This was a wonderful Christmas! The highlight was hearing from Sam who is currently in the Colombia Missionary Training Center (MTC). He has chosen to email only for the weeks he has been there but decided to video chat home on Christmas Eve. It was positively magical! Our family huddled around my little laptop and enjoyed every minute of our time with him. Sam seems so happy and thriving! 
Some things he said on the call:
– The thing he is looking forward to most is getting out of the MTC and teaching the gospel, he wants to change lives! (This is amazing because before his mission this was the thing he was most worried about doing.)
– He loves the food there. It is mostly rice and meat and he barters with other missionaries to get more ice cream as they are only allowed one each
– He has been called as a zone leader. Part of his responsibility as a zone leader is to motivate other missionaries to not goof off. He says that is sometimes problematic because he is the one goofing off.
– The tight schedule is difficult for him. He is used to working hard but having a choice how to use his time. Int he MTC all aspects of his life scheduled for him and that is causing him some grief. He is hoping that once he is in the field his work won’t be quite to regimented or regulated.
– He is being so challenged mentally with the “sink or swim” nature of immersive Spanish learning that he feels like his brain actually hurts sometimes! Very few people (around a dozen) speak English at his MTC. None of his teachers speak English and so he is learning Spanish as quickly as possible.
– He is finding so much joy in diving into the scriptures. This is the first time in his life that all he has to do is study and apply the scriptures. No distractions, no noise. He loves it and can’t wait to share what he is learning.
– He finds the Latina missionaries quite attractive but is trying not to notice or be distracted by it.
– No matter how much he is learning and growing, he is still the same Sam. He is just becoming a better version of himself. He is still joyful, full of life, goofy, silly…
– He still doesn’t like haircuts and has been avoiding the tiny Latina stylist that has been hunting him down to get his hair cut. He says she is tiny, but terrifying because she is a hair butcher!
– He wasn’t going to call home until he left the MTC but when he opened our Christmas present to him (chocolate orange, plaid Christmas tie, snowflake window clings, and an over-the-door basketball hoop), he felt homesick and wanted to talk to us. I was SO GLAD he changed his mind because when he said he wasn’t going to call for a few more weeks my heart broke!
On the home front, we have noticed that the house feels very empty, but very peaceful without Sam. When he was home, he was generally the life of the party, but also loved to stir things up. Now William is moving into the role of teaser and trouble-maker. We are trying to curb that as much as possible. Lizzie likes to be home more than Sam did (he was almost never home), so we often have nights where everyone is home together and it is very enjoyable. The week before Christmas I read aloud the book, “The Root Cellar” by Janet Lunn. It was beyond wonderful having my kids snuggled up around me, reading them a book that I have loved and read many times since the fifth grade! And knowing that the child who wasn’t there is safe and happy made it even better!
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