Hey Jacob!
How are you these fine days? I bet it is getting really cold now that we're in December. It's just barely getting cold, and soon after on the same day, it gets hot. I want it to get cold, or at least colder. It doesn't seem like Christmas if it isn't cool. However, we hardly ever get snow, which is another element of Christmas Cali is without, unfortunately. Well, I do like snow, but when you have to drive in it, it gets really annoying fast. I bet you are having fun in Pennsylvania. How cold is it there now? Hast there been snow yet? Are you excited for Christmas? I know you are excited about the possibility of serving in a college town. I love the Elders and Sisters that serve in my YSA ward. They are usually very spiritual down-to-earth kinda guys. I know they helped Sarah clean her house on Saturday.
It's been an interesting first week back. I was unsure if they would have me still long-term subbing at Jurupa Vista. So, I just showed up. I had the key anyways. There was some miscommunication, but in the end I was allowed to finish up my assignment in the SDC class. Friday (instead of Monday) was my last day. It was kinda bittersweet. More sweet than bitter. It hasn't been easy being with kids that have some major behavioral problems who are 5th and 6th graders. The boys made it difficult. The girls were sweet. For example, we had been reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Everytime I said Aslan, the lion, there would be some immature snickering. One boy even said, if CS Lewis had been born in this time, he would have never named the cat that name.
We almost finished the whole book. On my last day in that class, we did finish watching the movie as an end of the week activity. Two or so boys were really in to it. They were asking me questions showing how interested they were. They were like, is he going to die, what just happened, what does that mean, are they part of his army, etc and so forth. Of course, I showed them our copy of the movie that we own. I was glad it made it through the whole thing, because I noticed a whole bunch of scratches on its underside.
I'm back to the grindstone of finding new substitute jobs now that I'm out of the Long-term assignment. I have to get jobs now that I will have me and my new wife to support. It was good getting the long-term job because it meant 19 whole days of teaching uninterrupted, which will be good now that I'm waiting on my December check and January check. I already have 4 days out of the 5, so I'm barely passing with a 80%., so far.
It's December now, so we are getting down to the wire. We still need to find a place to stay, but we do have some leads which I will explore tomorrow, all of them in Fontana. And mom was talking to someone who isn't needing a refrigerator anymore, so Mom asked if we could take it off their hands today. So soon we will have that piece of furniture, if you could call it that. Mom and Dad are graciously going to let us store it in the garage until we get our apartment.
The plans are coming, slowly but surely. It'll be nice to finally be married. 27 more days and counting, it's crazy.
We made it to the Oleander Ward Christmas party yesterday. The food was really good. They had chimichuri turkey being served which totally reminded me of the awesome cooking of Mamamama. The desserts were good. Sarah got to meet a good majority of the people in the Oleander ward that night. In fact, one of our leads is from Rachel Young/Hansen in their apartments that Mom got. We sat next to the Sindergards sp? and I got to talk to their nice three little kids. Bro. S was joking with us about spoiling the BYU basketball game that was going on at the same time. He would say a score, then jokingly say which teams got that score, never BYU vs USU though. We got home and stayed up later watching the game. Sarah, at the end of the game, was nodding off (because we were finally doing good).
OH! We finally got most of our invitations mailed out on Friday! Finally really. You should be getting yours in the mail soon. And we also finished the Self-reliance class last week (which I thing I already told you), so we were able to go watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional. However, they didn't bring food for us. So dad and mom wonderfully let us come home and make food.
Also, Sarah and I went to Victoria Gardens on Friday and happened to get fake snowed on in Chaffey Square. The snow were really small bubbles. It was fun and funny, so those are the pics.
Well, I hope you are doing great! We all love and pray for you.
Continue doing your best.
Love,
John
