Do You See What I See?

On December 11th, we are having a special Christmas event. We hope it turns out at least ½ as well as what it looks like in our heads – hah!

Basically this will be our last opportunity to leave all these Institute kids (whom we have grown to love) with our testimony of Christ.

As full-time missionaries, we put out a special invitation to all the Institute young adults to RVSP and to bring a non-member or less active friend. We even got permission from our mission President to have the six (actually 7 due to a threesome) university area full-time “young” missionaries to help assist.

So, the word went out. Already enough young adults have RSVP’d that we actually are having to pull the event off twice. Once at 11:30 (sold out) and then an hour later at 12:30 ( ¾ sold out). We really, really hope it turns out as well as what we have hyped it up to be.

So the pressure is on and we spent the better part of our 4 day Thanksgiving weekend preparing for this “little” event.

What could we possibly be up to? Well, we have been putting together a program centered on Christ, based on 1 Nephi chapter 11, connecting His birth with the Tree of Life. (More details on the specifics on this program at a later time.)

And of course the room will be decorated up a little for Christmas. How “little” you may ask? Well, you do understand that Mike is involved right? Yah, you got it, if we actually pull it off, the room will be decorated to the hilt - Including a center piece consisting of a three-panel stained glass Nativity scene.

Each stain glass panel will be about 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide. This makes the whole Nativity scene 8 feet tall x 18 feet wide.

Of course, you might well ask, (and actually I did ask Mike): “Do we know ANYTHING about creating stained glass panes? Just how big is our budget?” Well, due to budget constraints and the fact we know NOTHING about stained glass, Mike opted for an alternate plan. Since we are EXPERTS in duct tape, Mike figured we could stretch our area of expertise a bit and try putting together “stained glass” panels, aka, scotch tape, colored cellophane and black butcher paper. Of course, when I asked Mike has anyone ever put together cellophane panels that large? I got the standard Hertz car reply, “Well, not exactly.” But when has a little “big” ever stopped Mike?

So here we are starting to put together the first of three panels:

Don’t let that half-smile fool you. If that looks like a mess, you win the prize! Mike is trying to figure out how to get that “little” shepherd boy to cooperate. Who would have known that cellophane” likes to split and tear so very, very easily when you are trying to make it look like stained glass.

Finally though, it started to cooperate and after ONLY 26 hours of cellophane “fun,” we got the three panels completed. So on to the next task, , ,

On a less-stressful front, here is a picture of some of the young adults in our West Seattle class. In the front, second from your left, is the young woman, named “Kiethly” who was baptized and confirmed last week!


Well, we hope you took some time with family and friends to talk some turkey over some pumpkin pie!

We are so thankful and grateful for all your prayers and support. Know that you are in our prayers as well!

Love,

Elder “Mike” and Sister “Jenny” Thornton