Hello Family and friends and others! We got an opportunity to email for Christmas, so I can't call, but at least it is something. Ther is a lot of cool things that just happened. Well like three, but that's a lot right? Ok, first: I recieved my travel plans Friday. So I go to Salt Lake international, and get on British Airways flight 5109 for Dallas Ft Worth, Tx at 8:10am. I then have a 5 hour layover in Dallas. I know I said I had that long wait in London, but I was mistaken, just Dallas. Then I hop on BA 192 for London Heathrow at 4:45. Lastly, I board BA 726 for Geneva Switzerland at 8:30 AM January the Third. Yeah, I will be flying for an entire day... not 24 horurs, but my almost my entire Jan 2, 2012 will be sptent on an airplane. So there you have it. I will only get an hour in London unfortunatly, but that's still enough to tell everyone that I have been there. So I should be at the Mission home in Geneva around noon on January 3or about 4AM our time. By the way I'll be getting up at 4 on Jan 2 to leave for Europe, so I literally will be traveling for 24 hours straight.
Sorry, if this email, is worded weird, the computer keeps freezing on me, so I can only see what I am typing about half of the time. So, Christmas Eve was fun. It was just a normal day until after dinner. After dinner, we had a fireside wheresome people did the nativity scene, and there were some really good musical numbers, and some valliant attempts at musical numberrs. I;m sorry that was kinfd of mean ha ha. Today has been fun so far, here is a quick run-through of my schedule: Breakfast, Zone/district leader thing on what we are going to do for the day, Motab program, Sacrament with everyone at the MTC (Elder Bednar spoke, I'll talk about that more later), then lunch (that made me sick), and now I am emailing. After I'll go on a temple walk, district meeting (we talk about the sacrament meeting, and our goals and such), then another motab christmas thing, sack dinner (yummy!), then a christmas fireside, followed by a movie. We also saw a movie last night, George C. Scott's Christmas Carol. I don't know if it is just because the only movie I have seen in two months was the Joseph smith movie (which is way good, just not as much after the 8th time), but it was INCREDIBLY good.. Very moving. Did you know that Prez Monson said that the Christmas Carol is inspired writing> I did not either, but I can see how he would say that.
It is weird that this is my first Christmas away from home. I'll make sure to think of you guys at 10 tonight. Just think though, We only have one more Christmas to go! I miss you guys, I am learning so much here and I am so so so so so so so extremely excited to serve the people in France and Switzerland.
Ok, now about Elder Bednar's talk. Definitley the best talk I have heard here so far, and that is saying something. He talked about coming to know of Christ, and about the Chracter of Christ. I know whatever I say about it is not going to do it justice, but Just what he said was ... ah it was amazing! Something he said that I thought was interesting, was that if you just have a testimony of Jesus Christ, and in his restored gospel, you do not have enough, and are in jepoardy of falling away from the flock. We must be constantly deepening our conversion and opening up to others. Meaning that we should forsake the natural man and look to the wellbeing of others. Forget yourself, forget your problems, forget your worries, and give absolutely everything you have to serving others and you will never fall away. He that treasureth his life (or something like that) shall loose it, and he that looseth his life for my sake shall find it. That kind of idea.
I really think that ties in with the spirit of Christmas. I know a lot of times people say to remember the true meaning of Christmas. That is usually reffering to the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. From what I have learned here... I would go so far as to say that is not the true meaning of Christmas either... well it is, but it is a very shallow one. I think in addition to remembering the birth of our savior, we should aslo remember the actions and example of him. This is a special time of giving and selflessness and being decent people. I hope to be able to share my talents and my experiences with those I meet on my mission. I love this Gospel. I love the savior, and I can say now that my belief is rooted in him, I know that nobody is perfect, and that sometimes even members of the church can be very... unperfect, but that does not mean that the chruch is not true. It Just means that those people are not being true to the church. I don't have any time left. I'm sorry that this letter is sort of all over the place. I would just like to end by saying that I love you all, and that I miss you and hope you are all having a wonderful christmas day. Talk to you again tuesday!
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