Merry Christmas Everyone!

December 24, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

Sorry this will be kind of a short letter. This past week has been awesome though! It's such a great time of year to be a missionary.

Last week we had a temple conference and it was so good! Such a neat experience to be part of a temple session full of missionaries. The Spirit was there very strong. I didn't want to leave haha. But it was ok because after we joined up with some other zones in the chapel and had a music conference where tons of missionaries went up and sang musical numbers. That was really cool too. Overall the whole day was so incredible.

We saw some huge progress in our Ward this past week. Things are starting to come together and the feeling in the Ward is getting a lot better. It's cool to see all the work paying off. So hopefully we can get some new members added here pretty soon to keep the ball rolling. We have a guy that we were teaching a few weeks ago named Josue. We gave him over to the YSA Ward but he is getting baptized next week so that is pretty cool. We are excited for him.

Elder Hoskin got strep throat this week so we are doing our best to stay clear of it haha. That's the last thing we need. So the work has been pretty slow this week with all that's going on.

We are doing a really cool service project for a bunch of families that have been living in their cars because they recently got kicked out of their apartment complex because it got shut down. So we worked with one of the wards up here and a bunch of the members pitched in to buy the kids presents. Each kid wrote their wish lists and the members took care of them. So we wrapped all the presents for the kids and tomorrow we get to give them to the kids and see them open them up. That will be really cool.

I just wanted a share a little poem that I found earlier this week that I really liked.

Christmas is not a day or a season, but a condition of heart and mind.

If we love our neighbors as ourselves; 
if in our riches we are poor in spirit and in our poverty we are rich in grace;

if our charity vaunteth not itself, but suffereth long and is kind;

if when our brother asks for a loaf, we give ourselves instead;

if each day dawns in opportunity and sets in achievement, however small--

then every day is Christ’s day and Christmas is always near.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! Love you all! Thanks for the love and support!

-Elder Gammell

Funny video when Skyping with family on Christmas Day.