Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We have 20 minutes to email today, and we got lost on our way so it's closer to 10. We get to email home tomorrow too though, so I'm not too worried.

I love you all! Life is going very well here. I'm adjusting to the schedule and I'm not dead tired anymore. I'm also not drowning in the language anymore, I'm picking it up. In fact, our teacher didn't let us use notes the last time we taught our investigator, just a dictionary. It was lots of fun. The spiritual highlights have definitely come from teaching Taonakira (our investigator). He's technically one of our teachers, but we didn't initially know that, and it was super great to feel like we were really helping someone who needed it. And I feel like we still are. 

I miss you all. I'm interested in hearing from you all what's going on at home! I hope things are fun. I'm sorry Christmas has been so busy for dad, and not as exciting. I understand I'm the life of the party, but do your best without me :)

My companion is a nice guy. He's from Logan, and his name is Elder Davis. Our other district members are nice guys too. Elder Mattison is from Arizona, and Elder McCormick is from Colorado. We get along well.

Our zone is all of the elders going to Kiritbati, the Marshall Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Phillippines, etc. We have like 12 different languages going on all at once in our residence hall, at varying levels of competency. It's so funny. We're also definitely the most chill/intimidating zone in the whole MTC. Our district of 4 American kids is the only white kids in the whole zone, everyone else is Polynesian, Australian, or a Kiwi (from New Zealand). It's a fun atmosphere. Everyone gets treated like family, and it's been so nice.

Last night at the Christmas Eve devotional we got to hear from Elder David F. Evans of the Seventy, and his wife. He also serves on the Missionary Executive Council. It was awesome. His wife talked about her first Christmas having just sent Elder Evans off on a mission to Japan, and how important messengers are to her, because they enabled her and her husband to stay in contact. She then extended the analogy to us as missionaries, acting as messengers and bringing people closer to each other and to Christ. It was my favorite talk so far (on a couple levels :))

Elder Evans then spoke about the huge power letters from Dads have, discussing specifically Mormon and Moroni's correspondences in the Book of Mormon. It made me proud of my dad for being such a good example, and following the spirit like those prophets.

I'm out of time, but I'll be able to email you all tomorrow as well! Keep your phones on you, that's probably the fastest way to get the notification that I sent my email. I have 60 minutes tomorrow, but I can split it up. So I'll probably email in the morning, and then again later in the afternoon if my plan goes well. I'll be sure to include a report of the devotional from whichever apostle it is that comes tonight. Send me questions or things you want to know, otherwise I'll just wing it.

I know I'm where I'm supposed to be. I love you all, thanks for your support.

Love,

Dallin