Gettin’ in the zone…
The weather here in Utah is much different than that of California…it seems to snow a fairly good amount and then is just cold for several days after that. By the time most, if not all, the snow has melted, it snows again!
My district was asked to host new missionaries again this last week. There were a ton of missionaries who left the MTC last week so it was good that we received about 400-500 new ones on Wednesday. We also got a new district in our zone! However, that district consisted of only two new Elders. They both are from China (and their parents/families are in China), but one has lived in California with another family for a while, and the other has been studying at a university in England for a while now (he speaks with a British accent when he talks to us in English!). They both speak English fairly well. It’s really helpful to have them here since they help us practice speaking Chinese plus they tell us how they decided to become Church members. Because they’re from China, they had no prior religious experience before hearing about the gospel, so they’re able to teach us a lot about how the missionaries taught them.
The sister in our district who hasn’t been feeling well had to go to the hospital on Thursday to run additional tests. They determined that she has a gallbladder that is “fractured” approximately 97% and is leaking acidic bile (normally the bile would be transferred to your stomach) into her abdomen. The MTC/BYU doctors refuse to operate because it is too stressful on a missionary. She had to immediately leave the MTC the following morning (Friday) to return home and to a different hospital. The good news, though, is that the doctors said that she would most likely be able to return to the MTC and continue where she left off within a month if all goes well. The above feature picture is one we took right before she left…it’s our entire zone/branch (minus three sisters since they came later and we only took a picture with one camera when they got there).
We were able to watch Music and the Spoken Word live from Salt Lake Sunday morning. It was great to hear some Christmas music…we all really enjoyed watching it! I also took a picture with our Branch President.
Feeling “Presidential”
The Provo temple will be closed December 21 through January 4 for cleaning…our district got lucky and was chosen to help clean. We’ll be over there cleaning the temple for three hours next Monday on our P-Day.
Looks like it may snow here on Christmas…if not, there will still be snow on the ground I’m sure! We still don’t know which General Authority will be here on Christmas yet…it’s going to be a surprise. Anyway, Merry Christmas to everyone!
Elder Simonson