Shad in San Jose: Shad's Heaven (lots of food and a football game)

12-3-13

Thanksgiving was awesome! We went to the Makasini's and ate TONS of food! There was a hecka a lot of food on the table...you know you've eaten a lot when you're still full the next morning! Man-I was stuffed! Elder Jones tried to out eat me and he can eat quite a bit, but I won! After we ate, they brought out the ukelele and guitars and started singing and playing in one room and I love hearing Polys sing. They have such good/unique singing voices! It sounds awesome! Then, in the other room, the younger grandkids were singing karaoke-it was pretty funny to listen to them. I haven't even heard most of the songs they were singing! It was fun and we had a great Thanksgiving dinner. Afterwards, we went to the Stake Center with all the missionaries and built a fire, had s'mores, and had a testimony type meeting. It was pretty cool! Traffic was horrible Thursday night and Friday and there was a lot of people everywhere! (Black Thursday/Friday) Uncle Craig is the ward mission leader?! That's awesome! This last week was interesting and a little rough. Everyone was busy Thursday and Friday so it was hard to find things to do those days. Then, on Sunday, Semisi didn't come to church and he's suppose to get baptized the 14th, but he has to come at least 2 weeks of church! Ahhhh! But, hopefully, this week goes better! We got permission to go to a Standford game on Saturday, so we had to use our P-day on Saturday if we wanted to go, so we went on Saturday with some members. We tailgated before, had pheasant sausage and burgers, and watched Notre Dame vs. Stanford. It was super SWEET! It was a good game! So much fun! Totally worth it! (I'm sure Shad was in heaven watching a football game!) Yesterday and today, we have been setting up a Creche display that they do here. It's basically a nativity set in French, but there are 350+ of them in the whole church through the weekend and there are performances each night. The nativity sets and pictures are from different parts of the world. It's a lot of work, but should be really neat! They have been doing it for 26 years, I think, and they fill up the whole church, so the wards that go there have to go to a different building for the weekend! It's pretty big, so we have been busy with that. Dad- that's great that you taught! I'm sure you did great! Yes, prayer is definitely a vital part of the gospel! If there was not prayer, there would be no First Vision, no prophets, no restoration, missionary work, temples, and so on! I am so thankful for that ability to communicate to Heavenly Father because I definitely need it out here! Things are going well! Hopefully, things go well for you this week, as well!

Love ya,
Ofa Atu,
Elder Whaley