Christmas greeting family & friends!!!

 

December 22, 2025

Christmas greetings family & friends,

One of the bigger Christmas trees you
would see, this one was at a Chinese
restaurant we had a S&I lunch at.

It’s my Favorite Time of the year! I absolutely love the month of December! But where has it gone!  The last month of the year seems to go so quickly.  I wish Christmas was more like a quarter of the year! 😊  As I sat in church this Sunday listening to the Tabernacle choir at Temple square sing OH Holy Night, my gaze turned towards the sacrament table where the precious emblems that represent the Saviors broken body and his blood sat underneath a white cloth.  My mind was filled with memories of His Life.  I am so grateful for the written word that was preserved so that you and I could come to know who Jesus is and the purpose of his Holy Life.  I love him.

This week I taught the mission prep class.  Our focus was to teach them how to invite someone to be baptized.  We watched several videos showing examples of missionaries asking others if they would accept the Invitation to follow Jesus Christ and to be baptized.  Each time the individual said that they had been waiting their whole lives to have someone ask them to do this.    We read a scripture from  3 Nephi 3:20 (In the Book of Mormon) where the Lord himself extends the same invitation, Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day." To me there is no greater gift of being given the precious gift of appearing spotless before the Lord. I hope you’ll find time this Christmas to ponder the many gifts that became available to us that Holy Night through His Holy Life.

 

Paonangisu branch inside chapel area.
The ground is made up of crushed coral.  
Not a surface you want to go barefoot on.
Mark and I have had another successful, busy week.  We keep making a list of things to accomplish and ticking them off one by one.  Our week started off with completing our 6 week housing check of the missionaries’ apartments.  We mentioned previously that we are helping with the full-time missionary apartments on this island (we inspect, and help with issues that may arise). We traveled to the other side of the island called Paonangisu (Pow-nan-isu) to inspect the elders apartment.   We are so impressed with these elders who support so many different units in this area.  We then traveled about 20 minutes away to the village of Eton to help a young sister who is preparing her paperwork so she can serve a mission. On the way we came up on a truck. Mark said, "is that a cow in the truck?"  Sure enough it was! 
A large, dead cow in the back of a 
pick-up truck.  You don't
see that in the USA too often!!
Take a look at the picture, its’ not great .  I wish I could have gotten the picture when the guys sitting in the back of the truck realized I was taking a picture.  How in the world did they get that huge cow in the back of the truck?  Yes, it was dead.  When we were in Eton Mark focused on helping the young sister with her mission application while I visited with others who had gathered around us on mats.  One of the younger girls, who was probably between 14 to 15, kept inching towards me.  Her friend seeing her movement towards me said, “don’t you touch her hair!"  Just about that time she says to me, "can I touch your hair"?  I thought maybe she would touch it and be done.  But, I was wrong.  She proceeded to braid my hair tight to my head,  I told her she should become a stylist as there are not many here on the island.  Of course my wonderful boyfriend took a picture.  Enjoy!  
Me with my new hairdresser.
Not sure it is my look. What do
you think?

All along the way, I saw bananas.  Whenever I see bananas, I shout out "Bananas!!!!".  I told Mark that I really want to cut my own bananas.  So, guess what I got? The boyfriend bought me a machete for a gift.  We are keeping it under the front seat, so, if an opportunity presents itself I can cut my first bunch of bananas.  What a romantic gift.

My Christmas gift machete.
I am ready now to get me 
some bananas!!!
Oh, something I forget to share.  While in Eton I watched two little pikininis (young child in Bislama), about the age of 4, walking along the path towards the woods with a machete in each of their hands!  Not 10 minutes later they were chasing 2 others pulling a wheelbarrow by ropes launching those same knifes towards the wheelbarrow.  My heart skipped several beats as I watched those knifes fly through the air.

I scream "BANANAS!!!!"
every time I see them on the 
side of the road.
In preparation for Christmas our Mission Presidents wife asked me to prepare the hamburgers.   I made 65 - 1/3lb burgers patties, which is basically a cup of meat.  I spent Wednesday making these huge burgers and putting them in the freezer.  I sat at the table for a few minutes and while sitting there I felt the table begin to shake for about 30 seconds and then again.  Come to find out we had a 5.5 earthquake.  That’s the 2nd one I've felt since being here.  

I’ll be making a huge Potato salad and a mandarin orange salad for the Christmas dinner.  All the senior missionaries will join the younger missionaries at our Mission President and wife’s house for Christmas breakfast and dinner.  I found bacon and have enough so the missionaries can have ~4 pieces.  On Christmas Eve we will gather with our Church family for a devotional, nativity pictures and dinner.  I’ll be making cupcakes to share.  So Christmas will be a lot of cooking and baking.

Darleen Posing with some of the YSA's after
our Service Project at Lycée School 

We are less than 14 days away from our YSA Convention!!!!  On Saturday we gathered, at the school where the convention will be hosted, to clean and prep the rooms.  Thankfully we had over 60 who showed up.  I was so happy to see everyone and even happier at the progress that was made.  Afterwards Mark and I retreated to a local resort for lunch and a few hours in the pool and sun.  It was so wonderful and gave me the energy I needed to push on.  I was able to finished 4 more Christmas wreaths and get them delivered and created a program brochure for the convention  Mark of course has done so much with arranging travel and keeping the whole committee on task.  He is our great motivator!  I love that he has such great talents that lead others to success.

One of the single sisters we visited and
caroled to.   This is her entry to her
home.   Very humble circumstances.

Sunday after our church services, one of our senior missionaries -- the Meyers, arranged for us to go to their branch they are assigned to sing and drop off a small gift to 12 different individuals who are needing to have some Christmas Spirit.  The Meyers had asked the Branch President if there were any families we could minister to, and he recommended we visit these 12 single sisters who had either lost their husbands, or have never married.   We had the Relief Society President, the Elder's Quorum President, 4 sets of senior missionaries, and 4 sets of junior proselyting missionaries.   We broke up into 3 groups and went and visited them, sang a few Christmas songs, and left them with a small gift that we all pitched in to put together.   It was a beautiful evening, and it helped to see how simple their lives are in the small little villages.
A toilet one one side
and a place to wash
yourself with a bucket.




I love this beautiful island we call home right now!  I love the service we are engaged in and I love the people so much.  I feel like I have always known them.  I miss my kids and grandkids. I wish they could be with us, and I cherish every opportunity I have to talk to them and Facetime them and catch up.  I love hearing from our ward family back in Wisconsin, we consider them family.  Mark and I wish you all a very Wonderful Christmas Celebration and pray that God will continue to guide you and bless you. We love you! 

Mark & Darleen aka Nana & Papa


Some fun pictures from this past week

Two cows heads, not something
you see sitting in the butcher
section back in Wisconsin.











Little piglets right in the 
butcher section of our 
local grocery store.

This week's Friday night YSA's
Game & Movie night.
We went from ~10 the week before
to over 30 attendees.

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