Christmas and a Birthday

All of the missionaries who were at the Christmas Party who had served or are serving in Rivadavia, San Juan. It was quite the reunion.

President Jarvis showing off his accordian skills. I worked a lot with President Jarvis in the offices and it was good to see him again. Every so often he'll call me if there's a problem the offices can't fix. It's Elder Williams to the rescue.

From my surprise birthday party with the cake the Sister Missionaries made for me

Me with "Santa Claus" Elder Brown :)

Dear Family,
Thank you all so much for your love, letters, pictures, prayers, and support!!! It was so good to talk to Dad, Mom, Jennifer, and Abuela on Christmas. This was quite the Christmas week with a trip to Mendoza, some Christmas dinners, and even a birthday. Wednesday morning, bright and early, we headed on bus to Mendoza, arriving there at about 8:00 in the morning. The first thing was a getting-to-know-you game with random questions like, “What color is your toothbrush?” We then had to find someone else who had the same answer and we’d sign each other’s papers. After that was the White Elephant gift exchange. I think I got quite the gift: two ice-cube trays, a plastic juicer, and a package of alfajores, all in the same bag! My gift was two Rubik’s Cubes that I had found in the apartment from previous missionaries. The funny thing is that the previous owner of those cubes was at the party and he said, “I think I was the one who left those cubes there.” The cubes ended up going to Elder Christensen who is my great-grandson as Historian of the Mendoza Mission. He’s supposedly pretty good at Rubik’s cubes too. Soon after the chaos of the White Elephant gift exchange we played some Christmas games like the inflatable-ball relay (I don’t know what it has to do with Christmas but it was fun anyways). Each zone had prepared two skits for a mission talent show which we had afterwards. Our zone did a skit and then the New Zealand Haka (I think it’s spelled like that, but I think Joel would know better) just like the BYU Football team does before every game. Even the Sister Missionaries participated which made it even scarier :) . After scaring all of the other zones we had a nice lunch which had been prepared by the Rastelli family from Godoy Cruz. The father is the Second Counselor in the Mission Presidency and former Bishop of the Villa del Parque ward which shares the chapel with San Ignacio where I was not too long ago (ok, over a year ago actually). The table of desserts was overflowing with all kinds of goodies, every child’s dream. We all had a good time and got to meet up with old friends. We took a picture with all of the missionaries there who had served in Rivadavia before, and there was actually a good number of us there.
Christmas was spent with the Quiroga family with an unbelievably good dinner (it was really good). We were a little behind on buying everything we were going to bring so we ended up bringing sandwiches instead of empanadas but it worked out because we weren’t actually going to eat the empanadas as the main part of the meal. We didn’t exactly have Martinelli’s so we just bought some Sprite and a box of apple juice. There were tons of fireworks which makes me glad I don’t have to buy any because everyone else buys them and I can just watch them for free :) . Fortunately Hermano Eduardo Quiroga drove us home in his mom’s car so we made it home safe and sound (although there weren’t that many people on the street anyways, just in their backyards).
I’m almost out of time but I’ll tell you about my surprise birthday party. We went to church and everything and were planning on the usual Missionary Correlation meeting at 5:00 PM after lunch and everything. Afterwards it turned out that the meeting was moved to 8:00 PM since the Ward Mission Leader couldn’t be there at 5:00. We arrive at the meeting and instead of a meeting, “Surprise!” it was a birthday party :) . We watched some videos the mission had sent out to everyone on DVD for Christmas and then ate some cake that the Sister Missionaries had made. It was all quite fun.
Well, I have to go but I thank you all again for all you’ve done to wish me a happy birthday and I thank you so much for thinking of me. I hope you all have an excellent week and a Happy New Year!!! I love you all!!! Bye!!!
Love,
Elder Williams