all of our sleeping in over with so we could get back on schedule sooner-- and rolled over and went back to sleep. After that I felt much better.

Now that Christams is over, it's just one last sprint all the way to the end of March-- I'm ready to take it on!

Love,
Kate

Sister Hulme's inspirational quote of the day:
"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow; don't walk behind me, I may not lead; walk away."