HAPPY NEW YEAR! Well, tomorrow will be the new year but I won't be there to say it tonight so I'm saying it now! :)
Cheyenne's baptism is this Saturday and we're really excited and she's really excited as well. It should be a good experience for her and I think she really is ready to be baptized. I'll be giving the talk on the Holy Ghost and it just reminds me of the time I gave the talk at Emily's (Jodi's daughter) baptism. It won't be as good this time because I don't have all the stuff to do it and Cheyenne is 23 and not 8. :) But hopefully it will still be good.
We don't feel like James is progressing anymore. He doesn't seem to be working super hard on quitting smoking. He tells us he is cutting down but the member that he lives with says that she thinks he is smoking more because she can smell it a lot more now. So we're kind of bummed about that but we'll continue to work with him and see what happens.
On Christmas Eve we met with Brother Ash and he expressed to us how he didn't want to be alone again for Christmas and if there was anything we could do or anyone that we knew he could spend it with. So we did some magic and called up the Gibson's. They were more than willing to have him come over so he spent both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the Gibson's and us because we were with the Gibson's for both of those days too! :) It was so great to see the Gibson's fellow shipping him and they even got him presents! Bro. Ash was so happy and you could tell that it was probably the best Christmas he's had in a long while!
It was so great getting to Skype you on Christmas! We were pretty lucky! Our last mission president didn't allow skyping but our current one does, as I probably mentioned when we talked, but yeah, it was exciting! We also got to watch G-rated Disney movies on Christmas Eve and Day as I told you so we went and saw Monsters Inc in the theater and we watched Cars 2 and it was both Sister Reeves' and my first time watching it. I loved it!!! I might even like it better than the first one. But anyway. Taylor and Keira have both changed so much and they will continue to change over the next while before I come home! It's like I'll be coming home to new siblings!! It will be weird to get used to!
Last Wednesday we got to go to Tulsa for a special Christmas Conference. I thought it was really fun and I had a great time! For the first half they split us into groups and we went around to different rooms and played human futsol, watched 'The Phone Call', had a contest of who could make the best paper airplane(they were in the shape of a straw and you had to blow it off of the straw), and played some minute to win it games. The second half was full of instruction from President and Sister Shumway. I just love them. They're so great and I'm really grateful that they've been called out here to the OTM on their missions. They are the funniest couple ever and it is hilarious to watch them and listen to them sometimes.
On Saturday, we had the privilege of being a part of a "Mini-MTC" for the Joplin Stake. They invited all the YSA and Youth ages 16 and up and had an all day training center for missionaries. Sister Reeves and I got to teach Chapter 10 from Preach My Gospel - Teaching Skills. It was pretty fun. We started it off with having some Elders do a "role play" and be bad missionaries. It was so funny. They did a really good job of doing the opposite of what a missionary should do - they didn't have a well prepared lesson, one of them pulled the phone out and start texting, they got off subject, etc. Basically opposite of what Chapter 10 teaches. What is even more funny is that some of the people thought they were being serious and one of them even said, "I can be a missionary right now!" It was pretty funny. So yeah. The Mini-MTC opened with about an hour of a guy who organized it talking and a recently returned missionary talked and shared a really cool story from his mission. Then there were 2 one hour classes. Then a 'missionary lunch' including PB&J and cold cereal. Which is NOT what Sister Reeves and I eat. We eat the leftovers we get from members that our fridge is full of!!! Then an hour of some missionary games, two more classes and then a closing session that was open to everyone to bear testimony. I thought it was pretty cool and that all stakes should start doing this because it really will help them prepare for a mission and get that in the front of their minds. It was a great experience.
Well, I think that is all for now. I love you!!!!
See you soon then.
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