Winter Storm Jonas Brothers

This weekend we had a gnarly winter storm that shut down all of PA,
but it didn't stop us too much! Utah is just rad because we get snow
and we all go out and continue with life, here, not so much! So buckle
up for another interesting week!

When I left off last Monday our car battery had died and it took hours
for the tow truck to come. We ate wings with Bro Massimini and went to
his house to do our laundry and what not. Pep boys had our car most
the day, so we finally picked it up around 7 and got a late lesson in
with Jennifer, a non member and her recently baptized son Emin so that
was great!!

Tuesday we started off the morning teaching Daniel, who's super
prepared for baptism except that his job requires him to work
Sunday's, so we talked with him about faith and prayer to find a way
to attend church. We had a lesson with Carla, and we taught the Plan
of Salvation and she understood it well so we set her with a baptismal
date for February 27! We were able to reteach Maurice the word of wisdom
and afterwards he asked us to pray for him as he goes and shares the
gospel himself!!! That night we had dinner with the Nickel family,
they are from Brazil so they had a way cool accent and they were just
an awesome family!

Wednesday we had a worldwide missionary training broadcast. There was
some trainings done by Elder Bednar, a talk by Elder Oaks, all in all
it was great and there was a lot of things that I learned that will
help me better this area and the future areas I go to! That took up
most the day, then Elder Johnson's headaches started again so we
didn't do too much that night.

Thursday we taught Maurice again, this time on tithing and fast
offerings. It's funny the words we use as "Utah Mormons" that non
members don't understand at all! Definitely something missionaries
have to work on! We visited with Sister Benfield and she's prepping
for the temple right now, so we shared with her "Blessings of the
temple" Mormon message. I love that one so much! Hopefully we eased
her nerves towards the temple. We had dinner with the Ross family that
night, another awesome family here in the Morrisville ward!!! Their
house is huge though!! Anyways we taught the MacDonalds that night,
Gavin and Jude had a hard time paying attention to the basic Plan of
Salvation lesson, but they and their mom had a ton of questions about
it as well!

Friday was rough lesson-wise, most things fell through, but we went
down to Pennypack to do a baptismal interview and the family fed us.
Now keep in mind there is a ton of Liberians around here, and this was
the first time I ate Liberian food! They brought out some rice and
what looked like a stew so I tossed some rice on my plate and dished
out some stew. There were big chunks of meat and beans and what looked
like some sort of weird vegetable and I was like sweet I need to eat
more vegetables but lo and behold it was no vegetable, it was a big
ole chicken foot! Really not bad though, I mean it just tastes like
chicken... I don't know what else it could taste like!! Anyways the
other meat was just ridiculously hot. Liberians have this pepper they
put in everything and it made me tear up! It was funny looking at
Elder Martinez, Johnson and Payne with tears just pouring down his
face because it was so hot!! I couldn't even handle it that well! We
all just sat around laughing and crying! That night we were supposed
to get the storm coming in, so we got a call that said our cars had to
be grounded by 6. The Chatfield's offered to pick us up and take us to
Mexican food so we went, and while we were there we got a text saying
the cars weren't grounded because it hadn't snowed yet so we should
still be out working! We hopped in our car to salvage our last lesson
and by the time we made it there it was snowing pretty good, but we
got home safely and a few minutes early so we made the trek to Target
in the blizzard to get some things to prepare for the storm, like a
beanie and a bunch of Dr. Pepper.

Saturday we woke up to a buncha snow on the ground and snow flying all
over the place from the wind. We just chilled, did some weekly
planning, played the guitar and whatnot. The Topham's called us and
asked if we wanted to go shovel with them and they'd feed us dinner so
they picked us up, we shoveled a driveway and started on the church
walkways and after dinner with them they took us home. The streets
were dead. It was a state of emergency so I guess it was illegal to be
out anyways but oh well we did some good right? The storm seriously
lasted all day, not like the bipolar Utah weather! To end the night we
went wifi searching because we don't have wifi in our apartment, so we
wanted to get our emails to read while we were stuck inside but
neither of us got emails so it was pretty useless hahaha

Sunday church got cancelled so we really had no idea what to do
because the cars were still grounded as well. The Chatfield's came and
picked us up and we shoveled a bunch of driveways and finished off the
walkways at the church. They took us home and our cars got ungrounded
so we went back to their house for dinner and went with them to go
give a sister in our ward a blessing. On the way back home we decided
to stop by this guy Elder Johnson just met and he let us in and asked
us all kinds of questions about the organization of our church. He
asked us where we were from and we said Utah and he said isn't that
where all those people have like 6 wives?

