Sister Burt Sent us this email on Saturday morning, Dec. 21. It was such an amazing, fun thing for us to get this insight into some of the Christmas festivities going on for Elder Showalter. In the video "Go tell it on the Mountain" you can see him in the background video taping Alex Boye. Go check out the videos on the blog link listed below, they are great!!!
As the mother of a new missionary, and it being his first Christmas in the field I am so grateful to all those who obviously went to such great efforts to make this a really special Christmas party for these missionaries!! It has really been so much fun to be a missionary mom!
Dear Showalter family,
I thought you'd be interested to know that Alex Boye' was our special guest speaker/performer at our All Mission Conference. You can read about it and see video footage at our blog http://kingstonburts.blogspot.com/.
But, what I thought you'd especially like to know is that during one of his songs (while in the chapel) he walked down the aisle and occasionally touched missionaries on the shoulder. All the missionaries were straining their necks to follow him with their eyes to wherever he was going, but your son choose to just focus on the music and did not turn his neck and was therefore very surprised when from behind him, he felt a tender touch and rub across his shoulders as Alex came down the aisle on his side of the chapel and paused just long enough to make contact with your son before he returned to the podium.
On the ride home in the car, we were all commenting on how special that was for him, and he said, "My mom would just be thrilled to know that that happened for me." So..... I thought I'd tell you :)
Merry Christmas,
Sister Burt
P.S. We are taking our two lap tops with skype to the Church on Tuesday at 9:00 am so that our Bayonne missionaries can make their Christmas Skype calls. Your son is going to let you know when he emails on Monday - but now you already know :)
Dec. 23, 2013
Dear Family,
Can't wait to talk to you tomorrow! It feels like yesterday when I was talking on the phone to you from the airport! Time is going by!
Ok, so a couple of things, I got one package, but not the other. I think it just had a little sticker attached to the top in clear, transparency tape that said New Jersey Morristown Mission. It didn't look like it was mailed. I'm actually not sure if that was your package.
Secondly, dad last week I asked what you wanted me to do about the international charger thing. I looked at the packaging that amazon sent it in and it said 2 replacement batteries...non elph 110 hs New. That is clearly not what I got though. What do I do?
Third, I have a package I want to send for Christmas, but I will have to use money off of my debit card, is that ok?
Fourth! I love you all so much!
Love
Elder Showalter