Week 24 and 25: December 9th to December 19, 2013

Hello again.

Before we begin our update we would like to wish each of you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a fantastic NEW YEAR!  We love and appreciate each of you so much for all of your love and prayers for all the missionaries.   We don't get any extra days off for Christmas but we find ourselves surrounded by Christmasy things.  Our little downtown has pretty street lights and Old Nauvoo is decorated so cute with wreaths, pine cones and berries and all those old fashioned things.

Tree in Heber C. Kimball home

Heber C. Kimball home

Heber C Kimball home

Now the most exciting news is that our oldest grandchild and granddaughter, Brenna, got her mission call today.  She is going to the Richmond, Virginia Mission on April 23.  We are so excited for her and so happy that she can go to invite others to come unto Christ.  She really wants to go on this mission to tell others about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are so proud of the good work  she does and has always done.  We know she will love the time she spends serving a mission and helping other people in their lives.

People are making fudge, caramels and toffee and all kinds of fun little "neighbor gifts" show up in our mail boxes every day.  We have been involved in Humanitarian projects for the needy and those in the care centers.  I made two lap quilts that turned out cute-I hope they end up with an older man, maybe in an assisted living center. 

On Dec. 10th we traveled to Iowa City to visit sister Mendenhall, the lady who got burned.  She was
in a lot of pain and wasn't very coherent, but she has since had a skin graft and is making better progress.  She even thought she might get to go home for Christmas but this week it seems it will be after Christmas now.  She is in much better spirits  and her husband is holding up well. 

My cookie baking assignment makes the Christmas Spirit shine through.  The gingerbread cookies are for the guests when they visit the Scovil Bakery in Nauvoo but the Christmasy smell of the ginger fits right in with the season.  I have felt a little jinked the last couple of day however.  Yesterday we had baked half of the cookies when I discovered that the fridge was not on and the contents of the fridge were warm.  I thought the dough was sticky because we had used less flour in our last batch to experiment with the moistness.  No! the dough was just warm.  We had to throw out all the cookies we had baked plus the other half of the dough plus 16 dozen eggs that were in the fridge.  The ingredients  were  probably alright but when you are serving things to the public you don't take a chance.  I have to go in this afternoon and make cookie dough so our process will go on.  Oh, yes, the power strip that the fridge was plugged into had been tripped for some reason (maybe a power surge or outage).  

Gingerbread cookies

making cookies

Yesterday I wrote this blog and on the last paragraph I lost the whole document even though I had saved it several times.  Only I could make that happen.  But David is patient with me because he knows how frustrated I get with computer things.  And to top it off, I started this blog today and as I typed the Christmas Tree fell over.  I had just wrapped all the presents and arranged them and had the lights twinkling  when it fell.  It was looking so pretty.  I hope my spell of bad luck is over now.

We went to the Messiah last weekend.  It was at the Saints Peter and  Paul's Cathedral.  Quite a few missionaries sang and played in the orchestra.  It was very well done and such a Spiritual thing to do during the Christmas season. 

Where the Messiah was held-  St Peter and Paul Church

For the last two weeks David and I have taught the Gospel Doctrine class in Sunday School.  We did  team teaching and enjoyed the assignment.  We all take turns here in teaching all the lessons.  We taught the Family Proclamation and Zion- the Pure in Heart.  The same lessons  you all enjoyed on those weeks.  Thanks to Rob and Braeden and Cayden who made it possible for us to use a very effective power point with slides and video clips.  Thanks you guys!!!!! 

Sunday night our Mission President hosted a Family Home Evening with popcorn and the movie-Mr. Kruger's Christmas.  Then they reenacted the stories and live nativity scene and music that they did the night of the Christmas Walk, since most of us were busy helping and did not get to enjoy the activities. 

David and I have been assigned to be assistant site leaders at the Gun Shop and me at the Heber C. Kimball Home.  That means extra duties for the cleaning, maintenance, and study about the history of those sites.

This week we went to Quincy to shop and finish up our Christmas shopping.  We met another couple at the Pier for lunch and had an enjoyable time.  This restaurant overlooks the Mississippi River and has a beautiful view.  It was all snow covered and we saw an eagle flying overhead.  The eagles have migrated to this area around the river and starting in January many more will be moving in.  The river is mostly frozen over now and it is very pretty. 

icy Mississippi River

Susan Easten Black Durrant and George Durrant give Church History lectures 2 times a week.  She is amazing with her knowledge of Church history.  We go to a lot of them and enjoy them.  They are fun to listen to and she knows so much about this area we really like to attend the lectures.    I have finished all my Christmas projects now and put away my sewing machine today.  I really had fun sewing the  doll wedding dresses.  The other day I was with a fun sister who took these cute pictures  as I was finishing the hand work.  I made these dresses out of my wedding dress. 

a doll dress

 

Thanks to our home ward( Rigby 3rd) for the cards, gifts and especially the personalized copy of the Book Of Mormon from Alexis Codere.  It contained a special message and we will make sure we give it to one of our guests.  Thanks to all of you for the cards, gifts, e-mails and prayers.  We really appreciate everyone.  We hope  you have a very enjoyable Christmas and Happy New Year.  Annette and Christian will arrive here Sunday to spend the Holiday with us and we are so excited.  We got the tree tied up and it's looking good again.

Elder Pincock out in the snow

snowman in our neighbors yard

our yard

from the Riser Boot Shop

We brought our older van to the mission field and are proud to say that it now has over 290,000 miles.  Hope it lasts another 12 years!

 

We love you all.   Merry Christmas!
Elder and Sister Pincock