Christmas Eve with the Missionaries

We enjoyed a fun evening with the Ebeye Missionaries on Christmas Eve.  Since we would all be celebrating Christmas Day at the church we fixed a yummy dinner for them the night before at our apartment .  We started out the evening with a devotional and we all shared some thoughts on the Savior and his birth.  How grateful we all are for all he did for us.  We decided that the best present we could give back to Him was to serve him and to be the best missionaries we can be. We then played a short game of charades (very comical!), followed by a white elephant tie and earring exchange.  There were some lovely ties exchanged!  The sisters (all 3 of us) exchanged earrings, but Sister Whitney ended up choosing a tie.  So, Elder Becker, being quick on his feet, chose some  earrings (after losing his tie to another Elder) and gave them to me on Christmas morning. Lovely! He always thinks he can get away with presents like that!  Ha, ha, doesn't work! For dinner we had a baked potatoes with ham, broccoli, cheese, chili, fruit salad, cole slaw, and rolls.  For dessert we gorged ourselves on cookies and ice cream.  We ended the night with a game of  Ticket To Ride (only 5 can play), and the rest of us watched the movie "The Polar Express". I always love that movie.  We have a wonderful group of missionaries here on this little island, and it was fun hanging out with them. They are a hard working group of young men and women, and they deserved to have a night of fun and relaxation.


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Eating Christmas Eve dinner



Visiting and eating

Elders Benevides, Walden and Watkins after devouring the food.

Sister Mahit and Sister Whitney relaxing

Wilson and Golea checking out the latest Church News



Hanging out and having fun!

White Elephant tie and earring exchange








Yum, ice cream and cookies!



Elder Becker teaching the Elders how to play his favorite game, Ticket to Ride




The game is on with Prisbrey, Watkins, Walden, Benevides, Wilson

Dessert time!



Watching "The Polar Express" with Mahit, Whitney, Robert and Golea

Thanksgiving on Ebeye

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM THE EBEYE DISTRICT MISSIONARIES!

Marshall Islands Majuro Mission

Back: Wilson, Prisbrey, Ben (Benevidez), Jolley, Watkins
Front: Robert, Golea, Whitney, Mahit

With love, from Elder and Sister Becker!

 

 

Our amazing Missionaries of Ebeye enjoying Thanksgiving Day at our apartment.

Sister Whitney, Sister Mahit, Elder Golea

typical scene - shoes at the door

Elder Prisbrey (District Leader), Elder Wilson, Elder Robert (local missionary)

Elder Golea and Sister Whitney, making words

Elder Ben, Elder Jolley, Elder Watkins





Sharing testimonies on gratitude.

We asked everyone to share a little bit about what they had to be grateful for on this Thanksgiving Day.  We heard some amazingly strong testimonies from these young representatives of the Lord.  I heard many words of how grateful they are that they are on this small island of Ebeye (including me), and the lessons they are learning from the sweet humble people of this land.  They bore such strong testimonies of how they have come closer to Christ and have gained stronger testimonies of the Gospel.  It was gratifying to hear of their thankfulness for the love and support they receive from loved ones at home and far away.  I told them that it is my hope that somehow Elder Becker and I can help fill in that gap as we act as their "parents" while they are so far away from family and loved ones.  We consider all of these young missionaries like our children and want to do everything we can to support them as they labor so diligently.  I do think the best missionaries, the cream of the crop, have been sent to the Marshall Islands Majuro Mission!  They are A.MAZ.ING!

 
We had some of the usual fixings, turkey, potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, fruit salad, carrot sticks and green peppers. We also had instant sweet potatoes (I wouldn't recommend doing that again, but we had to try!), brownies and a pumpkin dessert.  I missed having regular pumpkin pie, so I am going to search around for a pie tin for next time (Christmas).  Nothing beats good old pumpkin pie!

Time for the food!

Chowing down





Sister Mahit helping with the clean-up.

And I finally get to eat!  At least they left me plenty before they went back for seconds!