Merry Christmas from Elders Hunsaker and Hoffman!

Untitled from Kristyn Crow on Vimeo.

God Sent His Son Just for Us

Only six days left until Christmas everyone!!! I'm sure you know that though. Just so everyone knows, I'm doing well. All I had from the car accident was some whiplash, and it's gone now. I had a doctor look at my neck, and she said it was totally fine, just normal whiplash pain. It hurt for about three days, and then it stopped. Elder Hoffman was the same way, he's doing well too. Just so everyone knows!



Last night I was at a huge stake musical performance about Christmas. It was SO good. It was probably the best stake level event I've ever been to. There was a huge choir, a big orchestra, a giant projector with movie clips... It was intense. They had it in the chapel with the cultural hall opened up full of chairs. So many people showed up, that every single chair was full, all the way to the back of the stake center (and it's a pretty big stake center). A lot of people just stood in the back or at the sides. Oh yeah, and you know Kirby Hayborne? (I think that's how you spell it) The guy who plays the nerd missionary in The Best Two Years and is in like every church movie ever made? He is in this stake apparently. He was the narrator. It was weird, he walked right up and talked to us, and when I first saw him, I was like "I know this guy... Where have I seen him before..." I could not remember for the life of me where I knew him from. Then later, one of the other missionaries walked up to me and was like "So what did Kirby Hayborne talk to you about? I recognized his name and I realized, OH... THAT'S where I know him from! Turns out I really didn't know him, I just thought I did.



Anyway, one of the songs from the program was one I've never heard before. It was so beautiful. The lyrics were really good as well. I want to share the chorus with you all:



Can you hear it?

The sound of peace on Earth

It's the song of Christmas

Celebrate His birth

It's the Chorus

That rings inside our hearts

God sent His son

Just for us

It's the song of Christmas.



I love those lyrics, because that's what Christmas really means to me. "God sent His son, just for us." We're celebrating the birth of our Savior. He is God's gift to all of us. The gift of salvation, the gift of hope, the gift of Eternal life, the gift of true happiness, all of that comes through our Savior. The world today is trying really hard to take "Christ" out of "Christmas." Try as they might however, the reason that Christmas is such a wonderful time and that so many people love Christmas, is because this time of year, for a brief moment, goodness and the spirit of Christ reign on the earth. I hope we can all remember why we really celebrate Christmas. God be thanked for the gift of His divine Son. Merry Christmas everyone!

Other than the accident....

Hey everyone! This past week has been NUTS. We had three zone conferences in a row, they go from about 8am - 4pm. We had them on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Needless to say, we are dead tired. We have two more of them this week too, on Tuesday and Wednesday. It gets harder and harder for us to stay awake through them because every meeting is the exact same thing, almost word for word. We simply give the meeting in different locations throughout the mission so eventually everyone hears it. For those of us who are there every time though... it gets extremely monotonous. Luckily, this will be our last week of zone conferences for a while.



Other than that, things have been going great. We are teaching an 84 year old woman who is getting really close to being ready for baptism. When we first started teaching her, she was really reluctant to even talk about baptism, but now she is much more accepting of it and of us in general. We really hope to have a baptismal date with her soon.


I'm soooooo excited for Christmas!!! I can't wait to talk with everyone from home. I hope everyone else is having a great Christmas season too, and that we can all do our best to keep "Christ" in "Christmas." Love you!

A car accident...

This is Garrett's mother, and I just received a phone call from Sister Martin informing me that Elder Hunsaker was in a car accident today with two other elders. Everyone escaped without serious injury, but the car was totalled. Elder Hoffman was driving the car, but it was not his fault. They were taking another elder to the airport and a car several cars ahead of them had its battery die amidst fast-moving traffic. The car behind it was able to stop in time, as well as the elders' car, but the car behind them did not stop and slammed into the back of their car, pushing them into the car in front of them. All the elders were taken to the ER and are okay, but Elder Hunsaker was complaining of pain in his neck and shoulders. He was instructed to take ibuprofen and to rest. Sister Martin suspects that if he is already having whiplash pain that it will be worse tomorrow and the next several days. But I am so grateful to know that everyone is well and that there was not more serious news to report. Please remember Elder Hunsaker in your prayers!


Sister Crow

Sister Crow, We really enjoy having your son in our ward. He is a great missionary and you can see the Spirit manifest as he shares his testimony. He's the perfect kind of missionary we like to have over for dinner. He's comfortable with our big family and good at making himself at home. We love him! Attached is a picture from the Newhall 1st ward Christmas party last Friday night. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for sharing your son with us!

AnnaBeth Carpenter

Preparing for the Last Mission Christmas

A few people have asked, so before I forget, here is my address (or, I should say, the mission office address) for Christmas:

23504 Lyons Ave. Suite #107
Santa Clarita, CA 91321

That's so crazy to hear about the windstorm this week! It kind of makes me sad to know that my yard will look so different when I get home. I'm glad everyone is okay though. Did that Microburst end up coming? I hope not. We had the same windstorm up here the night before it hit you all, but it wasn't nearly as bad as what you got. I mean, it was really windy, but it wasn't blowing trees over or anything.

As far as calling on Christmas goes, I have church at eleven oclock (California time) till noon, so only one hour. I will probably call home right after I get out of church. Let me know if that works for you.

As far as things for me, they have been crazy busy. We have been traveling all over the mission helping President Martin with his Zone conferences and stuff. Tomorrow we're heading to Ridgecrest! Remember when I was there? I'll probably visit some of my favorite families there after the meeting, since we don't have chances to go up there very often.

Anyway, I'm doing great. I'm so excited to talk to my family on Christmas, that will be the best gift anyone could ever give me. I love you all!