Advent Calendar Days 7 to 12

Advent Calendar Day 7:

Dallin –

So this is the time of year when I read all of our books to you guys and you know one of the classics is “The Grinch”. I am not going to send you the whole story, just one little part of it:

Three thousand feet up! Up the side of Mt. Crumpit,

He rode with his load to the tiptop to dump it!

“Pooh-Pooh to the Whos!” he was grinch-ish-ly humming.

“They’re finding out now that no Christmas is coming!

They’re just waking up! I know just what they’ll do!

Their mouths will hand open a minute or two

Then the Whos down in Who-ville will all cry BOO-HOO!”

“That’s a noise,” grinned the Grinch,

“That I simply MUST hear!”

So he paused. And the Grinch put his hand to his ear.

And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.

It started in low. Then it started to grow….

But the sound wasn’t sad!

Why, this sound sounded merry!

It couldn’t be so!

But it WAS merry! VERY!

He stared down at Who-ville!

The Grinch popped his eyes!

Then he shook!

What he saw was a shocking surprise!

Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,

Was singing! Without any presents at all!

He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming!

IT CAME!

Somehow or other, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,

Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?

It came without ribbons! It came without tags!

It came without packages, boxes or bags!”

And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore,

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!

“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.

Maybe Christmas… perhaps... means a little bit more!”

We hope that you get the opportunity to share the “little bit more” of Christmas with many people this coming week! Love you.

From your Family!

Advent Calendar Day 8:

Hi Dallin --

Today we celebrated Ceris's birthday. It's not totally Christmas-related but her birthday does take place at Christmas time every year so we thought we were justified to send you a gif of her blowing out her candles.

Love, your family

Advent Calendar Day 9:

Hey Dallin –

We all need a little “Canadianess” in our Christmas. Hope you enjoy mom, Robert and Linnea singing this new Canadian classic Christmas carol!

Love your Family

Advent Calendar Day 10:

What could be more Canadian at Christmas than lumberjacks sawing a buche de Noel?

Love your Family!

Advent Calendar Day 11:

Dallin –

Here is a colouring page that you can print off for any of your investigators or members who have little kids that might want to colour a picture of “Little Jesus”

Little Jesus

Fairest little Jesus child

Came to earth so meek and mild,

Came to earth to show the way.

Praise we sing on Christmas Day!

Fairest little Jesus child,

From the heavens angels smiled.

We a gift before thee lay.

Praise we sing on Christmas Day!

Love your family!

http://www.20pages.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/nativity-coloring-pages-merry-christmas-free-5097845.jpg

Advent Calendar Day 12:

A meme from your favourite Christmas movie:

Advent Calendar Days 1 to 6

Since we are not able to send Elder Backstrom packages from home (the mission has requested that no packages be sent because of the very large duty put on such packages that arrive from outside the country), we decided to send Dallin an e-mail advent calendar with some fun things for him to enjoy. We know he only gets these once a week on p-day, but we have been sending them every day. We thought you might enjoy seeing what we have sent to him:

Advent Calendar Day 1:

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS!

Tonight was family home evening and we set up the Christmas stuff and listened to Christmas music and watched a Christmas video and drank Eggnog. In other news, mom got the Christmas cake made and all in all, we're feeling pretty pumped for the Holidays to come. What's Christmas like in Argentina? The first one you spent was in the MTC, so this'll be the first real one. Hope you enjoy every minute of it. We miss you lots!

The Family
​

Advent Calendar Day 2:

For day 2 your favourite Christmas elf demonstrates how to celebrate the season in an elevator:

Advent Calendar Day 3:

Time to listen to some great Christmas music, Dallin. Hopefully this will bring back some memories and to please you it is a little bit of “cool jazz” for you.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6zypc_LhnM&list=RDx6zypc_LhnM#t=27

Merry Christmas Day 3

Love the Family

Advent Calendar Day 4:

Because the Christmas season can bring out the very best in all of us; enjoy this poem and feel free to share it with others.

Love your Family

At Christmas

By Edgar Guest

A man is at his finest
     towards the finish of the year;
He is almost what he should be
     when the Christmas season is here;
Then he's thinking more of others
     than he's thought the months before,
And the laughter of his children
     is a joy worth toiling for.
He is less a selfish creature than
     at any other time;
When the Christmas spirit rules him
     he comes close to the sublime.

