18 December 2007 – Tuesday 

It does not seem possible that it just a week before Christmas – actually it does not seem like Christmas without snow and family – especially family. I just figured out that it is different also because we are not immersed in work and the busy flow of things during the Christmas season. Of course we were not last year either but we were so involved with getting ready for the mission and going to the MTC, that it was not as noticeable. 

I woke a little late and decided not to go to the gym but as I thought that I realized that the Lord would not be telling me this, so I quickly got ready and went down and had a really good workout. We read from the Kitab Mormon and then got ready to go to the office. 

At the office Mary’s seamstress came by and Mary gave her a number of projects. She going to have a major wardrobe to take home  – especially some great skirts and blouses. I spent most of my time working on a lesson plan based on the Career Workshop. It will be a lot of work but I believe when I am done there will be a dozen or more 15 – 30 minute lessons that will use all aspects that we are trying to teach and they will also learn more about some necessary skills for getting a good job. I imagine it is going to take two or three days to come up with all the lessons. 

After our regular hours – we did not have any clients – we went to the mission office. While Mary taught her English class – a very noisy one because they played games. I ordered 100 Career Workshop books in English to use in the classes and found that they did not offer a teacher’s manual – or at least we could not find it in the catalog. I think there is one somewhere in the office so I will either get the number and order some or have copies made here.  The Walkers were up in Bogor and the Marchants are in Solo so I just found a comfortable place to rest and read the latest Church News.  

There are some wonderful articles about how the Church is helping out in Mexico and being honored in Brazil. We are definitely letting our light shine before men and they are seeing it. The stone cut out of the mountain is rolling forth.  

We then went to SoGo and got another ton of food and goodies. It is amazing how much we spend on food when we eat so few meals at the apartment. This batch is for making a large carrot cake for the mission Christmas party. 

Once we are back at the apartment it is one of our normal evenings. That is a mixture of study, reading Kitab Mormon, looking at some English, and watching some T.V. I imagine that we could spend some of time doing more spiritual things, but usually by the time 6 or 7 comes around we do not seem able to do nothing but read scripture or PMG or to do more for our English class. Both the spirit and the body grows weak.