Christmas Presents

Hi mom! Well I opened the packages. Sorry I didn't wait til Christmas, I thought you said open it at zone conference, and then I just checked the old email and you said not until Christmas. I was going to wait, but my companion kept bugging me so I just opened it. Thank you!!!! I hung up the two stockings, and Grandma and Papa sent me a stocking so I hung that up, too. It's good to have some decorations. I tried to use one of those McDonalds cards, but they wouldn't accept it because they said they only work in the states. It's ok though. I'm saving one for when I go back, and I'm mailing the other to Elder Vailea, because I know he likes McDonalds, and I'm not sure if he will be getting a package from his family for Christmas, so that's my Christmas present to him.

This week has been a pretty good week. It's been slow, but we have had a good time, and are trying to help our investigators as much as we can. On Moday we went to a Pilates appointment with Nicole and her mom that they set up for us. We kept saying how Pilates would be a piece of cake, so they challenged us to a real appointment, not what you see on TV, but with the hardcore machines and everything. It pretty much worked us over. My abs were really sore for a few days. It was pretty funny to see everything we couldn't do because we were out of shape. The rest of this week has been pretty uneventful, we are just trying to help the work move forward. On Friday, we had Zone Conference. I am in the Juneau zone now. In our zone we have the 3 areas in Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, Petersburg, and us in Whitehorse. It's pretty cool to have all of us meet together for that. All the areas outside of Juneau had to call in and listen over the phone. They called on me to give a talk, but it's pretty easy when you can just sit back in a soft chair and you don't see anyone that's listening. Not a bad deal. I also got called to speak in our sacrament meeting here. I imagine I will probably speak quite a few times here since the branch is so small. When I was sitting up on the stand, I looked out over the congregation, and I was really humbled to see everyone there. It's really hard for the people here to stay involved and active when they are so far separated from the rest of the church. It's amazing to see people that want so badly to stay involved and active regardless of that. The gospel is amazing.

The cold hasn't been too bad here yet. It stays between -10 and -20 degrees Celcius usually. Whitehorse is kind of a melancholy place in the winter. It's tough to get people interested in our message, and it's really easy to get tired because it's dark all the time. Soon it will start to get light again though. I'm doing pretty good here so far. The area is starting to grow on me, and I'm sure that when I have to leave it will be hard. But while I'm here I'll give it my best. I love you guys! Love Mat