Getting Ready for Christmas

       This last week (plus a few days) we have continued to spend most of our time visiting members for Christmas.  We share fudge and “The Christ Child” video.  We have now visited the homes of nearly all of the members of the ward that we have met at church and many that we are meeting for the first time.  We really love the members of the ward and are starting to form strong relationships.  This next week we are going to continue to seek out members of the ward.  We are finding that many members are leaving town over the holidays since their families are spread out.  Today we had the Christmas program at church and we even sang in the choir.  Fortunately, there are a few members with strong voices that we can follow.

 

     Last week we had a zone conference with five zones (half of the mission).  It was a great spiritual experience.  We really love and respect the young missionaries.  Our zone even had the opportunity to put on the nativity.  Dave and I played Mary and Joseph.  The last time I played Mary I was seven years old.  Dave has only ever been a donkey up to now.  We borrowed the baby Jesus from our ward nursery.

 

     The day after zone conference we traveled back to Chicago to attend the temple with our zone.  There are eight sisters, eight elders and us in the zone.  The session consisted of just our zone plus about four other people.  As the only married couple, Dave and I served as witnesses.  The entire zone participated in the prayer circle.  For a few of the missionaries this was only the second time they have attended a temple session.  We were able to talk to them and explain a few things.  As we were leaving the celestial room, the temple president invited all the missionaries into the main sealing room where he shared insights into the temple.  It was a wonderful and very spiritual day.

 

     We have had a rare tornado warning for December and another high wind warning over the last week.  We were on the north end of the thunderstorm line that spawned the tornados in southern Illinois and Kentucky last week.  This was the most deadly December tornado ever with about 100 people killed.  We experienced very heavy rain, lightening and winds most of the night.  If the sirens go off, the ward members told us to go into an interior closet and get very low.  Most tornados occur in the spring and early summer, so a December tornado is very rare.

 

     Last night as we were arriving back home, we saw a long line of flashing lights and heard sirens just down the street from our house.  They turned into the subdivision just below us.  Our first thought was there must be something very serious going on, like a house fire or a murder.  We looked out our back window and could see the lights going through the subdivision.  We wondered, could this be a parade.  Sure enough the procession ended up going in front of our house.  All the emergency vehicles in town passed by, including three police cars, two ambulances, and three fire trucks.  Santa was sitting on top of one of the fire trucks. We went out and waved to everyone.  This really is small town rural America.

 

We wish all of you a very merry Christmas.

 

Love,

Dave and Deanne Curtis

                                               Zone Conference 

Joliet Zone at the Chicago Temple

Elder and Sister Curtis at the Temple

Another amazing sunset

This is embarrassing 

The stop signs here are short. Be careful or you miss them. 

Our night-time Santa parade.