When it's Christmas man is bigger
     and is better in his part;
He is keener for the service
     that is prompted by the heart.
All the petty thoughts and narrow
     seem to vanish for awhile
And the true reward he's seeking
     is the glory of a smile.
Then for others he is toiling and
     somehow it seems to me
That at Christmas he is almost
     what God wanted him to be.

If I had to paint a picture of a man
     I think I'd wait
Till he'd fought his selfish battles
     and had put aside his hate.
I'd not catch him at his labors
     when his thoughts are all of pelf,
On the long days and the dreary
     when he's striving for himself.
I'd not take him when he's sneering,
     when he's scornful or depressed,
But I'd look for him at Christmas
     when he's shining at his best.

Man is ever in a struggle
     and he's oft misunderstood;
There are days the worst that's in him
     is the master of the good,
But at Christmas kindness rules him
     and he puts himself aside
And his petty hates are vanquished
     and his heart is opened wide.
Oh, I don't know how to say it,
     but somehow it seems to me
That at Christmas man is almost
     what God sent him here to be."

Advent Calendar Day 5:

Today we are giving you something that we don't think you are going to get for Christmas in Argentina: SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since we don't have enough bandwidth to send actual snowballs to you, attached are some photos of your bro in the snow, plus the trampoline, which we didn't get around to putting away before winter. Enjoy -- from your family.

 Advent Calendar Day 6:

Hello Dallin --

When we asked Linnea what we should send you for the Advent Calendar today, she said a nativity. So here are three pictures of Argentina-related nativities. Two are Argentina nativity stamps and the other is a somewhat sacrilegious picture -- or a reminder of where our priorities should be, one could say -- showing former Argentina soccer great Maradona in place of the baby Jesus.

Love, your family

Around The Scriptures In Forty Days!

Well, how is everyone?

I am writing my "General epistle" first this week, seeing as recently the time has made a bad play of me and left me sending sub-par letters.

This week has been a pretty interesting one for me. while we did not manage to find a lot of people at home, we did make some important contact with some people who were sort of slipping through our fingers (especially a lady named Soledad Paz, who is a good friend of a member in a province outside of the mission...)

This week we also had a zone conference with President Goates and also the stake conference on Saturday and Sunday. I learned a lot, and especially in zone conference they really talked about a lot of different things that I appreciated and learned from.

Also this week, I made a new personal study plan, and started a special study project: Starting on the twelfth of December, I was (am) going to read through all of the standard works, cover to cover, in forty days. In approximate math that means 64 pages per day. I started reading in the New Testament and now, on the fourth day, have read up to nearly the end of Paul's epistle to the Romans (and have about 25 pages left to go to finish today even!) Reading that much each day there are definitely things that I don't retain, but it is also helping me get a better knowledge of the the general contents of the scriptures and take away more meaning from the patterns of teaching that I see repeated again and again. Having read all the scriptures that treat the life of Jesus Christ in only two days,  I was impressed by the meaningful, applicable teachings the he delivered in every moment. His actions taught that men should have faith; His example that we should never fear, but rely always in God.

Something that impressed me about zone conference that I then got again from the scriptures was when President taught that the words of greater faith are "and if not..." Citing the story of the friends of Daniel at the point of being cast into the fire by an infuriated king, he reminded us that they were calmly confident that their God would deliver them from the heat of the furnace. Then he pointed out in one of the verses, that the three young men said, "and if not, we know that we would not bow down and worship your idol." He used this example to teach that although it is good to have faith that God will work mighty miracles in our lives, the words of greater faith from these young men (Who where miraculously protected from the flames) were that even if God did not save them according to their desire, they would continue with faith in him. Then, reading of the life of Jesus Christ, it was evident to me that although he knew that he would be delivered up, and scourged, and suffer pains that would make him even to tremble and would that he might not drink the bitter cup, he never so much as wavered in the least in his absolute confidence in his Father. He knew that he would not be delivered, and yet his example taught that it does not mater what we have to go through in this life- that everything is worth the price it takes to do always the things that will please our Heavenly Father.

Have a good week everyone,

El. Backstrom

Fun P-day Pics!

Well hello folks.

