Christmas in Kentucky

Dear Friends and Family,


This week we attended a Zone Conference with Elder Renlund of the Seventies. He was very inspiring and motivating. Before the conference, I took over Calvert City on exchanges with Elder Snow. I would say it was a success. I took Elder Snow to see the lights at Mike Miller Park. The Branch Christmas party was on Friday. There was a ton of food; we tried biscuits with chocolate gravy and a grits breakfast casserole. The biscuits with chocolate gravy was good, but the grits in the casserole…gross and nasty. At a member’s home, I tried a mayo and banana sandwich which was surprisingly pretty good. My companion had a pickle and peanut butter sandwich.
On Saturday, we performed some service at a member’s home. We cut down trees and cleared the forest. We cut down the small, but like a foot in diameter, trees with axes. It was amusing. He then took us around his 25 acre property; he had a gun with him and was going to shot a deer. We were a little freaked because he wanted us to go and scare the deer out of the forest from the back.... we thought we were going to get shot. There were buffalo out there as well, which you have to be very careful around because they will actually charge.
My companion, who is the designated driver, hit a pup coming home last Saturday. We were driving (in the dark) and a huge black dog came running out of nowhere, directly into the beam of the headlights.  My companion misses the dog by a hair. Then I see the other dog in the corner of my eye, and it runs right into our car…we hear a loud thump. We turn around and see that it is a pup, and it is crying a little. We call a member and they tell us to call 911. We tell the 911 operator what has happened and they get someone to head our way. People start pulling over and finally the brother of the owner of the dog comes. The owner comes and puts the pup in his car. In the end, it all turned out okay: only the dog’s shoulder and mouth were hurt. But my poor companion had adrenaline going through him and was a little freaked. What a crazy night!
On Sunday, we went to a Baptist Christmas play. “There can’t be Christmas without the Jesus and the Cross” was the main song. We talked to a lot of people after the play—making it a worthwhile evening.

Merry Christmas…I love y'all,

Elder Blazzard