Hi everyone!

Sooooo much has happened since Elder B. and I arrived in the Mojave River ward. Where to start...

Well, the first night we were here, we met with an investigator named H.  She's 12 and the daughter of a recent convert who was baptized a month ago. Her brother got baptized the Saturday before we showed up. So we met with her and flat-out asked her when she wants to be baptized. And she's getting baptized this Saturday!!!!! And guess who's gonna be baptizing her? Me! My first baptism!!!!! There's a funny tradition/curse that's happened with that family. Every time one of them gets baptized, the missionary doing the baptism gets transferred the week after. So.....if the tradition still works, my visa should be coming soon haha. But I'm super excited. This ward is AWESOME when it comes to missionary work. Our ward mission leader is on fire, and our bishop is a spiritual giant. Our most solid investigators have come from members! In fact, we have 3 more baptisms lined up for January 18th. They're daughters of a less-active family. Basically, there's a TON of work to do in this area, and I'm loving it!!

Elder B.  is a fun character. If you imagine an Elder Bieber with a ukulele, it'd be him haha. He's pretty laid back, but he's an awesome people-person and is really good at connecting with them. Our different strengths click, and we've hit the ground running here. There's still not a lot of street lights around, so we try to avoid riding our bikes at night. It's really hilly here, so it's fun cruising downhill.

Remember when I said that All Dogs go to Outer Darkness? They struck again. A couple nights ago we were biking home, and I started speeding up going downhill. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw 2 or 3 little dogs run right in front of my bike. I slam on the back brakes, but they weren't strong enough, so I slammed on the front brakes too. Bad mistake. I fly over my handlebars, doing a 180 in the air. Next thing I know, I hear Elder Browning laughing and the little dogs running away. I wasn't hurt, just a little scrape on my knee and bump on my cheek, and my gloves took most of the damage. My pants got a little torn, but it wasn't all the way through the pants. I'm just grateful that it was all in the dark, because it was pretty embarrassing. Elder B. won't let me forget haha.

For Christmas day, we're going to spend most of the day at a really cool member's house. We'll get to Skype, but it'll be in the evening sometime. The member has a couple missionaries Skyping his family, so we'll be able to do that in the evening. Other than that, it's a pretty low-key day. We'll try seeing some people, but most people just want to spend time with their family, if they're home.

I sent your Christmas gifts on Friday. They should be coming today or tomorrow at the latest. They're not wrapped, so don't open the box until Christmas. :) I got a present from Grandma and Grandpa. Has the other presents been sent yet?

The members here have really welcomed both of us. One random lady in sacrament meeting gave us each a present. Most of the people in the ward are "newly-weds and nearly-dead's," so it's fun working with the older and younger members. Some of them even brought their nonmember friends to church yesterday!    

Has the Nissinen family been doing the Christmas Jar this year? Brother Nelson was telling me that you're doing some kind of anonymous giving. :)

Anyways, I'm super excited to see you all in two days. Christmas has come so fast!!! I hope everyone has a great Christmas morning, and we'll talk to each other soon!

Love you all!

Elder Nissinen