December 27 update

It's been a great week for the family of Elder Kenison!  Do we look happy in this photo, taken on Friday December 24?

This is the reason we're happy:

We were so delighted that the missions in Chile (or at least our mission) received a letter from SLC just before Christmas informing them that missionaries are allowed to use Skype for their semi-annual phone call home!!  Since this would be our last call, the notice came just in time to allow us to benefit.  It was such a joy to not only hear Matt's voice, but to see his face as well.  We were instructed to talk between 45 minutes and an hour, and we were just under an hour total.  The sound quality was good, but the video a little "jerky"; but we certainly won't complain.  The connection stayed solid for the first 40 minutes, then we lost it a couple of times - but always got it quickly re-established.

Elder Kenison sounded SO GOOD - happy, enthusiastic, loving the work and his companion and his assignment.  We were very pleased to have all that reconfirmed and know that he's moving forward.  We asked him in today's email if he had any goals for the end of his mission (the last 2 1/2 months), and this was his response:

Just to give it all I got. I hope to just collapse off of the plane because I'll be so tired. I want to leave it all here (in the sense that I'll take advantage of every second.)

That's a great missionary spirit, and we hope he does his very best and comes home knowing it!

It's been a busy week, but different than most due to the holidays.  On the 23rd the missionaries assembled in Santiago for a mission conference.  They held meetings with a member of the Area Presidency (whose name I don't recall) and had other activities.  Sounds like that was a great day for them, inspiring and encouraging.  We asked if he noticed any different local customs related to Christmas:

Just about the same as in the states. Just without snow and not everyone celebrates it. Kinda sad but still I saw kids riding around on their new bikes and stuff like that. haha Kinda normal. The biggest difference is that everyone has a huge dinner the day before Christmas. haha Kinda weird. We ate with Familia Espina. We ate SO much!!! I could barely walked out of the house we ate turkey. haha

Nice that they were taken care of!  It looks like the elders also enjoyed the Christmas presents they got from home, including lots of "treats" (some of the stuff in this photo that is still wrapped is for Matt's birthday, that is a couple of weeks away)::

This photo has a little less traditional "Christmas spirit" but more local character.  Matt wrote:

Just chillin in our house Christmas night. We had our dinner with a family on Christmas Eve and so on Christmas we stopped by the neighbors to buy a Completo haha and as usual in Chile a Coco-Cola haha

 Not a terribly festive Christmas Dinner, but they were happy, and that's what counts.

Otherwise, they've been trying to work more (sounds like their health is much better) and keep the work moving forward.  There were about 50 people in Church on Sunday, a good attendance compared to recent weeks.

We had several meetings with the ward which was AWESOME!!! It was a really good experience. We've set up a couple of plans for the next year. haha pretty sweet

We continue to hope and pray for safety, health, and success in their labors!