Luke 2:10-11

"A very joyous, happy, Merry Christmas to one, and all! Let the Christmas bells ring I get to talk to my family this week! Emailing is all good, and well. Letters are a treat but talking on Skype, praise to the man! That tops all. I told my companion that I am never coming home because I am more spoiled as a missionary than as a normal ginger..I mean person. Now, that's a lot. My parents treated me as good as ever, but now I have all these members who feel bad for us because we aren't with our families so they give us gifts too, and bake goods. I'm far too blessed. One of my friends who is also on a mission told me she is happy to be serving a mission because she can focus on Jesus for once. Now take some time to ponder that. It's sad, but true. The world is really distracting but as a missionary we really get to celebrate Christ's birthday to it's fullest.

So I feel like understand the joy a doctor feels when he tells a lady that she's going to have a baby. I recently had the pleasure of telling someone they are Jewish. When I came into the ward I saw a member of the Bishopric, and thought "wow, a Jewish Latter-day Saint." Then I found out he's last name is Hartzell, and I just knew. So we had supper at their house, and I say "so you're Jewish?" to which he says "I am?" umm dot dot dot then he goes on to say that they don't know much about their family history, but he's always thought he was Jewish. I told him "well I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty sure you're Jewish." He was beaming. He said "this is the best news I've received in... years!" He turned to he's wife and said "you married a Israelite baby!" That was a highlight of my week.

My one investigator hasn't smoked in a month, and a half, and he is the sweetest. He lives in an apartment that is practically empty, but he had one decoration, and it's a glass Christmas tree. I told him that I liked it, and he said "You like it, you can have it!" and started to pick it up to give to me. Ahh bless he's heart. He has almost nothing yet he's willing to give me one of he's only belongings. I love that as a missionary I am able to learn from so many different people. The Lord blesses us to see the good, and I am just working on keeping my head above water so I can soak it all in.

Merry Christmas, I love you all, Heavenly Father loves you all, and Santa loves you all."

2 Nephi 2:25

"I've been out for 8 months tomorrow! How crazy is that! Time seriously fliesss by! I am sad but not sad at the same time. Everything has a time and place. Everything is going so great. I haven't slept through the night in over a week, and everyone knows how much I love to sleep so I have been dragging this week but I just pick myself up, pray a little more, and continue pressing on. I know that it was a good week but on account that I've been so tired; I really can't remember much. Oops, my bad. I wrote it down in my journal though. I do remember that I attended the most spiritual baptism of all time. I didn't even teach this girl  but I cried during her baptism. She's 24 and was really wondering what the point of life is when her friend invited her to church. Bam 3 weeks later; she's baptized, and happy as ever. The Spirit was so powerful throughout the whole thing and there wasn't a dry eye in the room. That was a highlight. Another highlight was when my companion and I decided to drop dead weight. We decided to drop all the people who weren't progressing, or weren't doing well. We decided to have the faith to turn them over to the Lord and let Him prepare them. Well right after we did that the one calls us all the time and really wants to meet with us. What the what. Sometimes I think the Lord just has us act on our faith before He rewards us. 

My investigator hasn't smoked in over a month, I haven't eaten candy in over a month, and I lost 4 pounds so whoooppddyyy dooo. It's almost Christmas, and I am happy about that. We created Law of Chasity game plans with our investigators. It was pretty funny. My companions was all virtuous like "no kissing until I'm married." Mine was more like "only kiss boys you are seriously dating, and only kiss standing up." ha ha then one of my points was to only flirt with boys I actually want to date, and she thought that was so funny. She thought that would be so obvious. Live, and learn. Life is great. See you in 10 months! God love you, I love you, and your mom loves you!" 

Moroni 7:45

"Hiii, it was a pretty great week! So many things happened that if you were a missionary you would be so happy for me, but since you are just normal people it's not as exciting. Like we have 7 new investigators! That is super exciting but it really doesn't mean much to you. Just know souls are being saved in Vegas. 

Monday we get told by the Elders that one of their investigators is in their area so we have a lesson and pass her over. We set her for baptism, teach her, get her to church, and then she tells us that she gave us the wrong address and she's actually in another missionaries area. So that was eventful. This lady could honestly be taught by a Sunbeam class and get baptized though. She's so prepared.  

My favorite investigator. The addict. Had a seizure in church. Right during sacrament. We were sitting with our new investigator, and we didn't see him come in. Then I saw him sitting all alone, so I was upset because the ward is the worst at fellowshipping. Then as I am sitting there so annoyed he has a seizure. Somehow I just knew. All we could hear was crazy sounds like a rabid cat was loose and some how I knew. I turned to Sis W, and said he had a seizure and sure enough. He is such a good person. Some men took him out and called the paramedics, and the first thing he said was "I'm sorry." then he was so funny because the paramedic asked to see his tongue, and he said "I didn't bite my tongue, because I don't have teeth haha" We all had a good laugh. He hasn't smoked in 2 weeks and is going strong!

So I think everyone's life goals is becoming more Christlike and one way we do this is by developing Christlike attributes. Well a crazy thing is happening right now. All of our investigators exhibit so clearly one Christlike attribute. The addict is so humble, the lady who is moving all around is charity, another is knowledge, and another is patience. It's insane to me how clearly these people show so powerfully one Christlike attribute. I think it's a sign that I need in improve all across the board. Right now I am working on repenting immediately. Like as soon as I notice I do something wrong then I say a little prayer in my head. So far so good. It's good because I feel better but bad because I notice what a sarcastic jerk I am. Good thing we all have time to improve."