Had a great week!

We began the week making our first ever gingerbread house - at FHE. It was fun. Our Branch was invited to the home of the stake YW president for this activity. She has two kids in our Branch. There were some very cool houses made and even a temple with an angel on top! Munch & Mingle lessons this week were on Simeon at the temple seeing baby Jesus, and the Wise Men. Gary taught and Brenda fixed the lunches. Two non-members attended on Tuesday and one on Thursday - along with the member students.

We attended a Christmas Conference with half of the mission on Wednesday. It was great. We were trained, felt the spirit in abundance, heard many testimonies from young Elders and Sisters, had a fabulous meal, and came home with gifts! President & Sister Collins' home ward filled a Christmas stocking for every missionary in the Indiana Mission! The Elders stockings all had a new tie sticking out of them. We also got new scripture totes to give to investigators so they could bring a Book of Mormon to church in them. President Collins trained on the Circle Chart - that wards use in conjunction with missionaries to keep the work moving. Another topic was a common problem missionaries face in wondering why they aren't having success when they are being obedient. From Preach My Gospel (chapater 10) we learned that measuring success isn't counting baptisms or number of investigators. It is measured by your committment. He and Sister Collins also shared Christmas messages. We met our friend's neice at the conference. The missionary cars are silver now instead of red! Ever see an upside down Christmas Tree on display? now you have!

This was finals week so instead of a lesson we had game night for Institute (a tradition here). We finally got to play some group games that we were in charge of! We first passed out an Ensign to everyone and had them find a line or two that meant something to them and share it with the group. That was a fun way to get in lots of good messages with everyone participating. We played the "name game". It took a long time with 25 people! Then we played "fish bowl" - 3 rounds (Taboo, Password, and Charades) with the same words. We had 3 teams so it took a while but they enjoyed it. After refreshments (they LOVE nachos!) some played ping pong, others Dominion, and most played "What Were You Thinking" with us. Friday night was an open-house party at the Jacobson's for everyone that helped with the Nativity Event. Good food.

On Saturday morning we were bell ringers for the Salvation Army at a nice local grocery store. We had stopped by the Salvation Army on our morning walk Friday to volunteer - thinking maybe they could use us in their food pantry. They asked us to ring - and we said yes! Our Elders and two other kids in the Branch came to carol for the second hour of our shift. We actually collected quite a bit. It was fun - greeting everyone that came and just being friendly. Most would put a dollar in the red bucket. (I didn't notice the No Soliciting sign on the wall until now! lol). We began our work projects in the Institute - sawing on a problem door and repairing and mudding the stairway walls. We attended the production of A Christmas Carol on campus that evening. It was very well done. Good story of redemption and love. Sunday we took one of our students with us and went to Marion where we all spoke in Sacrament Meeting. Our church meetings in the Branch were excellent. We were invited to a friend's home, Nan Noble's, for a lovely salmon dinner and visiting that evening. Nice way to end a good week. Christmas is only a week away! We are looking forward to it and wish you all a Very Merry Christmas.