Sister Clark is a great piano player and does a wonderful
job seeing that the missionaries do some rousing singing at training
meetings. She has enlisted Len to direct
a group of elders singing an arrangement of “Away in a Manger” for a zone
conference program just before Christmas.
Actually, two groups of elders since the program will be held twice –
for half the mission at a time. Kit will
accompany Len’s groups, so Sister Clark can practice with another group at the
same time. We are both singing in a
4-part choir version of ‘Silent Night’ for the same Christmas Zone conferences.
Rehearsal time is very limited. It’s fun
to have some musical involvement in the mission.
I decided to start telling you about some of the
missionaries we are getting to know. One
young sister began her mission during the November transfer, or about one month
ago. Her home was only a few hours from
Fresno, so several family members brought her to the mission office. The family was from the South Seas. Sister T was quite short and she looked very
young in her not totally westernized style of dress. She had beautiful long black hair with
shining braids pulled back to hold the rest in place. She had a warm, open look and smiled easily,
revealing one silver front tooth.
She was paired with a trainer, a willowy sister who was
surely a fully foot taller than her newbie.
We wondered if they would get along well. No worries; they seem to be going
gangbusters! We had occasion to visit
their apartment, which is temporarily being shared by four sisters until we can
secure another place for the new companionship who now serve half the
area. It is a pretty crowded situation,
and in a place where apartments are hard to find, but all four seem to be happy
as clams. When I last spoke to them,
they emphasized that I didn’t need to feel in a hurry about the second
apartment because they were enjoying being all together so much. The new sister has clearly had something to do
with her companionship requesting lots of materials in her native
language. She’s a champ: they have
connected with people who share her background and who want to hear what these
young women have to share.
Our place is decked!
A tiny tree I long ago gave my parents when they were done with bigger
ones, cross-stitched ornaments from each of our children to their
grand-parents, and small manger scenes from family members. Voila: Happy
Holidays!
Love from Len and Kit
