Dear Everyone, Sorry I didn't write yesterday. Since this is transfer week we actually have our P-day on Thursday instead of Wednesday. Elder Francom left for the Mission Home Monday night and he's home now. Elder Knight went down to Shreveport to wait there for his new companion. Elder Knight is becoming a trainer this transfer so he's getting a new companion from the MTC. Both Elder Knight and the new Elder are English speaking as are all the other Elders in the zone so Elder Wilson and I cover any spanish referrals we get from the other missionaries which is why we went down to Atlanta, TX last week. So, did I understand correctly that Tanner is going to Salt Lake City on his mission? It's awesome hearing where all of my friends are getting sent off to. Whenever you hear about anyone getting their call, please be sure to let me know. By the way, I got a card from Sister Merkley saying that you two had talked about Elder Merkley and I. I'm pretty sure I've asked you already, but if you could try to get me Elder Merkley and Elder Webb's mission addresses I'd really appreciate that. That's also really cool to hear about the Gila Valley Temple going up in May. So Bryce, you want to start doing stuff with computers. That's sounds great, especially if you can go to Gateway and get so many classes done in such a short time. Do you know if you want to go into hardware or software yet? How's school been going for you? You've only got one semester left! I loved Mesa High so much, but it felt good to finally graduate. You're still working at Nielsen's right? (I'm asking you all these questions to see if you'll actually end up writing me one of these days. :) Still, I do want to know how you're doing so if you don't love your big bro enough to write him make sure the info at least gets transferred to me through Mom and Dad). I did get the Christmas CDs and the Christmas package so don't worry about that Mom. You told me I should call in between 5 and 6 so that everyone would be there. I'm not really sure what our schedule will be like here that evening, but I won't call before 6. Let me know what the latest time is you want me to call though too so that I can decide when the best time would be to call everyone. Tell Aunt Katie thank you for the popcorn. It was really good. I hung up the stocking you sent me next to the fireplace and the Christmas tree that Elder Knight received. He got a big box with twelve days of Christmas presents to go along with the tree. Then, a couple days later he got a package from his family with twelve days of Christmas presents too. He put them all underneath his Christmas tree and so our apartment looks pretty well set up for Christmas. The other three of us were saying that we were pretty sure we had never had that many presents under the tree when we were back home. It's alright though. I really don't need anything. Remember how I always say what I really like is opening the presents and don't really care much about what's inside. I've decided that what I really like this Christmas is just seeing those presents under the tree even if they're not mine. I think that what I've really always loved is just being in that room Christmas morning with the family and spending that time together laughing about the cheesy presents we get each other. Anyway, I don't want you to worry about me. I hope that didn't make it sound like I'm homesick because I'm doing fine and wouldn't trade being out here for anything. People have been a lot more receptive this last week. We still don't get in a whole lot of doors, but we're getting in more and that's a great blessing. We've also been teaching more spanish lessons. Yesterday, we actually taught three different Spanish lessons which I'd never done before in one day. We rarely get more than three English lessons in one day. Still, everything is going really well and we're hoping to get a couple baptisms in this transfer now that we've got an investigator pool going. Yesterday, we also tracted into a hard-core anti-Mormon yesterday and he just started railing on Joseph Smith and how we didn't believe in Christ. I ended up just telling him in a couple sentences that we did believe in Christ and that Joseph Smith WAS a prophet and then we left. I guess the people who try to tell you that you are wrong are trying to discourage you or change your mind, but I always end up just coming away with my testimony strenghthened. I'm still working on our challenge to read the Book of Mormon before Christmas and I should be able to make it by then if I keep reading the same amount I've been doing. It's a lot slower going when you're having to look for and mark a bunch of specific things. Still, I've loved being able to read it this way. I have learned so much this time around that I've never thought about in all the other times I've read it through. I love being able to share the Book of Mormon with our investigators. Being able to tell them that I know it's true and the blessing it's been in my life is of itself a blessing. It makes the Book of Mormon more precious to me. It makes me want to study it even more to come closer to my Savior. Tell everyone I say hi and thank them all for their prayers and support. I can feel the blessings from them every day. Have a Merry Christmas and I'll talk to you all next Friday! Remember to write me about the call times in a letter since I probably won't be getting on the email next week. Tu hijo y hermano, Elder Bradley Bishop