Weekly Update

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, nothing too interesting or important this week.  As I have mentioned before, we go to a branch empty nester Family Home Evening each Monday.  We really look forward to them.  This week was our turn to take dessert.  Since it is the holidays, I decided to take my (in)famous cinnamon rolls. I didn't think it was my best effort, for example I forgot to put salt into the dough mixture and had to improvise, but they loved them.  Bro. Flannagan, whose house is our meeting place, said they were phenomenal, maybe the best he has ever had.  It always makes me feel good when people appreciate my hard work. 

On Wednesday we prepared dinner for the Flannagan's.  They are such a good couple and are very generous to the missionaries. They are the couple that invited us to Thanksgiving dinner and have had us over for dinner two or three times.  He has some health issues and it is hard for him to cook meals and she works all day and then comes home to cook dinner for us.  So we decided to cook dinner for them and take the food to their home.  We invited the young elders to come and we had a real nice time together.  Bro. Flannagan asked us to come over to give him some council on some drama going on with a member of the branch that comes to the Family Home Evenings.  He said he felt like I could give him the council he would have received from his dad if he were still around.  I gave him a few suggestions that he followed and it pretty much diffused the problem.  It was a hard thing for him to do, but the right thing to do. I guess those are some of the things we were called to help with.

Another interesting thing, the young elders have moved out and went to another area in our district.  They made a trio (three elders) and they are responsible for two wards and our branch.  Our Elder Hooper from Rigby that was here in Oakland when we got here and then transferred to another area is in the trio of elders.  They will try to get up to Oakland about once a week which will be really nice.

Thursday we had our first taste of ice storms.  They warned us for a few days that the storm was coming and to exercise caution and stay off the roads if possible.  It was interesting that we got a mix of sleet and ice, a little town just a few miles south of us had only ice and another one had just rain and others nearby didn't have anything.  We had to scrape about 1/8 in of ice off our car to get in.  Our supervisor at the hospital told us to stay home, so we did.  We had to travel to our District Council meeting the next day, but the roads were just wet. We had about four inches of snow today and we are supposed to have more snow and get really cold as we approach Christmas.

We are headed to a Tri-Zone conference on Tuesday.  It is near to our mission headquarters in Charleston, about a 3 1/2 hour drive from here.  We are excited for this conference because it is basically a mission Christmas party.  We even get to wear out ugly sweaters.  We will tell you more about that next week.

Mom's scripture of the week - Luke 2:10-12, "And the angel said unto them, Fear not; For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."  Amidst the hustle and bustle of the season, let us all remember the quiet, humble birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Have a very Merry Christmas.

We hope you are all doing well.  We love you and pray for you daily.

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandad

Jamee and Kerry

Sister and Elder Cooper