Christmas 2013

Elder Call emailed on Christmas Eve to let us know he would be skyping around 2pm Christmas. Despite the raging sickness that had attacked our family, we were determined to be sitting up and ready for his call! It came in about 2:20pm and boy were we all excited! At first he could see us, but we couldn't see him. So he tried hanging up and calling us back. We all shouted for joy when we saw him! He looked SO happy, like he was shining and radiating love and the spirit. It was so awesome!

Right when we saw him I had the immediate thought to take his picture. So thankful that I did, because right after taking it, we lost him! We could still hear him, but couldn't see him! He could still see and hear us. He suggested that we say a prayer, which he did. It was amazing to hear him pray! It's been 7 months since I've heard him pray with us as a family and that was pure joy. He hung up and tried calling back one last time. We still couldn't see him, but I felt so grateful that we could hear him and he could still see & hear us.

It was such a WONDERFUL visit! He had stories to share, laughter, advice, love, and such a sweet spirit to share with each of us. We had thought about the questions we wanted to ask before he called and Lex wrote them all on two sheets of paper. Then we hung them up by the tv so we wouldn't forget what we wanted to ask! It worked out perfect!

 We didn't ask them in any particular order...here are his answers:

He's doing great. It's hard work and it's challenging him, but he has such a great attitude.

For Christmas Eve they went to a families house for dinner. Then they had to be in their own apartment by six, so they (he and Elder Haskell) played chess! Lots of fun!

The weirdest food he had was cow hoof. Ewwwww.

He's gained 15 pounds, but you can't tell!!
He lives with Elder Haskell in the basement of a members house. They share a room, two single beds, and have their own dining room, kitchen, and bathroom.

He loves teaching everyone and serving in any way he can.

Least favorite food was cow hoof.

Most favorite food is perogie (like a ravioli with potatoes)

No dog encounters :)

Coldest temp was -50 with the windchill. Brrrrrrrrrrr!

Elder Haskell is great!

Typical pday includes: starting their laundry and then doing their personal and companion scripture study. Then they head out to the Family History Center or Library to email home (yay!)

Then they do their grocery shopping in Lethbridge (next town over that actually has a store!)

and they just leave their groceries in their car while they play basketball or other outings with his companion and other elders in his district. (they can leave their food in the car, because it is so cold!!)

Yes, he does his own laundry!

 He loves serving in any way he can! Shoveling snow happens a lot!

Grocery shopping in Lethbridge (he's in Coaldale)

Yes, he can do a lay up :) And he can dunk it :)

This district doesn't play basketball as much as his last area, so yes, he plays every week, but not as much as he would like to!

No funny pranks either way.

His ward fills the chapel and a few rows of the overflow. The ward boundaries are pretty big.

We all sang Popcorn Popping with Ellie so Elder Call could see how cute she does all of the hand actions. It is simple adorable!

And we thanked him a ton for the gifts he sent us for Christmas! He sent us Canadian chocolate bars (mmmmmmmm!), a Canada magnet, his missionary name tag (LOVE!), a sweet stick man flip book that he drew, and a great "Christmas Memory Time Line" (It was on a post it note pad and each page had a time of day from Christmas Eve to Christmas and listed what we are traditionally doing at that time - I loved it so much that I hole punched a hole, added a Christmas ribbon and made it into an ornament!)

We are so blessed that we were able to talk to him! At the end he read us a poem that he wrote about his family. Yes, we were all in tears as he read it (so was he). It was a tender moment and it was tough to say good bye. I'm certain it was a little tough for him and my mother heart ached because of it. We love him so very much. We are so proud of him. I pray that he always knows that we have his back always and that we support him 110%!! He is amazing beyond belief. He is changing our lives and we are growing even closer together as a family. We are blessed beyond measure!

Alexa made this cute poster that he could see while we were on skype. It was perfect.

(did I mention that me and grace were both pretty sick that day, and that grace actually threw up while he was on skype? She did make it to the bathroom. Boo for the flu on Christmas!!)

A couple days later we took the poster down and we all signed it, wrote letters to Elder Call on it, shared our favorite scriptures, quotes, jokes, Erin & Lex decided to draw just about every Canadian bird possible to make it into a bird watching poster (haha). It was sooooooooooo full of love! We sent it in the mail and told him to hang it up by his bed!!

It was overflowing with love!

We loved our visit with Elder Call, it was the BEST Christmas gift ever!

Merry Christmas Elder Call....Mother's Day is just around the corner ;)

xoxoxoxooxoxox
PS In case you were wondering, he did not have a white Christmas in Canada this year!
A Chinook blew in and melted all the snow!
(google Chinook Canadian winds: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_wind)