Week #4 in Berlin (29 December 2014).  It was fun to speak with Reese on Christmas day.  He continues to love his mission right up to its end.  The early part of the week involved quite a bit of finding, including district caroling on Christmas Eve that produced a couple of phone numbers for follow up and a lot of joy for the district.  Here is the district eating together after their meeting:

Stepping further beyond his Rasband comfort zone, Reese sang in the ward choir at church, noting:  "I sang as a tenor, although I could not hit all of the high notes."  I guess he can run but not hide from his limited musical skill set.  On Christmas morning, he and Elder Borgolthaus opened the stockings we sent them.  Here are a couple of photos, including one of Reese standing by the paper Christmas tree his mother sent him.

Later that morning, they had a Christmas brunch with other missionaries in the Berlin South zone at the mission home.  Reese said that he and Elder Brown manned the french toast.  On Second Christmas (December 26), he and Elder Borgolthaus walked around Berlin seeing the sights.  It was a beautiful day with fresh snow and blue sky.  Here are a couple of photos:

 
The very best news of the week was that they met with two men who had been referred by the Frankfurt an der Oder elders.  They were so eager to accept the gospel that they established a baptism date goal in mid-January.  All in all, another wonderful week on the mission.  Reese concluded:  "It was nice to spend so much time with the members this week; they were all so nice to us. We are feeling very spoiled.  Well, I've got one week left and I really want to make it count."