Hey all- how is it going this Monday! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and hope you had a good birthday, Kenny. Dee, I hope you had a good one too. I remembered it, but it was only the second day of the Mission so I was getting into the swing of things and didn’t rememeber to wish you one when it happened! Right now as I am emailing, LDS.org put up the past 3 church Christmas devotionals, so I’m listening to the Christmas music on there! It’s so nice since we can’t listen to it in our rooms, we can only do it on the computer! But yeah like I said I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! I know I did. At first when the 6:30 alarm clock went off Thursday morning I thought I was going to go play in a couple turkey bowls over by Corona or something, but when I opened my eyes I rememebered where I was and just thought it was going to be another day in the MTC but zi was soon wrong!! So that morning we had a devotional. We were supposed to be ushering for it and we were stoked cause that meant that we'd get like front row for an Apostle! But when we got to the building to check in for ushering, 5 min early, they said we were 20 min late and they'd replaced us and told us to go get in line at the regular entrance. We were way bummed but right when that happened another group of missionaries came to usher and got told the same thing. And then right when we were all about to leave to go stand in line, President Brown, the Mtc Pres, came around the corner asked us what was up and let us in early to get first dibs on seats! It was such a blessing!! So we got like front seats just off to the side in the cushion seats! Everyone was way happy! I made a predictions list on the chalkboard in our classroom for the elders in my disctrcit to guess which Apostle it was. I guessed Cook just kinda as a joke cause we don’t hear much about him! They all thought that was funny. Most people guessed Holland and what do you know... in walks JEFFERY R. HOLLAND!!!!! Everyone in the room just gasped and was so excited!! Holland is everyones favorite for sure! Its kinda funny! But he gave such a cool talk. Pres Brown got up and gave him a really respectable and nice intro and pretty much said this is Hollands program he can do what he wants for the next 2 hours! Elder Holland had his whole family there and had some of his grandkids sing, play the piano and give their testimony. His grandkids are really talented! It was very spiritual. One of his granddaughters was maybe 10-12 and sang “If the Savior Stood Beside Me” and it was one of the best songs I’ve heard by a kid. She was so good and the words in that song just permeated in that room! It was awesome! Then Sister Holland got up. What a cool lady. It’s fun to see the wives talk cause you never see/hear about them! She bore her testimony of the Book of Mormon and talked about how she was on a subway once in NY and was sitting next to some guy. She barley noticed him though cause she was reading the last chapter of Book of Mormon. She read Mormoni 10:3-5 and said a prayer to know if the Book of Mormon was a true book of God and if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. She said she had the most overwheming feeling she had ever felt before in her life and when that happend she turned to the guy sitting next to her and just started yelling "I know this book is True! It’s so True! I prayed and I got an answer! She said after she finished yelling this guy ended up asking her about the book and she gave him her copy. Long story short.... He ended up getting baptized! It was such a cool story. Then she ended with saying how much she loved her husband but the part that stood out to me is when she said.... "I would deny that he is my husband before I would deny that he is a chosen Apostle of the Lord in this day and age in the restored church of Jesus Christ! It was such a strong testimony! Then finally Holland got up. He gave a talk that dad would have loved! He talked about the “why” of everything and how he doesn’t know anything. He talked about why we are here on this earth at this time and how we probably won’t know the exact reason untill we die, return to heaven and see a panoramic view of the earth and the way it blossomed from the time of Adam to now. He said he doesn’t know why we are here except to return to our Father in heaven. He then said that families are forever and how sad it'd be if one of us couldn’t make it back to heaven cause of the wrong choices we made. He then said that Heavenly Father has that same view. We are all his children which makes us family. Holland said that there is nothing more important then a mission cause it is our job to bring people who have gone down the wrong path and to bring them back into the family but more importantly to return to our Father in Heaven! It was such a cool talk!! Holland is a BEAST!!!

After that ended, we went to lunch to having a turkey dinner and then got to take a nap. At night it was a service project and then they gave everyone here a big bag of Kettle Korn and we watched the movie “17 Miracles.” That movie is so good! The pioneers did some crazy stuff and the Lord blessed them big time!

That was my Thanksgiving. Just a few things before I leave....

My chest is now fine. No more pain. I just stopped taking Advil and sucked it up. It went away within 1 day! If it comes back I’ll go back, but as of now I am fine. So no more worrying family!!!

Mom, I kinda have scriptures and PMG in Hiligaynon. They only have the Book of Mormon and Chapter 3 of PMG translated but they are both really deep and our teachers say that very few people understand a scripture right off the bat when they read it in the Philippines! So they are useful It just takes more explaining which requires more language which requires more work but it’s pretty easy to explain what a verse means in Hiligaynon at this point in the language! Oh and dad.. I’ve been studying chapter three, lesson 2 right now!

This is my 4th week. It’s pretty crazy! One month is already up pretty much!! It’s crazy to think that it’s already gone that fast! I think the mission will go fast for me cause I’m going to be so busy all the time!

Question.... Will you guys send me more ties from my closet! I just need nice colorful ties to trade! I got some quality ties here but I need some solid ties to get some more solid ties!

Also.... mom will you send me one of those tooth brush holder things? Like the tube thing. I was thinking that the cockroaches in the Philippines will probably eat at my toothbrush if I don’t have anything covering it!!

Well family I gots to go. I’m not sure if you sent me a list of questions but we haven’t gotten mail cause Thanksgiving threw us off and they don’t do mail here Saturday nights I think. Or like dear elder doesn’t print them on Saturday or something like that!

But know that I love you and miss you all! friends and family! It’s so nice to get updates of everything back home! Especially the sports update that you send dad! Keep those coming! There are three of us that are sport freaks and we love updates. The teams we follow are the Suns, the Lakers, the Nets, the Heat! Oh and James Harden!! Any update or stats or standings of those teams are always great! We have basketball discussions all the time. That package you sent with the newspaper as padding was the best. We seriously spent all night getting ready for bed looking over stats and talking basketball, baseball and football. It’s a great break from the day! But anyway back to what I was saying... I love you and miss you. The mission is great and I cant wait to get to the Philippines to help those that are lost like Holland said, and bring them back to their Father in Heaven! It’s a great blessing that we have to be in the True Church at this time under the direction of Jesus Christ through our modern day propeht Thomas S. Monson! Families are forever. That’s why I left for two years... To make it possible for other families to be forever together! 2 years seems like a long time but it’ll go by fast! I know it will! Christ lives... the Church is true and I love it all!

Love you all again!

Elder Sargent!!

Have a good week! Listen to Christmas music on the radio for me cause I miss it!!!