Christmas Day!

Notice the "bunny fingers" from Grandpa and Chantal. Like Grandfather, like Granddaughter!

Gosh, Calvin doesn't look ANYTHING like Todd now, does he?  *smirk*

Momm

First off, I have to apologise for my lack of forsight to tell you all the details of when I was going to be calling, where i was calling, etc. etc. I hope you werent too worried!!! We just hadn't planned that far ahead, and i forgot about preperation day not being on monday, so sorry about that!! 

  [The family we Skyped from] are a super awesome family! So Christmas was great because we all got to sleep in!!!!!! (a special gift from our mission president!) So I slept in until 8:15. I feel lots better because of it! Then I waited for my companion to shower, and get dressed, (I stayed in my pajamas the whole time) and then we...... washed dishes! Mostly because my companion started to, so once we got that done, we opened our presents!! HOLY COW!!! We got A LOT of candy! I think i might be set until NEXT Christmas!!!!! There is SO MUCH! But it was all awesome! The first Christmas i actually appreciated getting clothes for christmas! I opened your package last!  :) i really enjoyed it!!! We immediately filled up the ice cube tray! Best ice cube tray ever!! I hope everyone else had a good christmas, and that you guys found ways to serve others. I have been thinking a lot about that. 

   So, after opening presents, we went to the [members'] house, where I talked to a lot of funny people whom i hadn't seen for a while! After that, we went to another members' house for lunch. That was fun, because they just had little hour dourves for lunch , and talked, and shared stories, etc. Then we did some secret cookie leaving  operations for some less active members. That was fun, we had to book it down the street, and my companion dropped the keys in the street, so we just left them there, hid, and waited until it was safe. It was a lot of fun! Then we ate dinner at another member's house and then they gave us the leftovers! But we wont be able to eat those this week, because we have dinner appointments for the entire week!! Feeding the missionaries before really works well!!!! [I've always told the missionaries that I'm feeding them because some day my son would be on his mission and if I fed them, he'd get fed!] and its not like you cant eat just a little at members' houses either, because they expect missionaries to eat LOTS! So we leave dinner appointments totally STUFFED. it's the BEST! 

   So, It was AWESOME to talk to you all!!!!!!! That was lots of fun. I think the [family] enjoyed hosting us for skype as much as we enjoyed skyping! 

   As far as the visit from Uncle brad and Aunt Sonya, I dont know how much longer i'll be in Ottowa, Let me know when they plan on coming out. Also, i totally forgot, but winter sports aren't allowed, which includes ice skating. Sorry! oh, and we cant give our # out to you guys. 

    So, I love you guys soooooooo much and it was great to talk to you!!!! i cant believe how much Chantal and Miranda and Sophie have grown up!!!! they look and sound a lot more mature. 

    Love!

Calvin

Yay! Skype Tomorrow!

This is Calvin's area map

This is the mission home

A beautiful archway into Chinatown?

A horse to make Miranda jealous. :-)

                                     

Calvin's desk - and I don't know what I did to make the comments off center now.

A message for our family, written with a white erase marker on the back of his tag.

Todd answered the cell phone tonight and heard, "Dad? This is Elder Messinger, uh, I mean this is Calvin." Todd laughed and laughed! We all laughed when Todd told us. Calvin will be Skyping with us tomorrow. YAY! We'll get to see him!

I've been really bad at keeping up with Calvin's emails home this month, sorry. But now I'm on Todd's computer where all the pictures from Calvin's latest snail mail are. So can I beg your forgiveness with pictures? Okay. Good.

First let me post Calvin's email from December 10th:

Momm,

   So, this week was really interesting. our car got stolen. no not really, but in effect it did. What happened was we took the car to get the oil changed and the tires changed, and while we were waiting, the guy at the front desk started making calls about a car that was stuck on a lift. He was asking if someone could come and fix the lift, went back into the garage, came out, and said " well, guys that car on the lift is yours." We were like, "What.?" He explained that the lift's hydrolics had failed. so we went back, and luckily the car had had emergency braces put underneath it, otherwise, it would have been dropped. So, we ended up bumming rides off our Zone leaders and members for the rest of that day and part of the next. that stunk. 

   So in our companionship, we made an effort to do better at talking to everyone, and its really cool how that improves a day. Since everyone is really nice here, they will at least talk to you. 

   Most of our solid potentials right now are Hatians. They love missionaries, and they will always talk to you. Especially if you know French, and if you say "Sake Passe!" you are their new best friend immediately, mostly because sake passe means whats up in creole, and most people dont know anything in creole, so that scores you BIG points with them. Hatians also love feeding you. I havent had many dinner appointments with them, but they offer to feed us often enough. I love hatians! 

   what else is going on, well, as for skyping, i think we can, but I dont think we can use members' computers, so IDK, I'll ask my Zone leaders. 

   Momm, havent you been reading ANY of my emails, begging for us to come back after my mission?!? Of course I'll come back and show you everything!!!!  [I asked him if we could go back and visit his areas because we stalk him on google earth and it looks so beautiful there in Ottawa! I also watch travel shows whenever I can on PBS on Saturdays and other days of the week and I've only ever been to Prince Edward Island and the Toronto Temple in Canada (which are not in Calvin's mission) but I've always wanted to go to Quebec and Montreal, and now Ottawa is on my list of places to visit.]

