I had a FANTASTIC Christmas week! We started the week by going caroling and "spreading Christmas cheer by singing loudly for all to hear." Then Tuesday was our p-day. Tuesday night was an awesome surprise! (this is a repeat for anyone who skyped me Christmas day) President McDonough called all the missionaries in the area and told us that we had to meet in Madison, MS for a service project at 4:00 on Christmas Eve. We show up at the church building and there are about 23 of us missionaries sitting in the chapel when a woman comes in and tells us that there is no service project, but her family wanted to hold a little thank-you gathering for us. So we go in to the gym and it's been partitioned off so we can only go in a small part. They put up baby pictures of all of us and we had to guess who was who and they had some little finger foods. It was a fun surprise. BUT THEN they opened up the partition and we saw that they set up a fancy dinner for us and served us food. It was delicious! AND THEN they gathered us around a tv and played embarrassing videos and stories from our childhood submitted by our families. There were some really embarrassing ones, I'm glad they couldnt get ahold of my family so there werent any of me! THEN TO OUR SURPRISE they opened the partition back up and revealed homemade dessert individually wrapped for us and labeled with our nicknames that our family calls us. They had members in the area cook our favorite desserts for us! FINALLY we played Dirty Santa with presents provided by this family and beautifully wrapped for us. They contained Mississippi memorabilia like college hoodies and back packs and such. I was one of the last people and I opened a hat with ear flaps on it from Southern Miss. I was super excited. Then a guy came and took it from me! I was pretty peeved. So I went and picked out another box. I knelt down and sadly asked everyone to say a prayer for me that it would be because I really wanted that hat. I opened the box and LOW AND BEHOLD I got another hat exactly like the other one! I triumphantly held it in the air as everyone cheered for me. It was glorious. The family was surprised because they didn't remember getting two of those hats. That's a Christmas miracle if I've ever seen one! It really was a wonderful evening. Nicer than I probably would have gotten at home (just kidding!). But I really do appreciate all of the work the members put in to making this Christmas Eve special for us. Hopefully they will post pictures on the blog from it soon?
Then the next day, I got to talk to the family! Probably the best 24 hours I've spent in the mission field yet! We were fed multiple times on Christmas day. Apparently I ate chicken gizzard dressing. I thought the meat tasted a little different, but I didnt know why.
Then Christmas was over and it was back to work! We have two baptisms quickly approaching in January. One is Mary, a sweet old black woman who lives in Jackson. Her mentally disabled daughter wants to be baptized as well, so we're trying to figure out what to do with that. We will do it if she would like, but we're figuring out everything right now. We explained, of course, that she doesnt have to because she's already perfect in God's eyes, but I admire her desire to show her faith by being baptized. Mary is kind of sad and quiet because she has a lot of health problems. Her leg is swollen 3 times its natural size. She said she fell off the back of a bus and after that it swelled up really big and the doctors cant figure out how to fix it. She's in a lot of pain and really wants to be relieved of her pain. We are also preparing to baptize Cleta (another woman out in Jackson). She watches 11 of her grand kids every day and she told us she sometimes wants to run away, but if she does, those kids have no one to care for them. Their parents are strung out on drugs and can barely care for themselves. We felt bad for her so I offered for us to sing "Where Can I Turn for Peace" for her. She liked the idea, so we started singing. We barely made it through one verse when she got up from her chair and started chasing and threatening her grand kids with a ripped up leather belt because they were too loud. The irony of the whole situation made me burst out laughing in the middle of the hymn. She's funny. The culture is so different.
Anyway, I love Clinton! We're working on building the relationship between the missionaries and the members. There are great members and great missionaries (although a little awkward sometimes) but the relationship between the two isnt there. President said he put me here because I work well with members and wanted me to build that foundation, so I am! We taught 5 member families last night using an object lesson that Joey sent me a while back. They loved it!
Well, I realize that this email is ridiculously long. I just had a lot to say this week. Don't expect this every week. I love and miss everyone back home! I'm coming up on my halfway mark here soon! *EXCITING*
Love,
Sister McElderry
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