Christmas Eve and Morning 2014

 Our Christmas tree was nice, but bare with little to put on it.  I had a dozen bulbs, and candy canes. We used only 2/3s of the tree stored in the basement of our house because the stand was missing so Elder Allsop secured it to a wooden base.

Because we couldn't get the pre-lite lights to work, Elder Allsop bought a string of little white lights at the local grocery store.

The table was set as best we could with mission dishes, but The Jarvis's fruit basket really made it look nice.  The Elders appreciated having a taste of home. (note the Christmas salad flopped a bit.)

 My gift to Elder Allsop was a set of Lincoln Logs that I heard about on the Colstrip online Garage Sale Facebook page.  I surprised him with it. (a memory from his childhood.)


This was our Christmas day activity.

Elders Weaver and Brewster missionaries serving now in Forsyth, 33 miles to the north.  We have a visit from them occasionally.

Second visit to the Amish

Amish Country on the Reservation

Located north of Ashland several miles is a community of Amish. We went to their little Country Store again, and as I waited in the car I got a few pictures.

Little youngster came riding up fast on his pony, jumped off and checked something then got back on and road back around the barn.  They don't allow pictures to be taken, but I cheated and snapped this as he mounted the horse again.  Cute little feller he was.

This house is near the Country Store.. 

 I enjoyed watching the clean white wash on the clothes line flapping in the breeze.

This barn could probably tell at good many stories.

From all appearances these people have a low stressful life.

Our Missionary Christmas gift.

Our Missionary Gift to Ward Members

 Elder Allsop spent hours burning DVD taken from Mormon.org. 

 The Elders we served with in Poplar took clips from mormon.org, burned them on about 100 dvds and even designed a label.  We had saved all of the information and was able to figure it out, but not without purchasing a newer computer and a dvd writer.  He burned over 100 of them.

We passed out about 30 of them to the families who attended the Ward Christmas party in Colstrip.

For two weeks we traversed the reservation to visit those people who we had been received warmly as we located members these last 3 months.  Each one received a dvd.  Even those not home would find one tucked in their door.

Not only did they get a dvd, but we baked bread too.  Those whom were at home received a loaf of bread.  (thank you to Rhodes co.) We delivered about 50 loaves of bread and even took time to visit active members in Colstrip with our gifts.

These are are typical home we visited.  Yard work is not a priority, but it is made up in the number of dogs they own.

I had to get a picture of the purple painted home.


Also a typical sight are shoes hanging from power lines.  I don't know if there is a significance to these or just kids playing.