The General Epistle of Samuel (#ShareTheGift)

This week was crazy. It started off with a great mission conference with Elder Cook of the Twelve. He spoke on Preach My Gospel and the process of how they developed it. He said many times that the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve firmly feel that that book came from the other side of the veil. It is incredible the amount of time that was spent on this resource. I hope that the members of the church can realize this and utilize this wonderful tool. He left the meeting open to a question and answer session. My companion asked how he maintains his perspective on the magnitude of his calling. He saved his answer for the end. His answer was the most powerful portion of the meeting. Hearing and Apostle of Jesus Christ say authoritatively, "I know the Lord's voice," made my week.

We had an exchange with the assistants the day after the conference. I was able to spend the day in London with Elder Anderson the new assistant. He is from my MTC group. He is a great missionary. We had a great time and found some great people and some great lessons. We made a lot of use out of the church's new Christmas initiative which I'll share more about in a bit. That night on the exchange it was raining. Just before we went to bed the ceiling started to leak. You would thing the most expensive missionary flat in the world wouldn't have a leaky roof. The office was thrilled about that. 

We had MLC this week as well and it was a great meeting. Probably the best one we've had this year. We are in a tight spot right now as a mission. We have a goal of 500 baptisms for the year. We need to have 73 this month. The most we have done in a month is 54 and December is always our worst month. Not this year though. We are going to have an incredible month. At MLC Elder Bright and I were asked to share our story about getting the car impounded and then they announced that every car needs an insurance certificate. Glad we could get the ball rolling on that haha. 

So this Christmas initiative is great. You may have heard of it already but I am going to reiterate anything you may have already heard. The church has just released a new video similar to "Because of Him." It is called "He is the Gift." The church site that it is located is christmas.mormon.org. I invite all of you to watch the video and #ShareTheGift by inviting someone to watch the video. This initiative has been an answer to the prayers of our mission and will be a great way to spread the message of Jesus Christ. I love you all! 

http://www.mormon.org/christmas

Love,

Elder Dalton