(Christmas Skype)

Dear Mom,

I'm glad I was able to see you guys, too! I was worried that the video on your end wouldn't be received on my end. While Bishop and his daughter were up there trying to fix it I was pretty worried but as soon as they left it worked, ha ha! We had fun at the Bishop's house on Christmas.

What exciting news to hear that the transfer schedule will be moved back a week! I'm glad that I will be able to spend another week in the WYM! I will now be coming home July 5th.

This week was interesting. We had a couple of great lessons with 'K' who is on date for January 9th in the YSA branch. He is an incredibly prepared young man. He is so ready for the gospel and for the blessings that come when we live the commandments. Christmas made things extremely difficult. Not many people were home or able to have us this week but we're hoping that this week is much better. We've really been working on helping our ward mission leader and ward council feel more empowered in the work by inviting families in the ward who could benefit from the lessons to meet with us. They are working SLOWLY but things are starting to fall into place. We've also been weeding out our Potential investigators and referrals this week and cleaning up past lists of names that are no longer interested. Had a lot of success doing that this week and now we can focus on finding more of the elect! 

The District is doing well. We are going to focus this week on Rushing to the Restoration now that the A Savior is Born initiative has wound down. 

What a crazy story with the backpack guy at the movies! haha! So Star Wars was clean? I hope it was. It sounds really good and I'm ticked that stuff has been spoiled for me. I heard that the plot is a lot like a New Hope, that Han Solo dies and that no one knows Rey's backstory yet. I can't wait to see it for myself and I hope no more spoilers come my way! ha ha

Thanks for the pictures! That's a funny story about the Elders at your house. I always think it's awkward to teach people in members homes unless the members invite the investigator. Oftentimes the missionaries get stuck with taking care of things like that.

Any updates about Emily and her mission from the paperwork? Does she have an availability date yet? I'm excited for her!

We are going to begin teaching a young man named 'I' this week and we are super excited! His older brother and older Sister live in Selah and they are amazing. They are like the coolest people ever! The older brother comes out with us every week to go on visits and he's been through a lot. 'I' hasn't been active so now we are going to help him become active! Wish us the best this week! New Years ought to be interesting since we can't proselyte those days. 

I love you! Have a great week!!

Yakima is home to "wonderful" establishments like this (yah, that's sarcasm!):