All in all it ended up being a fun and successful week somehow and we
got a ton of service in! I loved it! It was also just kinda cool to
see how the east coast is with storms and let me tell you, they are
wimps. A lot of good things are happening here. I love it! We found
out this week that the temple open house will be I think the 5th of
August! dedication will be the 18th and it will open on the 19th and
20th! A year and a month from when I left home! The excitement is
here, it's amazing! I hope you all have a great week wherever you are,
I keep you in my prayers and I hope to hear from you soon!

1&2) that doesn't look like an official Amazon truck to me..
3) what we woke up to on our porch!
4) the Topham's deck Saturday night
5&6) the trek for wifi
7) just a nice picture of some nasty leather jackets we found in my closet

It's Finally Winter!

January 18, 2016

What's up everyone? It's been an awesome week here in Morrisville and
it snowed too!!! So buckle up for another one of these mission emails!

Last Monday was alright, we just had an average pday, did a little
walking around the mall and stuff, but honestly shopping as a
missionary is just boring. After pday was over we had a lesson cancel
so we tried to make a few visits, and one of them was successful and
we were able to set up a lesson later in the week!

Tuesday a member offered to cut our hair, so we accepted because our
hair must have looked pretty bad! It was probably the nicest salon
ever and as people were walking out I heard the lady at the desk
telling them the price of their cuts and let me tell ya, you could buy
enough $1 burgers to feed my old lacrosse team with that kind of
price! It was awesome too because we got to know this member and she
said she wants to have us over for dinner soon because her daughter
and son aren't members! Me and Elder Johnson joked it was probably our
best finding activity so far haha. After dropping off a bunch of
bibles to our referrals from Church HQ, we had a lesson with Maurice,
a recent convert. He's super solid in the gospel, and he knows what is
up so teaching him is quite easy! During the day I told Elder Johnson,
the last night I went to the zone leaders apartment in Nazareth i
noticed their beds were in their living room and they turned their
bedroom into a workout room. We laughed about it and somehow we ended
up doing the same thing, so now our living room has our beds in it and
it is awesome! That night the Chatfield's took us to Chick-fil-a and
man it's been much too long since I've had that! It was sooo good!
Then we went and taught a LA named Lydia, who recently got a calling
in primary, which is quickly reactivating her! I guess she's grown up
in the church but she's always had concerns, but she understands the
basics!

Wednesday morning was a blur too me and I couldn't even remember what
I did when I was writing in my journal that night, but we had an
awesome lesson with a lady named Carla! Elder Johnson and his last
comp taught her and she was pretty solid, but she was getting her
apartment fumigated so for some reason they dropped her. Anyways we
went over the restoration with her and at the end she told us she
believes the Book of Mormon is true so that's something I can
definitely work off of!! Afterwards we had to drive down to Pennypack,
which is in Philadelphia, for interviews with President Anderson! We
pretty much just talked about how I'm transitioning to the area and
what not and then he told me there is a guy in my ward, who's part of
our stake presidency, President Coltrin. President Anderson told me he
was at lunch with President Coltrin not too long ago and President
Coltrin showed President Anderson a paper with the Popeyes stock on
it, and it went up like 5 points or something. President Anderson told
me that right in that moment President Coltrin made like $15 Million
because he's the CEO of Popeyes!!!!! Like whoa hold up, Popeyes??? My
favorite place to get chicken of all time?? I just thought how stoked
all my friends from back home would be about that haha. Anyways it was
a great interview, more of just chatting a bit! That night we went to
visit the Pray's who are a couple who's baby just recently passed
away, so I guess things used to be pretty rough for them, but they had
us over for pizza and they were super funny and awesome! We got to
share with them "bearing our burdens with hope" and sister pray said
it reminded her of her son and what a blessing he was to them! It was
an awesome visit.

