The Black Gate is Closed

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! 2026, wow! So on your mission, there is this thing called your blackout year. Which is your first year on the mission, from January first to December 31st. It is called that because for some people it goes by so fast it seems as if you’ve blacked out and you’re already done with the year.

Christmas, New Years, and their eves were all very interesting since we didn’t go out to knock on people’s doors. We were encouraged to do missionary work in other ways such as visiting members and contacting people we’ve already been in contact with and wishing them Merry Christmas and happy new years as well as leaving them with the Spirit. So, it has been a very interesting past few weeks in this holiday season, where we didn’t do normal door-to-door contacting.

So the Ward Christmas party was way back during my last email. I didn’t put it in because I wanted to do it for my Christmas email. But it was really fun, we recreated Jerusalem in the church’s gym and had an amazing recreation of the nativity story. I loved how Christ-centered it was.

The weather here is weird. The day after Christmas it was 76° and new years eve it was 27° then today was back to 70° so it really doesn’t feel like winter here and everything is still green.

New Years was crazy! Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you think, I am not in an area where gunfire is the main firework during new years. However when midnight hit it sounded as if thousands of cannons were being fired continuously. The fireworks continued until the third too!

Jeffery R. Holland was an amazing Apostle and I loved his last talk during the Christmas devotional. I know that God has a great work for him on the other side of the veil.

Til next time
May the Light of Christ be in your heart

• Elder Ward