Welcome to this week's weekly letter. Pictures included!

We had a p-day in the chapel as a district today, playing Frisbee.

The whole district, serious faces. well, the Elders are making serious faces.

Goofy faces!

More goofy faces.

Civilized people.

left to right, top row: Hna. Larios, Hna. Jacinto, Hna. Harris, Hna. Rodriguez

Bottom row: El. Evans, el. Pinero, El. Inca, El. Backstrom

A group photo

Me with each member of the district;

El. Pinero,

El. Evans,

Hna. Rodriguez,

Hna. Jacinto,

Hna. Larios,

Hna. Harris,

And Elder Inca.

And there you go! a few pictures of a fun p-day.

Alright. So, it's gotten really hot. I've had a little trouble sleeping at night due to that. we've had a week with a bit of difficulty finding people at home so it's been a couple of empty days in the beating sun- but at least there is wind here. My study this week has been centered in the gospel of Matthew, and I studied several times the sermon on the mount- it is fascinating how applicable the teachings therein still are. 

Alright, sorry it's short, I have to go, lots of love,

El. Backstrom

A Christmas Message

Hello everyone who may or may not have believed me to have been seriously ill last week. Well, I was very bad last week but I got better on the Tuesday.

Well I can't write much right now. Please forgive me! but I would like to invite everyone to watch the church's Christmas initiative video and to share it if you can!

Thanks and sorry.

Have a good week!

In case you want to watch or share this video in English, enjoy!

Sick days for El Backstrom

So, this will be short, because I am sick and kind of dizzy and honestly not understanding hardly any of what I am reading. Also I replied personally to almost everyone.

This week has been exhausting! I got sick with something and have been under the weather since Thursday. We did a lot of finding activities with not tons of results but did find one person with whom we had a lesson. It rained this week but we were inside that day because I was very sick. whew, lucky that those things lined up (well for my companion- I would have preferred to be outside in the soaking wet to in the apartment very sick.)

This week I read a lot of scriptures that impacted me a lot, but most of all I enjoyed Jacob 6- especially his concise "Oh be wise; What can I say more?"

Have a good week, keep smiling.

El. Backstrom

Also, some answers to some questions that Dallin's mother put to him that some of you might be interested in:

1.  How big is the ward or branch that you are serving in? Is it a ward or branch? What is the name of the ward/branch?

100ish active people, ward, Amppya

2.  What is it like in Argentina as you get ready for the Christmas season? Is it pretty commercial like it is here at home or is it more Christ focused?

Well Wal-Mart has fruitcake. I honestly have not noticed any other change in anything, except for one member who had us help put up Christmas lights. it's a lot bigger of a deal here that they're going to have an excuse to drink a lot of beer and make a ruckus which they call fiesta than either Christ or consumerism, if you get what I mean? basically it's not much more than another day that everyone has off from work in the minds of most people here.

3.  How long has your companion Elder Inca been out on his mission? What is he like (besides being cool, you mentioned that… just a little more detail please)?

Elder Inca has like 15 months, so not too much more than me. he is short, speaks Spanish, makes fairly good jokes and knows science (chemistry)

4.  Are you in a pench with other elders or is it just the two of you?

Us two, thankfully. makes cleanliness a real possibility

I thought some of you might enjoy a little more info on some of those things. I did. In case you didn't notice I put all of my words in purple!

Introducing San Luis

So, I have photos this week. Let's start there.

Hmm they came out backwards

This is mate, it's a traditional Argentine drink. I don't think I had sent a picture before.

This is the neighbour's dog, Lucy. we share a patio, so she sort of lives mostly in our house.

This is me. In case you did not recognize me.

This is my companion, Elder Inca, from Peru.

And here we are together.

Well this week, we have had a little bit of a hard time getting ahold of the people we're working with. Still it hasn't been bad; we found a few new people to teach and have been working a lot with the ward council on creating a ward mission plan.

I'm sorry I'm making this a little shorter than normal, but time is limited...

This week in my scripture study I happened to read James- and as I read, It interested me that he says that if we ask and do not receive, there is a reason for that. He says that if we ask and receive not, it is because we have asked wrong- or, perhaps, we might need to consider why God might be withholding the blessings we are requesting. Something that was interesting for me.

Well, have a good week then,

El. Backstrom