Thursday we had Zone Training, so we had to go down to Pennypack,
again. It was quite good and hopefully I can take a something out of
it! It was on our culture of our mission. We got to teach Maurice
again, about the law of chastity so that's always fun!! He told us
he's trying to share the gospel to some friends too so that's great!
We taught Sister Benfield, another recent convert who's gonna go to
the temple for her endowments in April so we are stoked for that! We
got to teach Geraldo after, who is dating Jennifer. They are living
together, but they come to church every week! Jennifer has been
investigating for a while and I think she even has a calling of some
sort! Anyways we taught the law of chastity to Geraldo and immediately
he recognized he wasn't living it because he was not married to
Jennifer. We talked to them about getting married and they really want
to. Then Geraldo told us he wants to be baptized and asked what else
he needs to do for it so we are stoked about that! Afterwards we had a
lesson with the MacDonalds. Their son Gavin recently got baptized so
we are reteaching him, but him and his brother Jude have been really
sick lately and they are trying a gluten free diet so they gave us all
of their gluten filled food to take home with us!

Friday was really interesting. Elder Johnson had to go to district
leader training, so he went with the other district leader in the zone
and I got to go on exchanges with his companion, who had been out a
little over a week. It was an interesting exchange full of studies and
finding and somehow I ended up buying him a dinner too but it's all
good I guess! When Elder Johnson got back we went and visited
Christine and her kids!

Saturday was interesting too! Elder Johnson has been having gnarly
headaches so we went to urgent care for a bit and he didn't feel well
enough to do much else! We had to go down to Pennypack again to do an
interview for the sisters baptism. Mix in some weekly planning as
well! We had dinner with the Dyott's. Sister Dyott and her father
Brother Dyott! He's way old and has awesome war stories so that was
cool! We had a lesson later that night with a guy named Scott and his
girlfriend. He's a Jew so I feel like Jeff the Jew prepared me for
this! We really established our purpose and answered questions because
they were reading some anti Mormon book and we debunked all the stuff
and they asked us if we could come back soon!

Sunday was a good day of church, Geraldo, Jennifer and Carla came as
well as a bunch of recent converts and less actives. We had dinner
with the Chatfield's and later that night had Book of Mormon study. We
didn't do much because Elder Johnson's supposed to get a bunch of
rest! But it snowed so I'm super stoked about that!

Today has been crazy, we were supposed to go play basketball with the
ward this morning but our car wouldn't start so we have pretty much
been waiting around to get our car towed to get it checked out. Right
now we are eating lunch with Bro Massimini so our days not going too
bad!!

It's been fun here so far, I love it! I feel like in the last week
I've grown a lot and we are really building up the area, of course
with the help of the Lord! I'm really looking forward to what we can
do here! We found out Jennifer and Geraldo want to get married on
March 12th so that's a huge step! I hope you all have a great week,
your all in my prayers!!

201 Woodbourne Rd. Apt. F33
Levittown, PA 19056

1) a pretty blurry picture of our zone
2) the church parking lot after a nice snow
3) we are currently waiting for our tow truck so this is me, Elder
Johnson and Bro Massimini who didn't want to be in the picture!

Morrisville!

January 11, 2016

I got transferred into Morrisville! This email will probably be a
little shorter because I'm still getting the hang of things here, but
it is what it is ya know.

Monday was pretty chill, we hungout with the zone leaders for a bit
and we went to the Bakers for my last FHE in Lehighton! They made me
chicken Alfredo for my going away meal. We then went and stayed
overnight in Nazareth with the zone leaders.

Tuesday we got up early and me and Elder Fernandes drove to meet Elder
Martinez and Laine halfway between the areas because I was supposed to
ride down to Broomall with Martinez. We rode down for quite a while
because it's a long drive to Broomall. We don't do transfer meetings
anymore so there was just a few elders there and I got transferred to
Morrisville with Elder Johnson! He's from pleasant grove Utah and he's
a transfer younger than me. Elder Martinez got transferred to penny
pack so he's my zone leader now which is way awesome! Our ward mission
leader, Bro Massimini took us to lunch and then all the lessons
canceled that day so we did some finding and that night had
coordination meeting! So Morrisville is just north of Philadelphia, on
the border of New Jersey. I'm in a pretty big Ward and we split the
area with a set of sisters. Half of it is kinda ghetto and the other
half is probably the richest area I've seen in PA so it's pretty cool.

