Merry Navidad!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ELDER CHRISS!!!

Yes, today was one of the two days a year that every missionary family yearns for.  Everything takes a back seat until you either hear the phone ring or that familiar Skype tone!  

There is no better way to celebrate Christmas than to have a wonderful chat with your Elder!  

A little fuzzy at times!

Taylor was able to Skype with us!!!  He called about noon and we had a wonderful one hour conversation with him.  Unfortunately there were five other people in the room trying to Skype at the same time so the conversation was a little muddled at times.  But we will take anything we can get!  We just loved seeing those dimples!  It has been a long ten months!!!

It was fun hearing him speak to us in English and then turn around and speak to others in the room in Spanish!

They had a wonderful Christmas devotional last night with the entire mission and they all got presents. Sister Costas, my sweet Buenos Aires friend, dropped him off a present at the Mission home. 

He wanted to make sure and let everyone know how much he appreciates all of your cards and letters.  He said that a missionary loves nothing more than hearing from home!  Luckily he did get all of the packages we sent.  I know in other Argentina missions none of the missionary packages arrived before Christmas.

His favorite part is to just walk through the Villa (the area where he is currently serving)and just talk to people.  No one stays in their homes because it is so hot.  It is around 100 degrees there right now with about 80% humidity.  Just a little different than our temperature here.  He really misses the snow!
It was wonderful to have Michael and Lindsay here to visit with him.  Also, Grandma Chriss was staying with us and thought he looked so old!  He particularly loved being able to say hi to our dog, Cassi!  She wasn't quite sure what was going on.


He seems very, very happy!  That is all that a missionary family wants!  He said is definitely not the same person he was before he has left and has really changed. 

It was fun to laugh with him and hear his stories.  Mike asked if they could leave the windows open at night to get a little breeze but he said no because the neighborhood cats will come in and make themselves at home.  Like most South American countries he said there are dogs everywhere, nasty, scary dogs.  If you want to scare them away you just quickly act like you are picking up a rock and they will run.

We passed around the laptop, said our goodbyes, and he was gone!   We are so lucky to live at a time with such wonderful technology!  I think I might just be able to make it to Mother's Day!

A cute missionary mom, Kristy Witt gave this to me for Christmas!

I want to thank everyone for their support of Elder Chriss!  We couldn't make it without all of your loving prayers for him and for us!  I am especially grateful for the support of all of the other missionary moms.  No one really understands how hard it is to have a son or daughter on a mission like another missionary parent.  It is great to have a shoulder to cry on when you need one!

I know that the work Elder Chriss and the other 80,000 missionaries are doing around the world is the Lord's work.  There is nothing more important than bringing people to Christ!  I know that Jesus is the son of God and he died so I might live again!  We literally feels the blessings of having a missionary in the field every day!  We are so proud of our son and the sacrifices he is making. 

Love!
Lisa