Merry Christmas

Dear Friends and Family,

MERRY CHRISTMAS! We hope this letter finds you well in all of this stormy, cold weather.  Like most of the country, we have been hit with extreme low temperatures.  We have had cold and wind which has translated to temperatures as low as -22 degrees with wind chill.  We have had a little more snow, but mostly cold.  They cancelled church today because of the cold.  I didn't think is was that bad today, but they wanted to err on the side of caution and we think most of the members wanted to stay home and stay warm on this Christmas day. 

We had a wonderful Tri-Zone Conference on Tuesday in a chapel in a small town called Sissonville near our mission home in Charleston.  It was almost a 3 1/2 drive for us.  Most of our zone conferences are for teaching and training the missionaries.  This was more of a Christmas party.  We even got to wear our ugly Christmas sweaters.  In most zone meetings we have break-out sessions for training in different topics.  At this one they went to the different break-out sessions to do fun things.  They played charades with Christ's names, learned how to write Jesus' name in Hebrew, learned how to cook flat bread, had a Christmas story, played Stable Animal Plinko (I don't know what that was) and a photo booth where they could dress up as a wise man or shepherd and have a three kings or shepherd's field backdrop.  We manned the photo booth.  We had a really nice devotional and a good lunch.  As always, it was fun to be with the young missionaries and feel of their spirits and enthusiasm. It was also fun to be with the other senior missionaries and compare experiences and have a nice visit.

On Wednesday we had a nice visit with a couple of branch members that have  been here a long time..  We visited two different homes and it took us five hours.  We learned a lot more about the branch and some of the struggles they have had and continue to have.  It's really hard when there are so few active members that have to do everything.  These are really good people. We learned some of what we can do to help, and it is mostly just being here.

We were able to get back to the hospital for our volunteer work on Thursday.  It was pretty quiet and less stressful.  We continue to enjoy that service.

On Friday we were told to stay in our apartments because of the weather.  Friday is our  usual time for District Council meeting.  We were able to have our meeting in spite of the weather with the help of zoom.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to celebrate the birthday of one of the elders.  We had baked a cake and had ice cream and you can't enjoy cake and ice cream over zoom.  We put the cake in the freezer and will try again next week. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

We were supposed to go to a Catholic Christmas Mass with our new friend Judith on Saturday but the weather didn't cooperate again.  So we stayed home and watched Christmas movies and ate good food.  Not a bad way to spend Christmas Eve.

Today out Sacrament meeting was cancelled because of the cold. so we watched some Christmas devotionals, listened to the Tabernacle Choir, and read the Nativity story from Luke and the story of the signs of the birth in 3Nephi and a prophecy of Christ's birth in Isaiah.  It was a good Christmas morning.  This afternoon we went to the Flannagan's home for Christmas dinner and a nice visit.  We were able to visit with all of our kids and most of the grandkids.  It was a different kind of Christmas, but a really a good Christmas.

I would like to share the story of the signs that were proclaimed by Samuel concerning the birth of Christ being fulfilled. 3Nephi 1:15,19,21 - "And it came to pass that the words which came unto Nephi were fulfilled, according as they had been spoken; For behold, at the going down of the sun there was no darkness; and the people began to be astonished because there was no darkness when the night came.  And it came to pass that there was no darkness in all that night, but it was as light as though it was mid-day.  And it came to pass that the sun did rise in the morning again, according to it's proper order; and they knew that it was the day that the Lord should be born, because of the signs which had been given.  And it came to pass also that a new star did appear, according to the word. "

We hope you had a very merry Christmas.  We hope you are all doing well.  We love you and pray for you daily.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandad

Jamee and Kerry

Sister and Elder Cooper