December 2019

Greetings from the Washington D.C. South Mission at Fort Belvoir. We have had a wonderful year and have been enjoying our mission very much. It is great to be able to associate with all the missionaries here, both young and old, and see the way peoples lives change when they hear and receive a testimony of the Gospel. We are looking forward to more faith promoting experiences this coming year, and we wish you and yours a remarkable 2020 as well! We hope you enjoy our current post. The Zabriskies

We have started teaching Sister Zabriskie's physical therapist that we spoke of in our October post. She said, "My life is good, I have a great family and a good income, but I have this void that I can't fill." We said that we have something that will fill her to overflowing, and she said, "I want that!" Her father wouldn't allow the Elders to come to his home, so we all met at the church. There was a huge crowd there for the baptism of an 8-year-old, which just happened to be in a Spanish Ward. The therapist was born and raised in the States, but is fluent in Spanish as well as English. We invited her to join the baptismal service to see what our baptisms are like. After the confirmation, we sat in a classroom to talk and she said, "What do I have to do to be baptized?" Elder Zabriskie said, "Well, the font is still full". She has already started reading the Book of Mormon that Sister Zabriskie gave her at one of her treatments. She says she feels comfort and peace when we talk, and that we answer questions that no one else can. It is hard to believe how prepared she is to receive the Gospel. Every 6 weeks the mission has a meeting called "Come Unto Christ". Newly baptized or returning members are asked to bear their testimonies and tell about their conversion. Since it was the Christmas Season, there were three Christmas musical numbers that Sister Zabriskie was asked to accompany on the organ. The following week there were two Christmas Devotionals for the missionaries, again with Christmas music that she was happy to accompany. We work with the missionaries in two of the wards that meet in our building, and both wards invited us to their ward Christmas parties, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We attend our ward council every Sunday morning where they spend much of the time discussing missionary work. It is inspiring to see their commitment to helping the missionaries with their work. We also attend two or three district councils every week. We are assigned as advisers to two different districts of young missionaries, besides the Senior district council which we attend when it doesn't conflict with other meetings. Mail delivery was a major project during December, with Senior missionaries making two trips a week to deliver Christmas packages to their districts. While we were doing deliveries, we also did the routine apartment inspections, checking for any damages, mold, and of course cleanliness. The Thai sister that was baptized on October 28, has had some real struggles this month. She lives in shared housing with three men and a mother with two young children. One of the men was in a knife fight at a convenience store and was sent to jail. Just before Christmas there was a murder across the street from her house. At 5 a.m. on December 22, the police broke the window of her bedroom to arrest another roommate who was a suspect. Her bed was directly under the window, so she was awakened by glass breaking on top of her. She had been sick with the flu for a couple of days and couldn't stay in a room without a window in the freezing winter weather, so the bishop put her up in a motel for a couple of nights. We contacted the landlord who said the window wouldn't be repaired until after the New Year. On Christmas Eve we had to move her to a different motel. She was so ill she doesn't remember that we were the ones who moved her, or that she slept through Christmas. After a couple of days, some wonderful ward members decided to nail a board to her open window so she could go back home. Because of a series of bad experiences with her landlord, she will be moving to a better home situation in January. She is still seriously ill and we are quite concerned about her...

We had transfers this month, and some wonderful young missionaries that we hold as dear friends are going home. The departing missionaries had dinner and a testimony meeting at the Mission Home before going home the next day. Elder Zabriskie took the two Elders to the Air & Space Museum and the NRA Gun Museum for their final activity.

	The departing sister missionaries went on an activity to Old Town Alexandria to shop for souvenirs to take home. Old Town is a quaint tourist area with numerous shops and restaurants. Sister Zabriskie thought shopping sounded like more fun than guns and planes, so she went with the mission president's wife to take the sisters on their final activity.

Baptism for a wonderful young lady from Uganda, Africa. We had the opportunity to teach her with the Elders.

	The baptism of a sweet women and her son. They are from Japan, and she was so excited to join the church. It was great to see how they embraced the Gospel and how it changed their family's life.

This young lady read some literature that talked about going to "Hell" after you die. This scared her so she started researching churches and when she read about the LDS church, she thought it had promise and sent a referral to Salt Lake for herself. The missionaries contacted her and after being taught a few lessons, she was satisfied that she had found a church that gave her hope for the future.

The senior missionaries get together once a month for an activity (typically dinner). Here we are after our December night out. We were asked to bring a memento of the mission that was not a white-elephant gift, but something we would value. They were placed on a table and everyone picked one of the presents. We brought a 2019 Christmas ornament from the gift shop at Mount Vernon, and coincidentally received a puzzle of George Washington's home from the same gift shop.

The Shirlington district after our weekly district council and just before transfers, which brought several changes in companionships to the district.

	The Clark family invited us to their home for Christmas dinner. They are members of our ward and serve in the military at Fort Belvoir. Our daughter Ashley and her husband, Vern, have been stationed at several of the same Army posts with the Clarks where they became good friends.

The senior missionaries got together to share a delicious Christmas dinner and activity. It was a unique Christmas without our children and grandchildren, but it was nice to share it with the other senior missionaries whom we have grown to love and appreciate so much.

Christmas at the Washington DC Temple Visitors Center

From the Washington D.C. South Mission, we hope you are all well, and wish you all a Merry Christmas.

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