Zone Christmas Parties 2011

Today we began the first of 2 Christmas parties for all the young missionaries. The mission is too big for all to get together at once so - it was split into 2 days of celebrations. All the senior couples come into Montreal and we all help cook and set up for the parties.

First the missionaries all get together in the RS room to watch a movie. This is a highlight for them & they are always really excited to see what the movie is. The AP's played a joke on them by telling them that they wanted to have a more spiritual Christmas this year & so they would need to choose from the movies : The Restoration, The Mountain of the Lord, Mr Kruger's Christmas.. etc. (which we have all seen about a million times because we show them so often to our investigators) The missionaries were crushed! Then they told them they were just kidding... and they got to vote on: Tangled, Rio, 17 Miracles, & How the Grinch Stole Christmas. They all voted for Tangled. It was more fun to watch those missionaries be so enthralled with that movie than it was to watch the movie itself!

While they are watching the movie, we are setting up for the dinner.
And setting the tables, and working really hard in the kitchen:
Then when the movie is done we feed them a wonderful dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, peas and corn, rolls, and a jello salad on the tables.... and, of course, dessert. We served about 70 each day.
Once the dinner is over They get a visit from a wonderful man who always tries to help out all the missionaries - Daniel. He is there to kick off the gift exchange. Everyone brings a white elephant gift and puts it on the table: Then, after dinner, each person goes up to take a gift & bring it back to their seats. Sister Cannon then reads a story about the "WRIGHT" family who "LEFT" their home. During the story, everytime she says right or left, you pass the gift. At the end, you open the gift you end up with and then each person has one chance to keep or exchange his gift. Elder Mahaffey REALLY liked his gift this year... Here he is with Elder Florence... who got a LEATHER JACKET !!! sheesh! Then it was time for each Zone's performance. I laughed so hard at our zone. They sang the song "Last Christmas" by Ashley Tisdale. The lyrics of the chorus are: Last Christmas I gave you my heart, But the very next day you gave it away, This year, to save me from tears, I'll give it to someone special." Then one of the Elders would step forward and read a dear John letter & then tear it up... then another chorus, then a sister would read her Dear Jane letter... it was just so funny to hear them read these letters, then sing that chorus... After that we took our group picture... this represents 1/2 of our mission.. the half that our district and zone are in. At the end the Missionaries all gave us a Thank-you card for all we did for them. It was signed by everyone. This is one of our AP's - Elder Jacquier. Of course, I got my own reward: We also took a picture of our wonderful mission President - Pres. & Sister Cannon On the way out, each missionary had the chance to vote for the new mission Pin - or in French it is epangelete. Whoever wanted could submit a design and then they are going to have the winner made up into pins we can wear. This was the winning design: Then our sweet district pulled us aside and gave us some presents from them: They gave Elder Mahaffey a beautiful blue tie, and me an ornament made from the picture we took of all our district in the beanies we gave them. Then an elder in our district actually KNITTED these slippers for us. Slippers are a big deal here. I guess because so often you must walk thru snow and slush, that everyone takes their shoes off & leaves them by the door - but in the winter floors are still very cold, so most people bring along their slippers, or people have a bunch of them in baskets by the door for guests to put on. But who knew Elder Mollinet would have the time or the ability to KNIT us these slippers. These guys never cease to amaze me!! It was a long, wonderful day. Fantastic to be in the presence of all these great men & women in the Canada Montreal Mission!