Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I realize that it is September, but our district decided to celebrate a different holiday each week for the rest of the MTC. So this P-Day is Christmas, next week is Thanksgiving, and then on the last week we have Halloween. And Christmas Eve was awesome, so I'm hoping today (Christmas) will be good too! Last night we sang some Christmas songs, took awkward family photos, and then hung up stockings (in my case, just a normal sock). But is was fun and we had an Elder dress up as Santa and fill them up. And we even brought an extra mattress into our room so all 7 of us Elders could sleep in the same room for Christmas. It's been really exciting to set up decorations and sing Christmas hymns, even though it is actually only September. Later today we are having a District wide secret santa gift exchange, so we'll see how that goes too!

We had an awesome devotional this week that was really amazing. Quentin L Cook from the quorum on the 12 came and spoke to us. I'm in the choir so we started off singing "The Morning Breaks" and then he and his wife both gave talks. He spoke about love and about missionary work in general. It was a really good talk and then he ended with his testimony of Jesus Christ. It was so powerful and the room was absolutely silent and attentive as he bore his testimony. It was a fantastic experience.

This week we also had our second week of TRC, an activity where you teach lessons to returned missionaries in the mission language. It is a really cool experience to teach returned missionaries and to hear their testimonies about Christ and missionary work in general. After it finished, my district and our teacher took us to a hallway in the new buildings of the MTC where there are tons of pictures of Christ. He was healing people, laughing with people, comforting people, and just showing His love in many ways. We then had a mini testimony meeting. Just like the devotional, this was an experience that reinforced how much the Savior loves us and how important He is to all of us. Bearing my own testimony and hearing other's testimonies was really moving.

I've officially reached the halfway mark for the MTC. Before long, I'm going to be in the country of Sweden, which is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. Well, I think that's all I have time for this week.

Sincerely,
Elder Nelson