   I am staying quite warm, i actually kick blankets off the bed because its too hot some nights, but usually i count my blessings and stay warm. 

   So what else can I tell you about my mission, umm.. well a guy just returned from his mission just this week, so that was awesome to see. he actually served where my companion is from, so he brought TONS of  presents back for my companion from his parents. Oh, we have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree kit, so we set that up as our christmas tree for the time being. we have  a bigger one, but we are just too lazy to set it up right now. We didnt put presents under it, we just put it on top of the presents! 

   By the way, in the pictures, the clouds were clouds before a tornado, but there wasnt one. It was still pretty cool!

   Umm, yeah, so lots is going on. Umm, oh yeah! So we have that stratego game in the mission apartment, so we play it on Preperation days a lot. The last few preperation days have been us mostly playing Clue at the Zone leaders' appartment. lots of fun!

Love you all!!

Keep going!!

Do me a favor, and this christmas look for a way you each (except Sophie, she is my favorite! Just kidding ) can do meaningful service for someone else. I have been thinking a lot about that these past few weeks and how all my favorite families in the mission constantly look for ways to serve others. 

LOVE!!!!!!!!
Watch out for ......... EVERYTHING!

Calvin

About the "Watch out for . . . EVERYTHING!" I usually end my letters to Calvin with several one-line reminders: Study your scriptures and "Preach My Gospel!" "Pray fervently!" and I include a silly line "Watch out for ____________!" (Ninja Snowflakes and Dalek Christmas Trees are some of the recent warnings) It's just something fun I do.

Did I mention there is another Elder C Messinger in Calvin's mission? And that we thought it would be fun if they were companions at some point? Can you imagine "Hello, we're Messingers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." We thought that would be pretty fun.

Here's his email from the 17th of December:

Momm, 

   AUGH!!! I cant wait to get bck and see Sophie!!!!!! she is going to be so BIG!!! I cant wait to just do stuff with her! [When I write to him, I usually try to include some cute things Sophie says and does.]

yes i do love my other sisters, dont worry, and i cant wait to spend time with them too. oh tell miranda that my companion and I quote invader zim all the time. So, this week. Well where to start. So my companion and i have been thinking about doing more member work in the sense of teaching members lessons. That way, we strengthen Zion and make the members more confident is sharing the Gospel. we havent had a good comp discussion about this, how we are going to do it, what it will mean, etc. We got the idea, when a member who recently got back from his mission said that for the last 9 months of his mission, he only tracted about 10 hours overall. That was because he had been doing member lessions, and their baptism number actually increased. So, we were blown away by that. We just want to do stuff effectively. 

   Umm.... it was basically a regular week. We taught some people, and did missionary stuff. Yes that is a terrible response, but there is just SO MUCH we did this week. nothing  too too exciting, except the fact that we have a girl commited to a baptismal date.

   Now, we are meeting with this awesome guy who is super cool. He is part native, and is really interested in the church, and he listens to the lessons. 

   We got to see another recent convert. she is ok. We had a great lesson with her about the Tree of Life story . This has been our theme for lots of our lessons, and it works super well now a days, because we use everyone's Christmas trees as the tree of life.  Its pretty  fun ! 

    So this week we have our Mission Christmas party. We are going to be away from our areas for 2 whole days. We wont really be doing any work for about 3 days strait. Our numbers are going to PLUMMET!! But hopefully not that bad. 

     So thats all new right now. We are goig to an aviation museum today, and then to dinner, and then off to do some random work (probably tracting this appartment building  we have been working in for a few days) Then, we will go [to a family's house].  :) sooo happy, [they] are AWESOME!!! 

  Anyways, love you lots!

    Calvin

Merry Christmas

Happy Bump Day!

  Last Wednesday - November 28th - Calvin reached his 6 month mark. Missionaries have names for milestone days, and some missions celebrate by burning clothing:
6 months: Bump Day; burn a tie
12 months: Hump Day; burn a white shirt
18 months: Slump Day; burn a pair of pants
24 months (last day before you return to the mission home to go home): Dump Day; burn a suit
  I have asked Calvin several times if he burned a tie, but he hasn't told me how he celebrated yet. Maybe he didn't celebrate. Some missionaries don't pay attention to the milestones. Since I didn't post last week, here are two weeks' worth of emails!

Momm, on thanksgiving we had an AWESOME dinner with an American family. They had football on the TV they made a HUGE turkey dinner, it was all awesome! I thought of you all, and hope that your thanksgiving was GREAAT!!!!!!!!!!

