"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...."

The first day of December also brought us the first "real" snow of the winter here in Lowell! It "stuck" as they say, but it's mostly melted by now. There's another Elder here from Gilbert, Arizona - he's never seen snow until this last Saturday. He's been having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that the half-inch we got was hardly anything. I'm glad I got a bit of cold weather experience at NAU before this!

We got a couple of new investigators this week - one was a referral of a YSA from the Portuguese Elders, and the other was this lady named Bernadette who we found about a month ago. We were finally able to sit down with her and talk about the Restoration this last week, and she seemed really excited. We'll see where that goes! There's a lot of potential in this area, and I'm determined to work hard and make it happen. Also, Sam (one of our investigators) came to church this week for the first time! He and his son Peter loved it and said they'd come again next week. I'm really happy for them, but it's also kind of a bummer - he's moving back to Cambodia in January. Turns out he's running for congressman for one of the provinces there. It's awesome for him and I hope he does well, but he probably won't be baptized here. No worries, I've already informed Elder Ang to keep an eye out for him! Sam does want to keep learning though, and so we're going to get him in touch with the missionaries over there.

We had a "Return and Report" meeting with all the trainers and new missionaries this last week as well, which was really great. We talked about what's working, what's not working, and how things are going in general. We also received training on better ways to plan and help people progress in the gospel. I love hearing from Pres. Packard - he's an incredible man and I'm so thankful to have him as my mission president. He has truly inspired me to be the best I can be.

Yesterday, we were at the church for 10 and a half hours: ward council for the Lowell ward, the Lowell ward meetings, choir practice for the Lowell ward Christmas program, Heritage Park ward meetings, and a potluck "Break the Fast" dinner for the Heritage Park ward. It was crazy!

The First Presidency Christmas Devotional was wonderful last night. I love hearing from our modern-day prophets, seers, and revelators. I really like Pres. Uchtdorf's message on receiving graciously and with gratitude and enthusiasm, and of course, the music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square was beautiful (especially that version of "What Child is This?" - I loved that). If you weren't able to watch it, go to LDS.org and be sure to do so!

Not a whole lot to say this week, except that I love being out here and I love what I'm doing! Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Justin DeLong