December 19, 2010

Sister Nelson reviewing resume's

19 December 2010

Dear Family,

Another week has flown by so quickly. We are enjoying the sights and thoughts of the Christmas Season here in Texas. We have a little 1 foot fake tree with lights that helps us keep in the spirit of the season.

This past Monday we had the annual Dallas, Texas Mission Senior Missionary Couples Training/Conference. It began at 2:00 in the afternoon over at the Mission home. It was good to meet with President & Sister Smith and the two counselors in the mission presidency. They are all great people. We shared favorite memories of Christmas and Christmas traditions, heard thoughts from the Mission Presidency and Sister Smith. We sang some Christmas hymns and had a white elephant gift exchange also. We really enjoyed the time together. We are down in numbers from last year by about half, they say they are having a harder time getting Sr. missionaries right now.

We ended the evening by going over to Salt Grass for dinner. It is a very yummy ‘Texas’ restaurant. The next morning we met at the Dallas Temple and went through a session. A very good place to be, such a wonderful spirit always to be found in His holy house.

One thing great about being a missionary is getting a Christmas card from the First Presidency.

We had our piano class this week. Several new people came this week; you just never know what will happen. Sister Hernandez played the postlude music in Relief Society last week. She inspired 3 more people to come after listening to her. She is really blossoming right now, I’m so proud of her. She helped the young women students while I worked with the 3 new students who came at that time. At the end of our time I asked her if she would play one of the Christmas hymns she’s been working on while we all sang. She agreed and did well and then we all clapped and cheered for her, it was great.

From the Employment Center news – now that we don’t have Nathan coming in 6 hours a week posting jobs for us we have to work a little harder at that aspect of the work we do. We are doing a pretty good job of it. Sister Paige still comes in on Tuesdays and posts the Stake Jobs so that really helps. She has been doing this service for many years.

We had a tough situation when a family of seven, parents and 5 young children came in needing help. They had recently left Alaska and went to California; things didn’t work out there so after a few days they went to Utah. Things didn’t work out for them either so someone helped finance their trip to Texas. All they had was their van and a few belongings. We helped what we could and were able to get in touch with the transient Bishop who was able to help them get some food from the storehouse and get them a place to stay. Tough times for them.

There are still some coming in that have been our regulars for a couple of months now, plus a few new ones. I have gotten several responses to welcome emails I have sent out. They have wanted their resume reviewed, so I’ve gone over it and then sent them a reply with suggestions. (Who would think!, it still seems odd.)

Our Thursday P-day was a relaxed one. Jack enjoyed the temple so much on Monday that he went back and did another session. I stayed at the apartment and did some catching up on things and did some practicing on the recorder. (I hope our neighbors don’t mind!) We went to dinner with Will & Ellie Boeswetter that evening.

I was asked to play the flute part for one of the Christmas selections, a Soprano/Alto duet, in the Dallas 6^th Ward today. It turned out quite interesting. They practiced one time this week but I was not able to practice at that time so it was decided to practice at 8:00 this morning before choir. At 8:30 one of the young ladies showed up. It was her first time singing alone and she was not especially comfortable with her part so I spent the time playing the piano and helping her with her part. We thought we were going to practice before church with the accompanist, however when she came she had a different practice to be to. Soooo, I played it for the first time with them in Sacrament Meeting. It wasn’t a very difficult part and it all went smoothly. The singers got off at a key change but they were able to recover and get back in.

Charlie Morell has an orchestra group that plays together; they practice a couple of times a month. They invited me to play the recorder with them this year for the Messiah. I was of course very happy to accept the invitation. I created a part from the flute and oboe parts. I borrowed a CD and played along whenever I could sneak in a few minutes. They had a couple of Saturday rehearsals with the orchestra and soloists. Mary Poulter is the director and brings it all together beautifully. She lives in Denton and has contact with the music students at UNT. Most of the soloists are students there or have been her students previously and have returned for the holidays. One is a Bishop from the Denton Stake that we have met and worked with previously.

Mary sings one of the solos, they usually have someone lead the orchestra for that one number but they are out of town this year so I will be leading it. The duet for Alto and Tenor – ‘Oh Death, Where is Thy Sting,’ is sung by a husband and wife team. The wife has been battling cancer, she was finished up her treatments several weeks ago and was confident that she would be strong enough to do it. We had a practice about a month ago where she was able to come and practice. However, last week she had some complications and died. Her funeral was just a couple of days ago. I assumed they would have to cancel that number or find someone else to sing it but they decided to have in performed in memorial to her. They asked me if I would play the recorder for the alto part and Alaina Bryner will play the tenor part on her violin.

This is a ‘Sing A-long Messiah’ setting. It is held at the Artisan Theater in Hurst. Last year we went and it was fun to be able to ‘sing along’ with them. It is a theater in the round and seats several hundred people. There is no charge to attend but you need to get tickets to reserve your spot. It will be performed twice, at 6:00 and 8:00 pm. Tickets for both times have been sold out for several weeks, so there will be a full house. Well I think that is enough of that, it’s making me nervous thinking about it and I don’t want to do that. Possibly there will be pictures to follow on the blog.

This is a more difficult time of year to be away from home and our dear loved ones. But we try to keep our hearts and minds on our service and the new opportunities that we are having here. Truly we learn more about faith and hope as we meet with others who are in struggling circumstances and as we move forward. We are grateful for our Savior, for his birth, which means so much because of his life – and death. Our testimonies are strengthened as we continue to serve. We hope you have a blessed week and that we all feel of the true meaning of Christmas in our hearts this season.

Our Love, Dad & Mom, Grandpa & Grandma, Jack & Gaye ~ Elder & Sister Nelson

Elder Nelson leaving mission conference.
Jack n Gaye