Wednesday we had a lesson with this guy named Geraldo. His wife
Jennifer has been investigating for months now and he is being taught
as well. It's interesting because they go to church like every Sunday,
they are practically members. Even their son is baptized! They are
just waiting to get married first because they live together, so we
are trying to get them married ASAP.

Thursday we had our district meeting. Elder Johnson is the district
leader and the zone leaders came so I gotta see Elder Martinez again!
We had a lesson with a recent convert named Maurice, which is always
fun! And we had dinner with a super awkward family too!!! And we
taught this lady, Sister Patton. It was funny because she said she
doesn't have many friends because they all do bad things and they'd be
bad influences on her. We even asked about a guy we knew across the
street, but she said no because he drinks coffee. Come to find out by
the end of the lesson she smokes so that was ironic!

Friday we did our weekly planning, and then we had a lesson with an
investigator named Nyeema. He's Liberian, there's a ton of them around
here and I can't understand them:) he did bear testimony of the Book
of Mormon to us though and that was sweet! We had dinner with a
couple, the Delahunty's. Sister Delahunty was super weird and funny
and Bro Delahunty was just hilarious! Then we taught a member named
Christine and her kids! They were the funniest little kids, it was
awesome.

Saturday was a lot more canceled appointments, but we gave the sisters
in our area a blessing and that's always good to exercise your
priesthood! Later in the day Elder Johnson said hi to a guy and he
turned around with a big smile on his face and said "India!" And
started talking to Elder Johnson for like 10 minutes in Hindi and we
had no idea what he was saying and he had no idea what we were saying!
For some reason he gave us his apartment number so maybe we will get a
Hindi Book of Mormon, who knows hahaha

Sunday was good ole church but it kinda seemed like a blur to me
because there was so many people! I'm not used to being in a ward
anymore. After church we got to visit some members and get to know
them, which was really nice and Sunday nights we do a Book of Mormon
study with some members!

All in all its been a decent week. It's hard to adjust to a new area
and find ways to be successful but we will try our hardest I guess!
I'll put my new address incase anyone wants it or whatnot! Also I
don't have pictures this week, and for my family I haven't changed the
way I upload pictures so I have no idea why they look so small! Have a
great week everyone!

201 Woodbourne Rd. Apt. F33
Levittown, PA


Elder Dylan Smith

A New Year of Packing!

January 4, 2016

Happy new year everyone! It's been a crazy week doin a lot of packing
and saying a lot of goodbyes because I'm getting transferred out of
Lehighton, so buckle up and get ready to read about my last week here!

Monday was rad! We went out to the Roeselers and helped him pack up a
little because they were moving during the week! Then we made some
bomb sandwiches with things like liverworst and potato bread and
played risk! It was way fun! Bro Roeseler always wins though. Anyways
afterwards Bro Kennedy called us and asked us if we wanted to eat
burgers at his house so we had dinner with them and it was probably
the best burger I've ever had and he had Mac n cheese!!!

Tuesday we went back out to the Roeselers to do some major packing.
There was no way I'd make him pack up a UHAUL all by himself, so the
least we could do is help him out a bit. I love spending time around
that family too! We had dinner with Bro Unger which I was kinda iffy
on because he's pretty poor. But he cooked us a really good turkey
dinner, the one that the branch put together a few weeks ago and we
delivered to him! After dinner we went to the Wartluft's and had a
pretty all over the place lesson, but they are some awesome people and
Betty, Jeff's mother in law, said she met with sister missionaries
before and she just realized that we are from the same church!

Wednesday we headed back out to finish up packing with the Roeselers.
He's got all these rad stories and the time just flew! So we traded
ties and I said goodbye to some of the coolest peeps I've met. They
should be in Texas by now actually! After we got back we had an
awesome lesson with Charles and Joseph Vitanza, I'd say they are
coming along swimmingly! The Bakers then took us out for wing night
and me and Bro Baker got inferno wings and they were sooo good!

