***Elder Matthew Noad*** ****Orem Utah Mission****: Week 2 in Springville!

This week has been slow, but awesome! on Monday was my first PDay and that went awesome! I got a lot done and was able to prepare for the next week.

On Tuesday we had our Zone Christmas Conference and that was soooo fun!! We got there nice and early to practice our skit. After that we helped set up for the Conference. We first had our devotional where we had Brother Hawkins, an artist who draws pictures of temples with little hidden pictures within them and writes history about them. He currently is in the process of publishing a book of the temples. He did such an amazing job! After hearing everything he said I was so excited about temples! After my mission I hope to attend the temple as often as I can. It was an amazing talk. President McCune and his wife then talked to us and told us they love us and it was very special. President also played a song for us on the piano so that was a privilege to hear. It was an amazing devotional. After that we then had a lunch that was amazing! It was so yummy. Actually all the meals I have had this mission so far are amazing! I love them all! We then had our talent show and it was awesome. We have a lot of people on our mission with good talents, especially singing! My Companion is very musical and loves to sing and he is pretty good at it. We enjoyed that talent show and I was actually in a skit where I played the role of the RM who dominates the lesson and doesn't let anyone else talk. It was fun. It was a very fun day. We then ended our Conference by watching "It's a Wonderful Life". That movie is actually pretty good! haha I enjoyed it. We then picked up our gifts. I received a Christmas card from the First Presidency as well as a card from our Mission President. Inside was a picture that was specifically drawn for our mission by Simon Dewey and it was a temple recommend holder. I love it! It was so cool! we also received a t-shirt with the new Payson temple on it! They were great gifts. Our Mission President and his wife are the best!
The next day we then spent teaching lessons and giving out gifts to the people who help us out. It was a very fun Christmas week. Because of Christmas though it was slow for lessons, but we did have a great week! On Christmas we went to 4 members homes. They all fed us so we got lots to eat! It was a lot of fun getting to know them and talk with them. Friday it was still kinda slow, we did our Weekly Planning and not many people were around, Saturday though we were able to get 14 lessons! By the end of the week we ended up with 44 lessons. Lower than last week but still pretty good. We currently after the week have 3 people set for baptism!

One of them is an amazing story. They came to church the one day and the ward mission leader went and said hi and asked if they were alright if him and the missionaries came over. They said yes. We went over and the first lesson we taught the Restoration. The Spirit was strong and she was so ready to hear it. He was actually doing basic training and went to church there, and that's what sparked their interest. After the lesson we extended the invitation to be baptized. She Said YES! it was amazing! She was so ready and it was just such a great night. We had her set for January 24th, but now it got moved to January 17th! I am so excited! She and her family are all so ready for the Gospel in their lives. It was so amazing. This week was truly a fantastic week. We recieved so many gifts and the members here are awesome!