Black Tie

Hey everyone!

First up I thought I would let you know that I am wearing a black tie in mourning. This morning Elder Walker, Milot and Wilcox left to Prague. They finished their missions and have left me. Those missionaries have kind of been around forever in my mind and it's hard to imagine going on without them. A shout out to all of them! :) Good luck in school/life--don't forget to write!

Second thing to report--my second week conducting church went much better--I really need to practice more, though. I'll have down by the time I have to leave I think. We had a little Christmas program. With singing, scripture reading, and everything. We're alomst like a real ward. We had an investigator there and everyone loved it! I was going a little crazy before hand hoping it would go all right. I managed to get teenagers involved init so I'm pretty pleased. (vďaka my Friendly Pines experience. That just keeps coming in handy) Saturday night we had our Christmas activity--the highlight being the white elephant and minute-to-win-it games. (ps can anyone send me some more group activity ideas? The branch is dying to do more and we can't use google.) Everyone showed up in their ugly Christmas sweaters (some things are just universal) and that was a huge success. I learned some things too. Number One (1) Plan way in advance. Number Two (2) delegate way in advance and Number Three (3) never paint the day of the party. Luckily everyone had ugly sweaters.

Thanks for all the Christmas cards by the way--they ALL said they would be late. But I got them. Mine will def be late. My apologies.

Our area is finally starting to look like an area with missionaries working in it. We found three new investigators last week and we have a stack of potentials that we'll weed through in January. I'm trying not to look forward too much to the next transfer, but it gets me excited to have a "fresh start". New year, new companion (nothing against elder Tomlinson-- I'll miss him almost as much as I miss Elder Zabriskie... almost) and all new missionaries in the city. We'll be able to really hit the ground running and hit this city like it's never been hit before. 2012!! Huzzah!

We got a busy week ahead of us-- couple lessons on the plan and then off to Prague for the Christmas Conference! I'm really looking forward to it. Last year was great and I think this year will be even better.

Not much else going one. Hope everything is good at home. I'll hear from you all next week! :)
Merry Christmas!!!

Elder Williams