Calvin

Momm, 

Wow that sounds like a great week!!!!!!!!! I am SO MAD that I missed [Miranda's] LARP party! That stinks! What happened at it? And which movie was skyfall? [Todd and I had a DATE! We went to see Skyfall. They had started the ads for it before Calvin left on his mission, but missionaries don't really pay attention to current movies because they don't go to movies.] So, I have had a pretty good week. I'm really nervous for transfers because i dont want to leave my area, i love all the people WAY too much! but I know it wont be to bad. So, this week we have a new baptismally committed person. She is 59 years old. She is really nice, and was introduced [to the church] by her friend who is super awesome! They arre roommates in the retirement home. We are haveing a great time, the new bishop is making his focus on missionary work. He is really buisness like and wants to get stuff done, it's really good. I am so excited that the area is picking up again!

Anyways, i will write more, but I cant think.... OH! We had someone run away from us. We knocked on their door, and we hear some footsteps, so we knock again. Then we hear this mechanical grinding sound, so we wait more. next thing we know, a car comes zooming out of the garage and zooms away. we both laughed our heads off! so thats my funny story so far! besides making plasma in the microwave. 

Love you all lots!!!!
Calvin

That's pretty funny that they had someone run away from them. We were speculating why someone would feel the need to run away from missionaries. Perhaps it was the black coats that scared them? For those of you who aren't LDS: Missionaries are good kids, and if you don't want to talk to them you can tell them you're not interested and they'll respect your wishes and leave. However, as the mother of a missionary I want you to know that if it's a hot day, or they look particularly tired, it's okay to give them food and water. You can still tell them you don't want to discuss religion, and you don't want to take their lessons. But remember that they are young men, and their mothers worry about them, and any kindness you show them would be greatly appreciated. Speaking of worry, what's this about plasma in the microwave?! I'm pretty sure that's not something allowed by mission rules - or any sane rules outside of a laboratory experiment! Gotta ask about this.

**I am not posting what Calvin wrote about making plasma in the microwave. Missionaries are, after all, 19 - 21 year old boys. They are known for doing stupid (often dangerous) things because, well, they are 19 - 21 years old, and boys these age often do stupid things when they're on their own. I am not amused, and I let Calvin know in a follow up email that I was not amused. Now on to this week's emails.

I wrote Calvin a nice, long email describing my week to him, and apologizing for writing so many emails to him every week. I usually watch for his first email to appear, then if I have questions I'll write a line or two. Sometimes that's the only way I get answers to questions - like if he has his winter coat yet, or if he needs anything like new shirts or socks or ties. Calvin tends to forget to answer questions like those. This was Calvin's first email:

Momm,

 You are NOT selfish. you are a MOTHER. You have an especial privelage to my time. 

love,

Ccalvin

momm, 

 yeah i think you might have mentioned that you love me.I dont know about skype. I might be able to. [I asked Calvin if he would be able to Skype with us for his phone call at Christmas. Some missionaries can Skype, others can't.]

Yeah we watched the [First Presidency Christmas Broadcast from Salt Lake City], it was a lot of fun! It was great to get that spiritual uplift. 

so, transfers, I'm staying! Im going to be in Chapel hill for Christmas!!!!! thats pretty cool! I am so excited, and i'll be with [my current companion] too! We are both excited, and things are picking up in the mission thus far! So you watched Lincoln. What is that? Was that the vampire hunter one, or a different one. I have been out of the loop for a while. [See? I told you missionaries don't keep track of movies and things. This time I went to the movie with friends - wow, I haven't been to movies for almost a year and now two in two weeks? Wow.]

So lately I have been worrying about [a family]. lots of negative things are happening, and its affecting them being able to come to church. But our ward has been super good with supporting them. Its wierd, I feel like I've been living in this ward all my life. I know everyone, and things have started to blend together. 

Oh, keep an eye out for an elder. he will enter the MTC on Jan 20th. he is a cousin of an elder here, but he is going to utica, so idk if that is our mission [it is], but I think he might be there. 

ok, Ill send this early bc inquiring minds want to know. there really isnt anything else that I wanted to say.

 LOve

Calvin 

Calvin usually forwards the mission newsletter so we can see what's going on in his mission. We learned this week that there is another "Elder C. Messinger" in Calvin's mission. His first name is different, but still it starts with a C!! We were flabbergasted that the first initial is the same, and that the last name is spelled the same. I'm so glad I've been writing his full name on the packages!! It must be a little confusing for the mission president that their names are close. And wouldn't it be cool if they ended up companions?! Elder Messinger and Elder Messinger! Then they could say "We're Messingers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!" Sorry, it's really fun to have our last name sometimes. Especially when it talks about "Heavenly messengers" in the scriptures. We always read it "Heavenly Messingers," and remind our kids that our last name has a special responsibility associated with it.

All fun aside, the mission is preparing for an influx of new missionaries (both the normal number of missionaries they usually expect, and a greater number of incoming missionaries since they changed the age requirements). The newsletter mentioned cleaning apartments. Calvin had become quite the pro at cleaning before he left, and we've discovered some really effective, non-toxic, cleaners since he left, so I wrote a quick email with some of the "recipes" we found.

thanks momm!
This will come in handy! I've also done a lot of cooking. Really bad for my waistline. but! its been delicious. Members feed us really well here, though. we cook ourselves some monsterous llunches, just because. Thanks for teaching for all these lessons that you have given me!
Calvin