God bless us, everyone!

" “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” We took to heart the repentant Ebeneezer Scrooge's words to honor Christmas this year in the midst of our mission where we are trying to have Christ's Spirit with us all the year through.  Christmas Eve fell on Sunday, thus we spent it at church with the Whitefield Bengaluru ward family. In the 3 months we've been here, we've made friends with people who have reached out to us in kindness, inviting us into their homes and lives.

 Sisters Jessy and Reji are 2 such friends, here bedecked in their royal purple saris. (Note the little Nativity scene on the side. The ward members made a little diorama and planted grass along the edges that grew all month long.)

Jessy invited her husband's cousins to church. She's so good to share the message of Christ's birth with her Hindu relatives.

We adopted the 3 Whitefield elders as another makeshift family for soup and bread on Christmas Eve and a rousing game of Play Nine. Having never had the opportunity to have sons of my own, it is a delight to have these young men in our home and in our life. 

The Malwitz Family is 1 of 4 American families and members of our ward too.  They add much strength and leadership to our ward family. They invited us and the Elders to their home for Christmas morning crepes. We contributed our traditional Christmas Morning Souffle, thanks to the Robinaughs who left some imported sausage in our freezer! Being with their 4 daughters brought back vivid memories of Christmases past with my own 4 daughters. We really enjoyed our time with them.

        Our adopted family for Christmas morn

       They bought us each Bengaluru T-shirts

                             That fit us to a T!

After breakfast, the elders had lunch and dinner appointments too, and were completely stuffed to the gills by the end of the day. They used our apartment as a place to stop, drop, and sleep in between meals. We didn't have to worry about feeding them, just letting them crash and moan about too much of a good thing.

                            It hoits, it hoits!

Thanks to the wonders of technology,  we face-timed our American families all weekend as well and had some sweet time with our posterity, especially Silas and Luke! Oh, we love those little guys!

                 Rachel, Cassy, Maddy, Silas

                  New books for Christmas! 

                             The Lake Family

                             Matching caps!

    Benj, Luke, (the little Chris-moose!) and Tom

Uncle Steve and Aunt Penny doing proxy grandparenting for us 

                         The Kunzler Family

On the first day after Christmas, Sister Jessy was eager to have us meet her husband who hasn't been coming to church. We ventured to her in-law's home that night and had a simple Family Home Evening with them, read scriptures, sang a hymn, and had the world's spiciest meal on record, beyond anything we've eaten before. Even Elder Kaithwas said it was hot for his taste buds! That's saying something!. My nose just ran and ran. Of course the one time I don't bring my purse with tissues.

    Missionaries, husbands, nephews, and such

                    We Three Cousins

Elder Dunlap had put in some seriously long hours every day prior to Christmas so we were both glad for the holiday break and for any reason we didn't have to report to our office jobs. But the downside of the time off is the backlog of work, and many problems, headaches, and crises that were there to meet us once we returned. All of the paid employees took the entire week off which which made things even harder for us. I am struggling to love this part of our mission. I make so many mistakes, any longer at it and I'll run the entire mission into the ground. They will be better off without me. But Elder Dunlap compensates for my ineptness and keeps it afloat with his hard work. Although we don't know what or where our next assignment will be, we are greatly relieved to learn we will not be supporting the mission remotely in Bangkok like the couple before us has been doing. Knowing that is a huge relief and burden lifted off of us. 

                            Back to the awfis

And now, we find ourselves on the upswing of another holiday weekend. Who should come to our emotional rescue but Mani & KT, our good friends! They are up from Coimbatore spending the New Year with us. We are so grateful for their friendship and welcome distraction from our day jobs. 

                                The BFFs! 

                    Mani, our breakfast chef

                        A fellow puzzler 

                           Lego my puzzle!

        Making caramel popcorn with jaggery

We've had an absolute blast with them. They said they needed a break too from their jobs so it's been a blessing for all of us. In addition to the fun, we've had some great talks, scripture study, family prayer, and church attendance with them. We really are compatible in our personalities and outlooks of life. Mani and Rob have some identical traits as do KT and I. Who knew we'd have to come to the other side of the world to find our best friends? It's been the best ending of an overall wonderful year. We have felt so very blessed to be serving a mission, first at Church Headquarters for 3 months and for the last 9 months in India. We will cherish these days for the rest of our lives, yea, even our office jobs in hindsight, if the mission survives us.

"And now my brethren, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of "Utah" that God would have granted unto us such great blessings? Yea, I know that I am nothing as to my strength I am weak, therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things." 

Alma 26: 1, 12