Week 71: Merry Christmas!

 Hey y'all! 

And Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a wonderful day and enjoy the holidays. I am so grateful for each and every one of you and am so grateful for all your support and love over the years. This week was another fantastic week, here are a few of the highlights. 

Last week we had MLC! It was fun seeing some of my favorite missionaries all in one place. We went over and talked about some changes to the mission standards and also some of the needs of the mission. We also recieved training on some important aspects of social media content in order to find more people to teach. One important point is that we are supposed to be FINDING those who need the gospel, not CREATING them. Therefore we should focus less on entertaining, fun content with a little gospel message and focus more on uplifting spiritual content thats bound to catch the eye of someone who is curious to learn more. 

This last Tuesday we had a super special Christmas Zone Conference. We had 3 zones there, Waco, Killeen, and Cedar Park which was cool because we havent had an opportunity to have a multi-zone conference since President Fox got here. We recieved some training and then President Fox suprised us by putting Polar Express on. It was a Christmas miracle. What was super suprising to me though is how much that movie actually applies to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Throughout the whole thing I kept seeing parallels and similarities between the movie and what we teach. 

One big theme for me is forgiveness. Over and over again when he pulls the emergency brake, loses the ticket, and gets lost in Santas sack he is forgiven by the conductor and gets right back in place. No matter how much we mess up we still can be forgiven. I also like in the last scene when he cant hear the bells, but all you can hear is the loud cheering noise of the elves. Also as he tries to see through the elves to Santa he cannot because there are so many people and things in the way. Sometimes we cant see or hear Christ because we have so many worldly things blocking our view or worldy noises surrounding our ears. However, it wasnt until he made the effort to believe with all his heart that he was able to hear the bells (or Jesus Christ) and he got to see him in front of him with no distractions or blocks in his view. I never thought the Polar Express could be so spiritually enlightening to me before I became a missionary. 

Love and miss you all! Have a very Merry Christmas and Ill make sure to catch you at the next one! 

Elder Anderson