Woodrow Wilson Elementary Incentive Store

 A good friend, Jerie Holley, came up with the idea of making bean bags and crayon book bags for the students to "buy" at the Woodrow Wilson Elementary Incentive Store.

 As you can see, we had a lot of good help.  Thanks Stephanie and Rebecca!

 Each one is unique.

 Stephanie recruited Niel to help finish up the book bags.

Thanks Jerie for your creative energy and help!

 One day each month, the stage is turned into a "store" where 28 classes come to shop.  Each item is given a ticket value and the students use their "good behavior" tickets to shop.  In December they were encouraged to buy presents for their family members and were excited to wrap their purchases before taking them home.

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 My responsibility, with the indispensable help of Sandi Shields, is to keep the store stocked, to set it up and take it down.  The store is staffed by sweet Relief Society sisters from our Stake.  All items are donated by our Stake or purchased with donated funds.

 Many of the students are refugees and don't speak English yet.  They still "get" the concept that good behavior and effort has its reward.

 As you can see, diversity is very much alive and well in a school where 25 plus languages are spoken.

What a great opportunity to serve now that my PTA days are over!

The fat cats, Cinder and Cider love their dog igloo and heating pad when the sun isn't warming the deck.

Matt has moved into his 3rd decade or is it his 4th?  Happy Birthday Matt!  We're proud of you.

Dear Family,                                                                                                          December 1, 2014

This week was good. We had a pretty easy transition with transfers this week. It was a slower week, but we're excited to work and stay busy. I am now the senior companion, so I am mostly deciding what we should do, but as Elder Beare gets to know the area, hopefully it will become both of us planning activities and lessons. Elder Beare is from California, a small town called Lakeport, which is 2 hours north of Sacramento. He is only a transfer behind me on his mission. He is a great missionary, and he has lots of new ideas that hopefully we can implement and increase the work in this area. We get along really well, and we are doing the best we can to stay busy and obedient so we can hopefully be blessed with more people to share the gospel with. As for transfers, Elder Autrey left Monday morning, so Elder Rasmussen and I were together for P day. We were on a companion exchange until our new companions got here Monday night.

I don't know if you have heard of the "He is the Gift" initiative, but it is a big deal here. We will get pass along cards like the ones in the Ensign to use. We are expected to contact at least 10 people a day about this video, and we track and report our progress in finding new investigators and referrals that come from this initiative. It is a great video, and we are excited to share this with as many people we can. Don't hesitate to give those cards out to people. It will really bless lives this Christmas season.

Yesterday we had an amazing sacrament meeting. Every 5th Sunday in this ward is a musical Sunday. Members got up and said what their favorite hymn is, why they like it, and what verse they wanted us to sing. The Spirit was so strong. I think I've been around Dad too much because I really appreciate music and what the lyrics have to say. There wasn't one song that I didn't have tears running down my face. It got to the point where I couldn't sing the songs anymore. My voice just wouldn't work. It was an amazing experience for me.

We weren't able to meet with Skyleur this week, as she was in Casper for the break. Jacob and Erin are still doing well, and had a great time in Colorado with Erin's family.

That's all for this week, I love you all, and hope you have a wonderful week!

Elder Ehlert