I am going to skip all I have missed up to this point and talk about Christmas.  (I will record what I have missed from time to time in the future.)

December 20 – We are in Caicó today, inland from the coast about 6 hours. We woke up at 4:30 and were cold because of the air conditioning.  It is about 100 degrees. It didn’t take long to warm up.  We watched a bit of the sunrise. The church is right across the street from where we are staying. We had another good day with 8 missionaries and the four of us, plus Elder Almeida, one of Allen’s assistants.  We had another big Christmas meal and our tree was the better than yesterday’s.

 

We drove to Mossoró later in the day. it’s big city.  

 

I had tender feelings about Mary and Joseph today and their ”precious burden.” I admire their great faith. Pres. Allen went out to work with the missionaries.  I admire his energy and faith as well. We are close to the coast in this area. It would be fun to drive along the coast, but we will probably take the fastest route home. We have two more Zone Conferences to do in Natal.

​

December 22 -- Today in Natal, we had a special musical number by Elder Bispo. Bispo means Bishop in English.  He had a lovely, pure voice and had written his own Christmas song. His song filled the room with a wonderful spirit of Christmas.  We have talked in each zone conference about consecration, and what that means for a missionary. How can they/we consecrate our time and talents for two years and beyond.  

​

Christmas Eve, we cleaned house and made soup and a pumpkin butterscotch custard for Christmas Day.  We need a lighter meal. We took it easy most of the day.  We are still in recovery.  

                            CHRISTMAS DAY

We watched a beautiful sunrise from our window.  We talked together for a while and listened to Christmas music.  We took a little Christmas gift to the porteiros.  We have four door men that have helped us a lot.  At church we sang and visited.  The bishop and a counselor gave great Christmas related talks. The children are so beautiful. We will join Allen and Cathy for lunch and visiting this afternoon.  Feliz Natal em Natal.  Merry Christmas in Christmas.  Natal was founded on Christmas day.