Dear Shanell,

On Saturday we had a great zone meeting with the city zone. Elder Steed spoke on selfishness and it was quite good. Before the zone meeting, we saw Elder Nielsen off. President Gray took him to the airport and we just waved good-bye. It was rather sad because he was cutting his mission early for football. He does not receive an honorable release and he requested to go home. He caused a lot of problems.

Later than afternoon I was working on a presentation for the Schley family about the Bible and the Book of Mormon at at 6:20 we got a call from Sue Schley canceling the appointment and letting us know that Gunther and her are separated. That stinks! We will just have to pray for them so they can be baptized as a family. Later on Elders Chapman, Bleyl, Webb, Steed, and I went to Waterfall Gully and Hungry Jacks.

On Sunday Elders Chapman, Steed, and I went to church and Mike was there. I about gagged on the smell of smoke on his breath! He said he hadn't smoked! Oh boy!! We've still got a lot of work to do!

On Monday Chris and Diane Lee came and picked up Elder Chapman and I and took us to the Adelaide Zoo. It was pretty fun! The animals were really neat to see. Afterward we went to K-Mart and bought some "Rambo" gifts for the Christmas Party tomorrow. We also went to "Northside Souvenirs" and I bought 2 seamless coin pouches.

We had our mission Christmas party on Tuesday. It was very good! There was a devotional at 9 am and then everyone divided by zones and had workshops with all 3 sets of city zone leaders running them. They were quite good, too. At 12:15 we ate lunch and had the gift exchange. I got a Pavlova kit. Then each zone put on a skit. They were funny! The office staff also put on a skit, and although it was a bit unorganized, it was fun. We had a great time doing it! We spent most of the night cleaning up the cultural hall and when we got back to our flat, it was almost midnight--Christmas Eve. We called Sisters Dulics, Kuhn, Hoffman, Fawcett, Allen, Thomas, Clough, and Tan and sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" to them. The sisters from Mildura and Wyalla zones are staying with Sisters Dulics and Hoffman.

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Elder Wallentine