Hi mom,
We have transfers this week. We will be staying the same in our area. The hermanas changed, and we now have a set of English Elders in our district. We lost the YSA Hermanas, but Elder Page is still our District Leader. It's going to be a fun transfer.
Not much happened this week, we caroled all week long and I got 9th in an ugly sweater contest (which surprised me because there were some really atrocious concoctions up there). It was one of the activities we had for the Christmas Eave devotional/party. I also made 150 cookies for District Meeting on Christmas Eave and three loaves of Banana Bread. It was really good and I improved on Grandma's cookie recipe by like 5000% (not that much, but it is really good. I'll make some for you all when I get home). obviously, we had some left over and so they came to the party with us.
Other then that, We didn't do much outside of a sleep over with Elder Page and Elder Flores on Christmas Eave and I learned how to pray in Tongan. (It's been a month long learning process, but I can now say four phrases in Tongan and do a whole prayer with out using any other language (yes "dear heavenly Father" and "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen" are two of them)). I hope I get my Tongan book back so i can try and learn more. It's really rather fun.
Other news. There isn't any. Just having fun and living good. Happy Christmas and a prosperous year
Love
Elder Mike Blanding
Called to serve my King
Elder Michael Blanding and his favorite friend
Elder Michael Blanding's winner sweater.
[He then sent an email that said "I almost got tased last night. Kind of wish I could say I did get tased" This was his reply]
We were doing a ko [knock out] caroling blitz in the Zone Leaders area. It was our last time together as a District (we knew this because we'd just gotten our transfer calls the night before), any way. It was dark, so people were pulling out flashlights to see their hymnals. We were talking and Hermana Bedell mentioned that her flashlight is also a taser. It's her sense of humor (and actually all of the hermanas and most of the elders in our district's sense of humor) to say that and then start pretending that it's a taser. anyway, I thought she was joking and wanted to play along, so I pretended that it was a taser. Next thing I know, her companion (Hermana Figueroa) has the flashlight and hits a button on the side and "CRACK CRACK CRACK ZAP" Yep, it's a real live taser. I already said that I wanted to be "Tased" so I couldn't back down. Hermana Figueroa started moving the taser closer and closer while hitting the zap button and I think would have tased me if Hermana Bedell hadn't pulled her back before it could touch me, but I don't know. Fun times as a district. Love you. (half wish it had actually happened. Probably my last chance to be tased by a friend, i think)