Yo family. Happy December! Can’t believe how time flies by so fast! What is up this Monday morning! I’m doing pretty good today. This past week has been pretty good! At the beginning of the week I was stressing about the language a little cause we were just cranking out new grammer and sentence structure like 2 new lessons a day and what not so it was kinda hard to keep up. Plus when I was teaching I couldn’t recall anything from the past. I kinda have a thing when I teach I just freeze and can’t think about what to say or how to say it... then by the time that I think of it we've already moved on from that part of the lesson. So it’s a little frustrating but luckily my comps are bomb at the language and are helping me feel more comfortable when I speak it. I've learned I know the concepts, I just have to go for it! The MTC is a time to crash and burn so I’d rather do it here then in the actual mission feild! But towards the end of the week I think the light bulb came on and now I’m slowing increasing the speed at which I talk and can talk! It’s kinda crazy how once a simple concept clicks everything is just easy. Plus I couldnt do it without many prayers and faith that I can do it! The Lord blesses big time!

So the past week I don’t think there are many funny stories. A couple gross things I probably shouldn’t share but hey that’s what you get with 9 guys in one class room!!

Just a couple highlights from this past week....

1) Not really a highlight but I thought I'd let you guys know. So the chest pain is back but this time it’s on my left side of the chest. I went into the doctors this morning and have yet another appointment so hopefully they get me a new doctor or I can get it checked cause this is the third time and it doesn’t really hurt as much as it’s annoying this time. It’s not as strong which is good and it seems to be going away already but I figured I should find out what’s wrong before I leave to the Philippines in like 4 weeks!

I'll let you know via snailmail what's up so you'll probably get it on Wed!

2) Yesterday was awesome! It was Fast sunday so that was good. But they let us watch the General First Presidency Christmas Devotional yesterday night! It was so good! The words/messages that were shared were so awesome. If you didnt see it. Go watch it! I don’t care if you’re Mormon or not Mormon! It was awesome! One of my favorite lines from last night was President Thomas when he said... "Just like the Wiseman, we need to search for the star..... We need to go to Bethlehem (spirtually) and offer the Lord our gift of a loving heart!" That what Christmas is all about! I also loved President Uchtdorf when he talked about being receivers of the greatest gift of God.. His Son. Jesus Christ. We can use that gift in our lives more then any other gift we will receive in our lifetime and all eternity! I thought those two points were awesome and that’s my plan for not just the Christmas season but also for the whole mission and my life!

3) Shauna got your package with the pictures and the Oreos! Looks like you all had a fun Thanksgiving! And I think I ate 2 rows of Oreos to myself Sat night. All the Oreos are already gone! They were gone so fast! They were delicious though! We all love Oreos!!

4) Glad Tessa sent you those pictures. Every Thursday night we have this thing called TRC which stands for teaching resource center and we just go and have discussions about the Gospel of Christ with return missionaries for like 1 hour. I walked into the building and into the room and Tessa was just there with a friend who served in Illoillo. It was so random! Everyone one was like who is this girl? and I was like that’s my cousin! It was so nice to be able to see her! She seemed way happy to see me and my comps/district! Hopefully I looked good in those pictures! haha! It’s weird to ask to see a picture on a phone cause I haven’t touched a phone for like a month so I didnt!... Also since we are on the topic of Tessa... Uncle Scott and Aunt Lynell. Thanks for the package! We love the snow globe! It’s like a toy to us! haha!

5) Just to wrap things up.... If you guys have any questions for me send them to me on Friday via dearelder cause they don’t do mail here on Saturdays except for the mornings then I dont have much to write about on Mondays cause I haven’t received all my weekened letters! I feel like it would work better that way for all of us!

Well... Know that i miss you all but love you more! I've said it before but there is no othere place I'd rather be right now then on a mission! The days are long but the weeks are so fast. By the time I know it I’ll be home and off to other things! It’s my goal to really take advantage of the Mission. I watched a talk by Holland last night called "Missions are Forever".. try to look it up! It gave me so much hope to do more and strive to work as hard as I can so when I get home in 2 years I’ll have no regrets! My testimony has been strengthened so much here through prayer and the Book of Mormon. My testimony this week is more of a challange! I’d just like to challenge all that read this letter today to have the true Christmas Spirit. It’s not about the gifts or the dinners or the parties or decorations. It’s about Christ. He is the greatest gift of all. As The Motab was singing Silent night last night I flipped open to Luke 2 in the bible and read about the night when Christ was born. I had an overwhelming feeling that brought a tear to my eye that Christ was born that He did perform miralces. He did atone for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane and that He died for us so that we can return to our Heavenly Father after this life. He is the true Son of God and the greatest gift we can recieve this year is indeed Him. Jesus Christ. The Son of God. Our Messiah. If we look for the star in our lives and follow that light that shines (just like the wiseman) then we will be able to find Him. We can also know that He is the light to follow like it said in John 8:12. We shouldn’t offer gold or other riches to Him but we can give him our humble hearts and that’s the most important gift to Him! I promise that as we have this outlook this Christmas season and always in our lives we will be so blessed in ways we can’t even imagine!

Know that I love you and miss you all!

Elder Sargent!!!