Hello family and friends,

Can you believe it’s already almost Christmas?! I thought we were just starting December. I heard you guys got some more snow; that's always one of my favorite things during Christmas. One thing that is really big here is for the kids to go around singing Christmas Chorals. They make instruments out of just about any object such as pop bottles, whistles, or tin cans with rocks in them. The only difference here is you give them a little money when they sing to you. We've had little kids almost chase us trying to get our money. We also have fireworks for Christmas. As missionaries, of course we can't have any, but everyone is starting to light them at night so we get to enjoy them.

We have a lot of progressing investigators in our area thanks to the Lord. We were teaching a lesson to our investigators who are about 23 years old, and when we asked them if they prayed about Joseph Smith like we asked them to, one of them told us he did pray, but just got confused after he prayed. I was a little confused that he would say that and not say the spirit had touched him. We asked why he was confused when he prayed and I think his answer was a little funny. He told us when he prayed, he felt like someone was punching him in the chest. We are now helping him realize how the spirit can touch us and he is now starting to realize that it was the spirit that touched him.

We also have some recent converts in our area who are good active members, but their children haven't been baptized yet so we started teaching them a few weeks ago. One of their daughters just lost her job, but now she has time to listen to the lessons and go to church so I see it as being a blessing. We were teaching her and I asked her why she goes to church and she told us of how she didn't like her family before, because her dad was always drinking and they weren't close to one another. She said after her dad got baptized, her family changed and they are happy now. I've known this family for five months and it's amazing to see the changes that have taken place in their family as the mom and dad accepted the gospel and how their children and cousins are beginning to accept the gospel now too. The gospel has greatly impacted their family and really blessed them. I love you all and Merry Christmas! :)

Love, Elder Smith