6 transfers and 9 months. STAYING IN THE "BURY"!!!

Here are a couple pictures from home of the Christmas Skype with my 2 Elders Boone :)

For the first time in a long time, I had all of our family at our dinner table!!!

Hello everybody!

Well, these past two weeks have been CRAZY!! I'll have to fill you in on everything, which is lots. So brace yourselves!!

December 19th: Mission Christmas party. We started by going to the Temple and doing an Endowment session. In a word, it was incredible! We got to see other Missionaries and all discuss what we learned while we were in the Celestial Room. After that, we went to the adjacent Belmont Chapel and had a musical devotional of sorts, during which we sang "Away in a Manger," and a few lines from the 2nd and 3rd verses struck me as they never have before: "I love thee, Lord Jesus; look down from the sky and stay by my cradle till morning is nigh. Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask thee to stay close by me forever, and love me, I pray." In that moment, I was overwhelmed with a sense of love and peace that I simply cannot describe. I echo the testimony of the Apostle Paul, who stated, "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39). Even our current Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, declared (and was quoted by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland in our most recent General Conference), "That love never changes... It is there for you when you are sad or happy, discouraged or hopeful. God's love is there for you whether or not you feel you deserve [it.] It is simply always there." I wasn't feeling unloved or anything like that, but I walked away with an undeniable assurance that God loves me and each of our investigators. After this spiritual day, we had some time for "all-out frivolity," as President Packard said.

We adjourned to the gym, and we had a blast: dinner, skits by each Zone, and lots of socializing with other Missionaries. While we were enjoying ourselves (and I was decked out in a red Santa sweater), something like 8 inches of snow had fallen outside. We were all stuck in Boston for the night, so we stayed at the Mission Home in Needham. The drive from the Temple to the Mission Home is something like 7 minutes with no snow, but we took 45 minutes to get there. The snow and traffic were NUTS!!! We threw snowballs at each others' cars, did Chinese fire drills, and even switched cars with other Elders on our way. We had an absolute ball :) When all was said and done, we fit something like 28 Elders into the basement and front room of the Packards home. We had a lot of fun and drove home without further incident the next day.

The past two weeks have been really exciting for our ward. Brother Castro, the excommunicated father of a recent convert family, got re-baptized by his son, Miguel. After Miguel baptized his father, Brother Castro and Miguel gave each other a HUGE hug (as would be expected.) What happened after that, though, was incredible. They grabbed the back of each others' heads and looked into each others' eyes, locked in the instant that they would share forever. I was able to stand in on the Confirmation circle, as well. We are all excited to have Brother Castro as an official member of the ward :)

I also had the opportunity to Confirm Mike Schriver on the 22nd, which was awesome! He and his family are just a great bunch of people :)

Elder Boone, Matt Manger, and Elder Pulsipher

This past Sunday, Matt Manger was baptized as well. He is mildly autistic, and was adopted by a member family about a year ago. They didn't want to force anything on him that he wouldn't like, but he has decided that he wants to pass the Sacrament and be sealed to his new family, so we have been helping him prepare for his big day for a little over a month. He will get Confirmed on Sunday, and we can't wait to see him progress in the Gospel. 

Which leads me to my next "big thing."  I'm staying in Waterbury! This will be 6 transfers (9 months) in one area. 

I'm excited to be staying in this ward, with Elder Pulsipher right now. There have been several members who are excited that I'm staying (which I'm flattered by), including Sister Longo. She is from Brazil, and she has a son on a Mission right now. She invited all 4 Elders in the ward over for dinner on the 26th, and right there, in front of the other Elders, she shook my hand and said, "How is my favorite Missionary doing?" I got quite the kick out of that :) haha

Elder Pulsipher and I were commended by Brother Pettway, the 1st Counselor in the Elder's Quorum this past week as well. We visited his family to follow up on some of their Missionary efforts, and after our message, he thanked us profusely. He said something to the effect of, "We have a great set of Elders in this ward. You two, as a companionship, are powerful! Every time you come into my home, I know you're on the Lord's errand, and I thank you for blessing my family." *JAW DROPS* With such heavy commendations come high expectations, and we are excited to tackle those expectations. We are still together in this area for a reason, and I think that reason is the 8 baptismal dates we should have by the end of the week. We have work to do, and the continuity we've got will be a huge bonus to have as the work heats up here in The 'Bury.

We also got a new car yesterday :) 2014 Subaru Legacy. This thing is SO MUCH BIGGER than the Corolla we were driving before, and it definitely handles better. We have Bluetooth, paddle shifters, and a bunch of other fun toys to play with now :) haha

Love all of y'all, and I'll talk to ya next year! (I always fall for those stupid jokes...)

-Eldah Boone