December 13th Email

Hey Everyone

It's getting so close to Christmas and I love it! We had Christmas Conference this past week and it was a blast! It was so great to see missionaries that I haven't seen for a while. Elder Alber and I had to leave early to take Elder Firth to the doctor for a post surgical checkup. Poor guy he goes home on the 28th and last week he got his appendix taken out and in the middle of the surgery the doctor noticed he had a hernia that he didn't want anyone to find out about and so he fixed that too so he is just hating life recovering right now. At the checkup the doctor said he should be fully recovered in 6 weeks and he goes home in 2... So the decision is final Elder Alber and I are going traveling with Elder Firth. It is going to be so much fun! He gets here tonight but we don't leave until Wednesday because we have to give a training to our zone Wednesday morning. President really likes and trusts Elder Alber and I. He told us we are free to go where we choose whenever and we don't need to constantly check in to him because he said he trusts us and knows that we will work hard. It's amazing, it's people like that I'm going to work the hardest for because they trust and respect me and I would never want to do anything to break that. We got to attend two different stake nativity activities this past weekend and do some missionary work at both. They go all out down here. One of them had a live nativity with animals as well as a "city of bethlehem" set up and you can go to different shops and do different activities it was crazy. We were able to do it all with non members that showed up and it was one of the easiest times to teach because they knew ahead of time that they were going to learn about our Savior's birth. We worked with a couple companionships in our zone this past week and I just love going into an area having nothing to worry about but to teach what they have scheduled and help find people they can work with. It's a great spiritual experience.

I Love You All,

Elder Salmon