Merry Christmas :)

HEY EVERYBODY!

This week went by so quickly!! AHH! But it was a great week nonetheless! jaja! :)

OH MY Christmas was AWESOME!! Thank you for the mounds of Christmas gifts- some of them were hilarious! MOM - the Melted snowman is a main attraction of our room :) I love the socks and the electric razor - makes life SO much easier!! :D

I'm so grateful for all of you back home sending your love to me here!

On the 24th we had a Crazy awesome Devotional – Elder Neil Anderson of the 12 came and spoke to us, and I sang in a small choir of 24 missionaries - it was so epic. Sister Elizabeth Smart and I talked for a while - and she played an awesome harp solo for the Christmas Eve fireside - it was so good!

On Christmas Day we all woke up and opened presents and had hot chocolate and sang Christmas Carols - (it SOUNDS kinda girlie but hey it's a bunch of stressing 19 year olds that are all missing their families) it was so fun!

We had a pretty intense injury in GYM this last Wednesday - Elder Simmons, a new Elder that came in 10 days ago, was playing Basketball and got slammed into a wall and knocked out his front teeth!! AHH! but luckily there's a prof dentist right near by and the Church paid for reconstruction of his teeth - and he's all back to normal now. I was surprised at how well he looks! You can't even tell!! My right (broken) shoulder actually hasn't been causing any grief, but my LEFT one keeps popping out of it's socket- it hurts way bad :( i dunno what's goin on with it!!

On Christmas day, Elder L Tom Perry came and gave an amazing devotional! He's next in line to be the Big Guy! I didn't know that until Elder Riggs told me...

Also On Christmas Day we sang a hilarious rendition of "the 12 Days of Christmas" but it was MTC Style. all 3000 missionaries were broken into sections and we all had a different part to sing:

On the first day of Christmas the MTC Gave me:
1: a rock solid testimony!!
On the second day of Christmas the MTC gave me:
2 haircuts free!
3 new companions
4 chocolate milks
5 hours of gym!
6:30 wake up
7 lukewarm showers
8 hours of rest
9 outbound calls
10 new commandments
11 loads of laundry
12 hours of class!

Jajaja it was so fun! 3000 young men all screaming at the podium where a little old lady was conducting us - so awesome.

Speaking of 3000 screaming young men, one of my favorite things we do at the firesides is sing "Called to Serve" - so epic. We all sing at the top of our lungs and when the song comes to "ever we will BE!," we all just SHOUT "BE!" and the whole auditorium kinda shakes and echoes. haha its a blast.

OH and in the next little bit I'll be sending a Box home with some stuff here that I don't have room for but I don't want to throw away. Just stash it in my room for the time being :)

SPEAKING of giving stuff away...
One of the most comical things that can happen in a day... There are ironing boards at the end of the halls in the residence buildings, and nobody actually uses them for ironing (oh the beauty of wrinkle-free clothing). These boards have been dubbed "Sacrificial Altars." Anything that a Missionary doesn't want anymore, he just puts on the board for other missionaries to fight over. It's hilarious. Right before some Elders are about to leave the MTC to head out into the field, they cut their entire stock of stuff in half, leaving it behind on the altar. After they drop everything off at the Altar, he yells "SACRIFICE!!" and dozens of missionaries dart out of their rooms towards the ironing boards to pick at what's left of his stuff. So far I've accumulated quite the array of cool things!! I even managed to scrounge up a long black trench/rain coat that makes me look like I'm Neo from the Matrix. So tight. The Elder that left it it behind was going to Ecuador... not gonna need it there!! hahaha!

Sidenote- SOMEONE TELL RICHARD OBLAD THAT HE BETTER WRITE ME WITHIN THE NEXT 3 DAYS OR HE'S A DEAD MAN! haha

yesterday (Sunday) I was the musical Number for the Sunday fireside - it was so fun! It was the largest (I think) crowd of people I've ever played for! I played a medley - I think I did pretty alright! :)

Elder Linford and I are teaching our first lessons to REAL investigators in Spanish this Saturday! Wish us LUCK! LOVE YOU ALL!!

AND MERRY BELATED CHRISTMAS!!! :D :D :D :D :D

Always and forever,
Elder B