Christmas Skype

We got the best Christmas present ever yesterday...A Skype call from Cole!

He looked great and is doing fantastic. We were able to spend about an hour talking to him and it was just like he was back home again. He kept us all laughing the entire time with his stories. Even though he has only been in Owen Sound for just under 2 months he absolutely loves the people and the area. We were able to ask him a lot of questions and finally were able to get some answers about mission life in Canada. He said that they have had more snow there than he has ever seen and they aren't really into the winter months yet.

Here are a few things that he shared about things in Canada:

"Every thing is crazy expensive! It cost like $15 for a box of mozzarella cheese sticks!"

"They don't have $1 bills here. They have $1 and $2 coins that are called oonies and toonies."

"The exchange rate is pretty great here so I bought myself a really cool knife. I have to buy myself some souvenirs while I'm here." ☺

"I think I have gained a little weight during the holidays because everyone just wants to feed us all of the time."

"There is only one Ward in Owen Sound and we only get between 50-60 people at church each week, today there were only about 30 people."

"The next closest set of missionaries to us are about 1 1/2 hour away so we don't hang out with any other missionaries unless we have meetings to go to."

"I keep forgetting to take pictures, but really it would be kind of awkward to knock on someone's door to ask them if they wanted to hear about the gospel and then say 'Oh hey just a second while I take a picture so that I can send pictures home to my family." 😕

"I went to Toronto a couple of weeks ago and it was insane. The traffic was absolutely horrible and there were people everywhere!"

"We only clean our apartment if we have the time so no it is not 'Mom Clean' but my side of the room is a lot cleaner than my companions."

"I bought myself this red tie, do you like it? My goal is to have 365 ties, one for everyday of the year."

"The car we drive is all wheel drive. We each have a card that you have to swipe through this reader thing if you are the driver and it records everything about your driving."

Cole wanted us to let everyone know that he misses you all a lot and is thankful for all of the support that he gets from each of you. He is excited to see what the rest of his mission has in store for him and is looking forward to all of his upcoming adventures.