December 26, 2011

Hello

This last week was really neat, although the teaching opportunities were a few less than normal. We had a great zone conference, focused on spiritual gifts. There were great thoughts shared about gifts of the restoration, the Atonement, and others. But the greatest gift of all of course came back to John 3:16, where we learn that God loves us so much that He freely gave mankind His Only Begotten Son. That day was very neat to be a part of and very spiritual. On Christmas Eve, we had a day to do service. We cut up some firewood for a family in the ward and also planted a tree for a lady we met last week. These were fun to have a part in. Then, during the evening, a family in the ward has a tradition to buy up poinsettas from some of the stores and drop them off at various families in the area with the missionaries. It was neat to take part in making a few families Christmas' a little bit more special.

The Carroll's, where I called home from, gave us a few Christmas presents and also a stocking full of various things. One of the presents was a little rocket. Similar to the one we had a few years back and flew off from the middle school. We started building them yesterday and will finish them up to hopefully shoot off during the New Year's Eve preparation day. I am grateful for the kindness and generosity of the many people that had a part in the day.

It was a big treat to be able to call home. That was a neat reboost to hear the voices of familiar loved ones. This week on Wednesday we have another conference for all missionaries who have been out for less than 3 months. Everytime we get together like that it is a great spiritual experience. But we lose out on the opportunities to find new people to teach. We played basketball this morning for a couple of hours. It felt great to exercise and sweat, because in the mornings the pushups and situps and things don't quite bring the same results.

This weeks email will be pretty short, as time in this day is going quick and we have to get a few more things done before getting back to work.

With love and charity

Elder Graziano