Thursday was quite interesting! We went out for our last district
meeting of the transfer. We planned to go get lunch with the
Stroudsberg elders after our meeting, but they had some service they
needed to do so they had us come along with. We first got some
Dominican food at this little sketchy restaurant, but it was quite
good! Then we got to help out Bro Vialta moving a bunch of stuff. Bro
Vialta is  probably one of the coolest guys I've met. He even fed us
after we helped him out and he told us that if we ever get transferred
around Stroudsberg that his home is always open to us! We went to go
drop off the elders at their apartment but they forgot their car keys
at the Vialta's so we had to drive back and pick them up, so it was
quite late. We had a lesson with a guy named Chris and since it was
New Year's Eve, we could stay out an extra hour, so we went to the
Bakers and they had pizza and their daughter got an electric guitar
for Christmas so I got to play it for quite a while! It was way cool
too because Lori was there so we got to talk to her for quite a bit
and she shared her favorite scripture and when her and Bro Baker went
to pick up the pizza she made sure they got some Mountain Dew Voltage
for me!:):):)

Friday was nuts! I didn't know Christmas Eve was such a big occasion!
We had a super awkward dinner with the super awkward single adults in
the branch at a super awkward 12:00. Food was good though and there
was a few super awkward nonmembers! Then we went to the Schoenberger's
for their dinner! They fed us pig stomach and all this other good
food! Their granddaughter Leah was probably the cutest thing I've ever
seen and we played 20 questions with her for a bit! Her dad, Mike,
came in and started playing with us too! He's the Schoenberger's son
in law, and he's not a member. We talked to him for a long time, he
played D-III basketball and has been a coach since. We talked to him a
little bit about missionary work and our rules and whatnot and he is a
great guy and I hope one day he will be more interested! Then we went
out to the Keller's for their dinner! They invited the Macareno's and
the Zambrano/Parraga family, so there was a bunch of Spanish getting
thrown around haha! We found the ping pong table so we played ping
pong with Harry Parraga, and still no one can beat me so I haven't
lost my touch yet! We had another great dinner but I was stuffed man
hahaha we actually had a fourth dinner we were supposed to go to, but
we canceled because there was no way we could squeeze it in our
schedule or squeeze the food into our belly. We visited Jenny to end
the night and her daughter was visiting so she had some questions
about what we do and what we believe and she got mad at her mom for
getting baptized and not going to church hahah so that was cool! Then
we went home and got our transfer calls telling us that I'm leaving.


Saturday we started with a lesson with the Vitanza's. We read some of
Helaman and emphasized how each scripture, no matter how big or small
can teach a principle. It was super fun to try to do it with each one
and have them do it as well! They should be receiving the Melchezidek
priesthood soon and soon after be going to the temple! I'm so stoked
for em! We had our Coorelation with Bro Fegely afterwards so I kinda
got to tell him who I think missionaries should focus on and there was
a few people like Jeff who I told him I don't know how much longer
future missionaries will go there, because some are more into the
quick 5 week and get baptized investigators and I kept going there
because I had a good relationship with him. Fegely told me not to
worry because as long as he's branch mission leader he will make sure
missionaries don't forget about my people so that was rad! Anyways we
did our weekly planning because we didn't have time on Friday. We then
picked up a buncha Taco Bell and had my last supper with Jeff! Then he
let us play on his drums and whatnot so that was fun! Then I said
goodbye to them and man was that hard. Then we stopped by our
neighbors Doug and Rachel and said goodbye to them and actually
started teaching them a little about the church and Doug's interested
to be taught a little more (they were taught in the past) so hopefully
that will happen!

