Christkindlmarkt SLC, Temple, and Rest

Apparently, every year Sister Uchtdorf is involved in the Christkindlmarkt that is a German market place held at the This is the Place Heritage Park. We just missed seeing them on Wednesday night. It is four days of Christmas festivities from a Live Nativity, parades, and lots of adorable little shops. We attended on Wednesday night as they were having the Live Nativity that night. Unfortunately we didn't find the right spot and missed it; although we saw lots of the characters around the market place throughout the night. They had Roman soldiers, villagers, camels, angels, and wise men, along with Joseph, Mary, the Baby Jesus, and a donkey. I think we saw all the characters at some point in the evening. We had lots of fun wandering through all the quaint little shops.

On Monday we had another great Family Home Evening. We shared our favorite scripture or scripture story that was either about gratitude or was something we were grateful for. It was a very special experience to hear all the wonderful and touching stories that were shared. I love our FHE group. We have a lot of fun together. I have noticed lately that everyone is staying longer after our activity just visiting with one another. I love it!

On Tuesday we managed to get a last minute appointment at the Bountiful Temple to do an Endowment session. We have found it is easier to get last minute appointments rather than try and

schedule something further out when we don't know if we will have an event or not.

We did the same thing on Thursday night so we could do some more sealings. It worked great.

We didn't have any Events that we needed to attend this week other than last Sunday and this Sunday so we got some much needed rest. That is why we were able to go to the Temple twice and to visit the Christkindlmarkt.

We do have the second half of the First Presidency Christmas Devotional on Tuesday evening. We are doing a total of 55 languages between Sunday and Tuesday. Most are on Sunday. I am currently sitting in the COB near the cafeteria waiting for our Interpreters to show up for about 10 languages. They aren't due for another 30 minutes, but we have already had a few show up. We have 3 more SLC teams that are doing Tieline somewhere in the Salt Lake Valley. And we have about twenty or so more languages that are doing it live in their own country. On Tuesday morning there will be another 8 or 9 languages that will do post recordings in country and that evening we will have an additional 9 languages do post recordings here in the COB. I'm excited to be part of this broadcast.

Next week we have a few fun things going on. On Monday evening we will have our Mission Devotional with Elder Pace, the General Sunday School President. On Tuesday we will finish the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. On Wednesday Sister Linford and I are going to go see Chitty, Chitty, Bang Bang at the famous Hale Theater in the round. That should be a lot of fun. Both Elders decided they didn't want to go. Then on Thursday we have our annual Zone Christmas Dinner and Social on the 26th floor of the COB. I'm glad we don't have an event that would prevent us from going.

That about covers it for this week. Sorry it isn't as newsy as usual. I hope everyone is going to enjoy the First Presidency Christmas Devotional tonight.