Dear Family,

So as you already know, we had transfers this past week. Usually the
Christmas transfer is small since it is only 5 weeks, but this one was
just as big as all of the other transfers I have attended. Elder
Monsen is now with Elder Stevens who he was in his district while he
was in the MTC. Elder Taylor is my new companion and I am driving
again (although both he and I would prefer if he drives so we might
talk to the assistants about changing that.) Elder Teames, our
district leader, was transferred so now Elder Bunker is the district
leader.

Elder Taylor is an awesome companion. He is from Cache Valley, Utah.
He has been in the field for six months. This is his second area. So
both of us spent six months in our first areas, Elder Taylor is just a
transfer behind me. He is a hard worker and I can tell we are going to
be able to do some good work while we are together.

President and Sister Cross took us to Thai House for dinner after
transfers. When you order your food you choose how spicy to make your
food on a scale from one to five. Sister Cross said she got a three
one time and it was too much to handle. I decided to order a three
anyway since I eat a lot of spicy ramen. I couldn't taste any heat
from the volcano chicken I ordered. I kept adding more of the chili
paste, but it wasn't getting any spicier. I am wondering if I have
built up a tolerance to spicy food. Sister Cross said she would bring
us back so I can try ordering a dish with a spice of five. The same
thing was happening when a Elder Monsen and I were at Linh's Bistro
last week. I tried some of Elder Monsen's chicken that he was having
trouble handling the spice. I couldn't taste any of the spice there
either. I am sure the family is happy I am not cooking at home right
now since I tend to make a lot of spicy dishes.

On Friday, we and the other elders had the chance to do some service
and help out with Toys for Tots. We were in an electrical company's
warehouse full of giant black bags full of wrapped presents. We would
open the bags and look at the tags on the presents and sort them into
different piles in the warehouse. The tags said things like "boy's
clothing - size 4" or "girls toy - age 3". It was kind of disorganized
at first, but we managed to make it work. I enjoyed being able to
serve, that is something I have missed about Danville. This week
should have more service projects because of the holidays and we have
some members that are planning on inviting us to help them with their
volunteer group.

That evening we had a branch Christmas party at Brother Dibble's
house. He is a counselor in the branch presidency. I enjoyed the time
we had to get to know a few more members of the branch. We ended up
getting home a little late because of how far we were from our
apartment and because we needed to drop the other elders off first.


Sunday we got to sing in the Christmas program. We and the other
missionaries agreed to sing a quartet back when Elder Teames and Elder
Monsen were here. We knew there was a possibility that any of us could
leave, but we were committed to it anyway. We asked brother Beckert,
the other branch councilor, to sing with us since Elder Teames was the
only musical talent we had in our group. You would think I have some
musical talent or something for how often I get roped into choir
performances. We sang the primary song "Samuel Tells of Baby Jesus."
Elder Taylor wasn't too happy to sing with us on such short notice. I
had also committed us to teach the gospel principles class. We
definitely didn't give him a break for his first week here as the new
elder.

--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission