Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!! Hope you all have a good Christmas and enjoy the new year. Congratulations to my cousin McKenna for getting her mission call to Italy! That is so amazing you'll do great and best of luck as you prepare in the Italian language before you leave! As for this past week the mission had Christmas socials for the north and south parts of the mission. Elder Priest and I headed to York for the north Christmas social. It was an all day event and loads of fun.

So the north half of the mission all met at the York chapel and we had a spiritual start to the day listening to musicals and scriptures and watching "The Christ Child" video. It was a good start to the day. Afterwards we had "games" and when I say games I don't mean the fun ones. There were 3 games but we only got to 2 of them. The first one we divided into teams and tried to dress up a team member in wrapping paper. It was a bit boring and ours looked like complete rubbish. The next "game" we did some line dancing and about 30 of us were crammed into the relief society room. Moving on though we had  lunch, a Christmas roast, which was pretty good. I got to meet some cool people and my trainer Elder King was there as well so I got to see him too. 

The last part of the social was the best part. We had a talent show and there were a ton of great acts. Lots of singing and piano playing. We had some magic tricks and funny skits. The best act at the social in my opinion was a rap performance by 2 Elders in Middlesbrough. Elder Flenaugh and Elder Stewart. Elder Stewart is actually going to be playing for BYU basketball when he gets back. He has been out about 5 months so he got here about a transfer before me. Anyways they made this mission rap song with a member and they recorded it in a studio. This song was so well done and I'm going to try and share the performance with you hopefully it's not too big to send, but if you are curious to hear the song I can share it with you on a drive. We concluded the party by reciting "The Living Christ" as a mission. Unfortunately I didn't have it all the way memorized like some did. I did get pretty far though and it was such a great experience. The day was a blast and it was a great reminder of why we celebrate Christmas. 

The rest of the week was just a bunch of knocking doors. One of the days I was able to pass out 4 copies of the BOM to people. I've been able to bear sincere testimony and give the promise promised by Moroni and Joseph Smith. One of the doors we knocked we talked to an older man who had said he did some research on our church and others. I felt the impression to ask him what he came across on the internet because you can never trust it ,and he said that we baptize dead people. I was able to clarify what baptisms for the dead were and dispel the typical outside world view on the church. This encounter made me think a lot. Satan is very real and he will do anything in his power to destroy our faith, agency, and pollute the minds of others. Being on the mission has been a big eye opener and testimony builder. It really has made me question things, but a thought comes to mind every time. I think this was said by Elder Uchtdorf at the time and he said "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith" I think this is so true! The adversary wants us to question our testimonies and will do anything big or small to damage that. I'm grateful for prayer and the comfort and assurance the Holy Ghost brings to me knowing that this church is the true church of Christ which as been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith (Happy Birthday to this man as well). The Book of Mormon is the word of God and by following its teachings we can come closer to him. 

Anyways just would like to ask for your prayers for Dob and Jacklyn this week. That they will be receptive to our message as we try to meet and teach them. Hope you all have a great week and Merry Christmas!!

Elder Jones