Sunday was awesome! Charles and Joseph passed the sacrament which was
way cool to see and we had a nice testimony meeting. Then the gospel
principles teachers weren't there so I taught gospel principles
instead and it was actually really fun, and we had a great priesthood
lesson on "The next step" for us individually and the branch. After
church I had to say goodbye to a buncha people so that was pretty lame
but then we went and visited the Kennedy's and the Gruber's so I could
say goodbye to them as well. Man will I miss these people! Then we had
my last supper at Tom's. He made cheeseburger pizza and man was that
good! We talked for quite a while and Melanie got my information to
put in her Book of Mormon. She stores all the missionaries information
in there haha I think it's pretty cool actually! Tom told me I should
be considered a legend here because I got him to go to the church and
while I was here he stopped drinking beer! That was probably the
hardest goodbye out of all of them but it's all good. Then we stopped
by Jon Boyer's, he wasn't home but his mom answered the door and she
talked to us for a bit about him and she was actually really nice and
supportive of him meeting with us so that's great!

As far as today goes, it's mostly just packing and then my last family
home evening here with the Bakers so it will be a good day! I'm gonna
miss this place a bunch. There are amazing people here, but I know I'm
needed somewhere else and I'm excited to go to a new area and get a
new start on things! I thought leaving home was hard and I was glad
I'd never have to do it again, but now I'm leaving my second home and
it was almost just as hard. I have no idea where I'm headed, but I'll
let you all know next week! If you plan on sending me something send
it to the mission office since I don't know where I'll be. I got a
buncha pictures so I can match names with faces for you all of the
people who took care of me here! I hope you all have a great start to
the year and a great week!

721 Paxon Hollow Rd. Ste. B
Broomall, PA 19008

1) Charles and Jospeh Vitanza
2) Jeff the Jew and Mary the almost nun!
3) The Keller's, my adopted grandparents
4) a nice selfie after gospel principles with the Vitanza's
5) Me and John Devore, the coolest guy ever! His favorite movie is
dumb and dumber and he will bear his testimony in church on it!
6) The Zambrano/Parraga family! Nilda, their mother and her kids Harry and Cira!
7) The Kennedy's!
8) Me and my boy Casper!
9) and last Tom and Melanie or as me and Stimpy called em, Mom and Dad!

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

December 28, 2015

Seriously, it is! We still get to celebrate New Years this week and
then transfer calls are Friday so it's gonna be an exciting time! This
past week was pretty rad! Christmas out here was quite an experience
and all that jazz

Monday I had the privilege of cleaning out my fridge and it had a lot
of food in it from before I got here so that was cool:) We got our
hair cut by Jeff so I could look spiffy when I called home! We had a
lesson with Charles and Joseph on the baptismal covenants, and they
made goals to stop doing things they felt were drawing them away from
the spirit, like swearing and getting mad at people! Then we went to
the Bakers for FHE. Monday feels sooo long ago because...

Tuesday was awesome! We went down to Nazareth to have our Christmas
conference. Three zones were down there so it was a good size of
missionaries. We started with some training in the morning, then we
went into the multipurpose room and we watched "Ephraim's Rescue".
Super good movie! I highly recommend it to all of you! Then we had our
talent show. Elder Martinez made us be in it so we did some stupid
little comedy skit, but all the other talents were rad! There was a
lot of singing and cool stuff! A lot of missionaries played their
ukulele's so I'm kinda glad I didn't do that, too mainstream. Anyways
afterwards we got our Christmas packages and headed home! We visited
Bro Unger and he told me no missionary has connected with his son like
I did, which was rad because all I really did was listen! Afterwards
it was like 8:30 and my comp wanted to knock doors, so I let him try
and people around here get pretty irritated if you do late night
knocking. It was super unsuccessful, so I told him we needed to go to
the store to get draino because somehow I clogged up our kitchen sink
hahaha. I don't think he was too happy about going to get draino, but
oh well.

Wednesday we went and helped Tom in the morning. He's putting in
central air so we helped out a little with that. After that we went
and helped Charles write his talk for Sunday and then had a lesson
with him and Joseph. Then we all went to Taco Bell:) After that we
stopped by Jeff's so I could pickup a present for a member and then
went home for dinner. At that point we were stuck in Palmerton for the
rest of the night because of our lack of miles. We ended up walking
around in the rain for the rest of the night. I can think of plenty of
people to go talk to and see, but my comp thinks those ideas are a
waste of time and he wants to find new people to teach, so we just
walk around and knock on occasional doors with no success. At this
point I just go with the flow cuz that's all you can do to make some
companionships work:)

