Christmas!

I spent my Christmas morning (about 1 am) sitting on the floor of another companionships house. After the caroling and HUGE dinner on Christmas Eve, we waited for a taxi because our house was super far away. A taxi never came because they were too busy driving all the drunks. A miracle happened and somehow a nonmember stopped by and gave us all rides, but this was already at about 2 in the morning on Christmas morning. While we were sitting, waiting for a taxi, I was talking with another American about how we spend Christmas. It definitely brought back some really good memories of all the lights off, except the Christmas tree, and how cozy it felt. Also about how you would make muffins after opening gifts, and it would smell the house up. There were a lot of other details that we talked about that I never realized before until I didn't have them on my Christmas day haha. It was good though! It made me really appreciate the tight family we have because on Christmas day (after lunch) we went to work. I saw a lot of people sitting on the sidewalks that have absolutely nothing (including a house) except the clothes on their back and a bottle of alcohol next to them. It was really sad... We seriously have it SOO well in the US where we live. I wish you could spend one day with me and see the things we see.

That Christmas package was AMAZING!!! I absolutely loved all of the gifts that went with the scriptures and a lot of them made me laugh!! Thank you soooooo much!!! The other missionaries that I'm living with were drooling over all the candy and snacks inside haha :)

FREAKING BRAND NEW HOUSE!!! So this past week we moved houses because the house we were in sucked hardcore haha. Long story short, the house is amazing because the house was just built and we're the first ones to live in it. The only problem is that when we started our washer for the clothes for the first time, it started to flood where the dirty water exits. It wasn't that big of a deal because it's outside, but we found the problem of why it was flooding. A dead lizard (about the length of your hand and fore-arm combined) was hanging out in the piping when we turned on the water. It drowned him out and we found him floating at the top of the pipe that went into the ground. We think there's another one in the piping that's stuck because we're still getting flooding, so yeah..... hahahaha. Fun stuff :) I'm sorry, I don't have any pictures right now, but I'll work on it!!

A challenge for you and dad... I highly encourage that you read and study "Teaching Chastity and Virtue" by Matthew O. Richardson (Oct. 2012 Liahona). I was studying this talk during my study time and all I could think of was Parker. We need him to know NOW that our bodies are sacred. I just don't want anything to happen to him. You and dad are AMAZING parents, but it's scary how early kids are doing things. I've seen kids (about 10 years old) with cigarettes, tattoos, a bottle of alcohol next to them, and who knows what other things they've done. It's weird... It's so weird...

We were FINALLY able to get a family of four to come to church with us and it was amazing!! I thought it went really well and they said they liked that, so I take that as a thumbs up :)

PS. Tell John Timms I said hi!

LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!

Elder Steed