Week 48!!!

Hello Everybody!

This week was super good! It was definitely a bit strange being away from home for Christmas for the first time in 20 years, but it was a very good Christmas present to see my family for the first time in just shy of one year (via skype), and talk to them for probably the fastest 43 minutes of my mission...

I've decided I really like Christmas season. Usually, I don't care for it. Maybe I take after Charlie Brown and my dad, but it really bugs me how commercialized it all is. I really do find a lot of fun in finding the right gift for someone, but this year, without that, I really spent a lot more time focusing on the Savior and really learned a lot. But, maybe that is just the missionary in me. It was really a special experience to be one of Christ's personal missionaries and go around for His birthday and testify to others who do not have the Gospel in their lives how they can utilize the Atonement and become happy. The entire purpose of why Christ was born. It was also kind of a special experience to sit down in the house of a very generous member on Christmas day and over live video invite my family to come closer to the Savior and partake in the blessings there of, and do so in a lot more feeling and sincerity then just a letter can portray. For about a year now, I have been dreading Christmas. Seeing how it is generally a time of family, but mine are still far away, but looking back, although this may seem cliche, this was probably one of my best Christmases ever as I really got involved in missionary work, and served. Bringing to others, what is, in my opinion, the best gift I could bring. The gift of the Gospel of Christ. The gift of eternal happiness, the gift of salvation, the gift of being sealed to your family for all eternity. I testify as an ordained personal representative of Christ, that He lives, that he did come into the world to make it possible for us to return to live with our Father in Heaven. I testify that He loves you more then you can comprehend, that you can ALWAYS come unto Him and be made clean from your sins. Moroni 6:8 reads "But as oft as they repented and sought forgiveness, with real intent, they were forgiven." No matter what you feel inside, the Savior is here. He will come unto you if you will come unto Him. You will be forgiven if you seek to be. I exhort all of you, no matter where you are in life, to come unto Him and be made whole and reap the happiness and blessings that will come.

I leave this testimony with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.