Letter #43
December 22, 2007
Dear Elder Roper,
Has Santa arrived in Hermosillo? Does Hermosillo very get snow (a joke)? Mexico is a Christian nation, so I’m guessing Christmas would be a big event. So, how did the music turn out? Amanda and I didn’t know exactly what to send, so we just chose some basic Christmas carols. How much does it cost to print pages from the Internet? Oh, is your Visa card working? (I never did hear how that turned out.) Have you decorated your apartment much? Did all the other Elders living with you get their presents? Do the cities decorate for
Christmas? Are there many Christmas lights around? We have several Spanish TV stations now and I often watch them for a few minutes. One of these days, I’m really going to get serious about learning Spanish.
How’s your English now? You are far more immersed in Spanish than I was in Dutch, so I’m guessing you’ll soon be having trouble remembering the English words. Keep going on your Spanish studies as you’ll probably never have as great an opportunity as you now have to expand your vocabulary. Maybe you should stop at a car garage, a hospital, a fast food place, or city hall and talk with people there. I’d imagine most people would be glad to help you learn more Spanish (and maybe even learn something about the gospel, right?!)
Well, what’s happened here at home? I’m reading a book about the end of World War II. It’s fascinating, depressing, and informative all at the same time. I guess I’ve always thought that with the surrender of Germany, people pulled together and put Germany and Europe back together. (Sure letters he received from his wife.
She told him everything she could think of about their daily lives and especially their two children. She wondered if what she was writing would be boring to him. He replied that nothing could be further from the truth. And so, I hope my day to day accounts are interesting to you because you are part of our daily lives – I hope you feel that. Anyway, last Sunday was our annual family ginger bread houses day. Everyone came over and we spent the evening putting two candies on a house (and one in the mouth.) Shauna’s, of course, was a huge two store mansion. Jess and Golden’s had the usual flare with people inside the windows and a snowman outside.
Everyone else’s were just as good and the best part was that everyone had to take theirs home with them looked fine when I visited Europe.)
However, the conditions after the war were very similar to what is happening in Iraq today. But, to my point, many of the soldiers were away from home for years. One in particular mentioned about the

(except I see two of them just in front of me.) We had a fun time and the kids enjoyed playing together. I ran my train for them upstairs – Ayden just loves the train. I bet I repeated “Come off the stage” two hundred times
– he just couldn’t stay away from the train cars!
I went down to work on
Monday and it was very busy for being the first day of finals!
Tuesday evening, Bill Parks and I went home teaching. Lindsay
Thomas came home on Monday from the Fuji Islands and so there were plenty of Thomas family there running in and out. Plus, we were fed some delicious fixin’s – I especially enjoyed the pomegranate jello that Sister Thomas fixed!
You’ll have to try it someday. We had a half hour break before visiting the Hill’s as well. They all ask me about you and send their best wishes. (Actually, I have to confess that I have a letter from Brother
Thomas that I need to put in the mail, sorry!) Linda and Amanda went to homemaking meeting and came home with a lot of goodies as well. I’m glad they went and especially that Linda got out with the ward sisters.
Wednesday evening after work, I stopped over at Phil’s for a few minutes – turned into a few hours, of course. I felt bad though, because Marie and her family came by the house to sing Christmas carols to us.
Linda and the family really enjoyed and appreciated them coming by.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to harmonize like that?!! We sure love
Marie – oh well, we’ll see! We will be having them over after Christmas sometime and I’m looking forward to that. Gina stayed up all night, literally, working on her music time-line for a class. I guess she did get a couple of hours sleep, but I worked with her in the morning to get it finished. We then went to
BYU to print a big copy and attend her final class while I caught up on my email and prepared for next semester. When we finally started for home at 5:30, a huge storm hit the valley – the snow was very similar to hail and accumulated very quickly on the ground. It was slow going getting home. We had planned to take the Priest’s to Salt Lake to see the lights, but that wasn’t going to happen. I guess the traffic was literally stop and go from University Parkway in Orem to 90 th
South in Salt
Lake! So, we all just met at the Bishop’s home and watched the first college bowl game of the year – Utah vs.
Navy. It turned out to be a very boring 1 st
half and so at 9:30, we left. (I guess the game picked up a bit in the second half with Utah barely winning 40-37 – I felt badly about routing for Navy!) Around 11:30, Gina finished her final paper and so I got out of bed and drover her down to BYU. The roads were very slick and I really didn’t want her out alone, so I really didn’t mind.
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Yesterday, Friday, Linda and I finally decided it was time to do some serious Christmas shopping. We really had a fun time. While at Best Buy, I began to feel pressured a bit – so many things to choose from – but I stopped and said to myself, “It’s my money and there’s always another bargain.” After that, I relaxed and Linda and I put some things back and just took our time. We had supper together at Winger’s and even walked the
Mall once, just to exercise and enjoy the sites. (We were approached many times with hard-sale people, but ended up leaving the mall with all our money!) We arrived home at 10:00, peeled some oranges that Benjamin and Holly had sent us, and settled down to watch the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie (or at least I did!)
Linda was just really tired and I used the excuse of waiting up for Christina to come home!
So, here we are Saturday morning with only a few items left to purchase for Christmas. We are expecting Liz and Jared later this evening, so I’m going to try and empty your room out for them to use while they visit us. I looked at your time zone and it appears we have the exact same time. Actually that kind of makes me feel even closer to you! Anyway, unless we hear different, we are planning on calling you on
Christmas day (the 25 th ) at 11:00 am (ours and your time) on your cell phone (1-662-112-0243), ok? We are looking forward to the call! Between now and then, write down a few questions you have of us and we’ll do the same. Otherwise, when we hang up, you’ll think of things you’d wished you’d asked.
We all wish you and your companion a very Merry Christmas.
It’s tough being away for Christmas, but if you’ll just think of others and spend the day making others happy, you’ll find Christmas Day to be one of the best days of your mission! Plan for something fun to do after our phone call as well, ok? We all love you and pray for you, your companion, and the people you teach. I know of the truthfulness of Christ’s true church, his anointed disciples, and the divine calling of Joseph Smith. The Book of
Mormon is a true account of Christ’s work among an ancient people, many of whom have descendants that you are teaching today. This is the stone that
Daniel saw rolling forth to consume the earth. Sometimes we forget that, and with so much unrest, intellectualism, humanizing, and otherwise un-godliness all around us, we must remember to hold fast to the rod and push forward through the mist to reach the tree of life together! The sun truly does always come up tomorrow. Be happy because you have a lot to be happy about!
Love, Dad
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