We held two Christmas conferences with our missionaries. This one was with all the missionaries close to Salvador which was a group of about 110. We held it at the chapel.
This conference was in another city called Petrolina, which is about 7 hours away from us. We flew up there and had a group of about thirty missionaries.
For our lunch with the big group we ate in the institute building adjacent to the chapel. It worked out really nice.
We've had several of our missionaries go home in the last few weeks for health issues, so we had everyone write on a group letter to them.
Two of our cute sisters, Siter Piola and Sister Souza.
The office staff helped serve the lunch for the big group. Elders Perreira, Perry, Killpack, Morgan and Curtis. They are awesome Elders!
Two of the Sisters, Sister Souza and Sister Bezzera presented Jim and I with a really cute little gift depicting us as "formidavel" missionaries. They were so excited to give it to us at the party.
These were the four sisters we had in Petrolina: Sisters Kalamafoni, Davis, Tiburcio, and Marciano.
The elders helped us decorate.
Elder Morgan, one of our assistants making sure everything looks good.
We put all our little gifts on the tables as decorations.
We gave the missionaries a little photo album for their baptism pictures and the elders also got a tie. The sisters got a cute pen holder and matching note paper.
The sisters were excited to help decorate the room.
Sister Turner and Sister Pratt.
The Elders and Sisters loved the tone bells. They got here the day before the party I think. Thanks, Britt!
The sisters were good at it.
President Hart kept making fun of Elder Mota, in the paper tie, because he kept missing his note.
I even packed the tone bells in my suitcase for Petrolina.
Because our group was so much smaller in Petrolina, we were able to do a fun gift exchange. The zone leaders gathered up everyones name plaques and put them in a Santa hat, and then we all drew a name and had to give clues as to who was our secret friend.
Elder Hubbard was dying because he drew my name and his gift was toilet paper.
Somehow everyone managed to get their gifts all wrapped up pretty. It was funny because I asked Jim earlier if he thought it would be possible to do a gift exchange. He shot the idea down, saying it would be too hard for the elders and sisters to get something. But when the zone leaders called and suggested the same thing, he thought it was a great idea! Hmmm...
Elder Siqueira goofing off with his tie. He's really not cross eyed.
This was our lunch in Petrolina. A really nice sister there fixed it for us and it was delicious.
Sister Davis and Elder De Ararujo provided some beautiful Christmas music at the party.
In Petrolina we had sort of an impromtu Nativity scene. Sister Tiburcio is wearing my skirt on her head as Mary. We got stuff out of my suitcase for the costumes and swaddling clothes.
Elder Mummy was an angel.
We also had a really nice missionary quartet perform for us. Elders De Ararujo at the piano, Elder Ararujo, Elder Barbosa, Elder Mummy, and Elder Bernard, who loves to sing.
