Christmas in the MTC.

Hello everyone!
I'm so sorry that I haven't updated this in a long time... Life has been crazy! But I promise I will update it every sunday from now on!

Elder Bascom is doing extremely well! He has gotten the language down a lot better and writes short things to us in Portuguese in every letter he writes. Christmas was quiet without him, and everyone else to say the least. We weren't able to talk to him on Christmas day because he is in the MTC, but we were extremely lucky to have hand written letters delivered to us by a member in our ward from Elder Bascom. We all opened them Christmas morning and many tears were shed, by far the best Christmas present that we could have gotten. We did the 12 days of christmas for Elder Bascom and his companion. We put some random gifts in as well as some needed things. I hope that they enjoyed it just as much as we did getting it ready for them. He sent home a bunch of pictures of Christmas and them working hard, but still having fun doing it. I tried to upload them, but i couldn't get them to work, so I will try again next week!

In Ryan's most recent letters he told us that he was able to be a host missionary this past week. It's crazy that that much time has already passed! It feels like just yesterday we were dropping him off at the MTC to the other host missionaries, but now he is one himself. He also told us that his district is now the oldest district. He said, "That is really weird. But i like it too haha." He is still waiting for his Visa to come through and asked us to pray for it to come, since he is supposed to be leaving to Portugal on January 15. I honestly can't believe that he's already been gone for this long! Mom keeps telling me "only one more Christmas and he'll be home!" which is true, but it's a lot longer than that!

We are all so proud of Ryan and all that he is doing right now. I know that he appreciates all the letters and packages that you all have sent. He loves hearing from you all! In his own words, "I hope you all have a great New Year and remember to keep smiling."
-Brittany