Thursday was super awesome! We started the day going to district
meeting. Elder Martinez decorated it all cool and we all brought
snacks and watched Mr Krugers Christmas at the end! We stopped at the
store on our way back and got a few things for some members. We
dropped off a Christmas card at Lori's and then went to the Kennedy's.
After a nice visit with them we went to the Baker's and I gave Daniel
a shaving kit, because he's going on a mission soon and doesn't know
how to shave, so I ended up just teaching him too! The branch puts on
a Christmas Eve program at a senior care center, so we got to go with
them and sing songs and have fun with the old people! It was an
awesome experience, I mean if you want to know how to feel the
Christmas spirit, it's that. We finished the night by eating a quick
dinner at Bro Schoenberger's. His wife just got hip surgery so we got
to talk to her for a bit and Bro Devore came over as well because his
wife is in Utah right now!

Friday was the best! We got to Skype home and man I'm tellin ya that
is a sweet experience. It was way fun to hear a little about home,
tell a lot about here, play some songs for them on my guitar and we
all cried a little (or a lot) hahaha I miss my family a ton. Anyways
after that we went to the Fitzsimmons for a very early Christmas
dinner. It was really really nice, and their whole family was there so
it was just awesome! We stopped by Jeff's and I regifted a mini
Christmas tree that my parents gave me. I figured I wouldn't be able
to carry it around till next Christmas, so I thought I'd give it to
the Jew! Him and Mary absolutely loved it! They fluffed it all up and
put all the mini ornaments on. They were so thankful for it, so that
was awesome! We then stopped by the Kennedy's because they invited us
over for some rum cake that they made! Then we made our way out to the
Roeselers for Christmas dinner, but I ended up feeling kinda sick by
the end of the night so I didn't eat too much.

Saturday we did weekly planning, but took a break during it and picked
up some Mcd's and ate with Jeff! We did some more weekly planning then
had a Family history lesson with Charles and Joseph. They invited us
to go to Taco Bell with them after, so of course I can't say no to
that! We went and visited Bro Devore and listened to all his fun
stories from his past and a story about how the Lehighton branch got
it's start. We went and visited Bro Unger

Sunday was tight because Charles and Joseph both came to church! It
was Joseph's first time back since like June. It was funny because
everyone was getting them confused since they are twins! Charles gave
his talk and he did a great job! I gave a talk on patriarchal
blessings. Honestly I love giving talks now and I don't even know why!
During 3rd hour we taught Hailee. She's going through some pretty hard
stuff right now so we are taking it slow with her, but she asked me to
give her a blessing so that was pretty sweet! It's always the best to
get to exercise the priesthood! After church we knocked on a few doors
which didn't yield any success, but it's all good because after lunch
we stopped and talked to our neighbors Doug and Rachel! Doug has been
in the hospital for quite a while so we gave them a little company. We
headed out to visit Jenny and it's always pretty crazy when we go
there, but Bro Fegely came and her friend Sean sat down and pretty
much vented to us about his ex wife and custody and all that stuff, so
even though we didn't get to teach Jenny, we definitely helped someone
out by listening to him. Then Jenny's friend Sam was there and she was
asking us all sorts of questions like how many wife's we can have and
all that stuff so we talked to her a little bit about all that stuff!
Then we went out to the Roeselers for Sunday dinner. It's sad, they
are moving this week, they will be missed that's forsure.

All in all pretty good week! For some reason this transfer has been
pretty physically demanding on me and I'm always feelin tired and sick
now, but it's all good! I'm super pumped this week because we get to
help the Roeselers move, and then we have a bunch of lessons already
planned out and a bunch of places to go on New Year's Day! Then to top
it off, transfer calls will be Friday night and I'm almost positive
I'm out of here. I love this area and the people, but I think I'm
ready to go and get a fresh outlook on things! Thank you to everyone
who wished me a merry Christmas last week and sent me Christmas cards!
It means a lot to a missionary out preaching the gospel. I hope you
all have a Happy New year and a great start to 2016!

1) My Christmas stocking from my mom!
2) My family sent me this awesome Lego advent calendar so there's a
little Christmas village all set up on my desk
3) Me and Santa! (Bro Roeseler!)