Mission Week 30 - Merry Christmas!!! Fijne Kerst???

Dear family and friends,

Merry Christmas! It really is the most wonderful time of the year. That may be cheesy, but I don't really care. It's Christmas this next week. A perfect time to spend time with the family, give gifts, serve others, and celebrate the birth of Him who makes all of those things possible. Jesus Christ was born about 2015 years ago this Friday. He came into this world on that day so that he could one day save us from our sins, from our failures and from our sadness, in what is known as the Atonement. "That Atonement would achieve complete victory over physical death, unconditionally granting resurrection to every person who ever will be born or ever will be born into this world. Mercifully it would also provide forgiveness for the personal sins of all, from Adam to the end of the world, conditioned upon repentance and obedience to divine commandments." (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles). All of this occurred after He was born into this world on that day in Bethlehem, many years ago. Please join me in celebrating the birth of our Savior by serving others, spending time with our families, and sharing the Christmas Spirit! Also, if you would like to learn more about why Jesus Christ is so important and see some cool videos, go to this website: https://www.mormon.org/christmas

Haha I promise that last part wasn't advertisement or anything. It really is a very cool site. Very well done and geared towards those who don't know too much about Jesus, yet. Here in Zwolle we've been sharing that website with a lot of people, members and non-members, as we try our best to spread the Christmas cheer. People have been very nice and pretty warm this past week as everyone is preparing for a Dutch Christmas. Or should I say Christmas'? (like plural Christmas... it's funny) In the Netherlands we have Christmas Eve, First Christmas, Second Christmas, Third Christmas, Fourth Christmas, Fifth Christmas, Sixth Christmas, Seventh Christmas, and Eighth Christmas... Haha no just kidding, just Christmas Eve and First and Second Christmas. It's very cool and I'm excited to have the opportunity to spend the holidays with members from our ward and some investigators as well.

It was a very busy week with transfers happening, meetings, and lots of planning and prepartation for this next transfer. Elder Knaupp and I are very excited to get to work and we have a pretty exciting district this time around. With the additions of Elder Frederico and Elder Perry we are looking at a pretty radical six weeks... Anyways it's pretty cool. Frederico was my Zone Leader (in charge of a lot of missionaries basically) and served in the same area as me in Rotterdam Zuid. It's so weird having him back in the same district. For his last transfer to. It's an honor.

I gave a talk in church on Sunday. It was actually my first talk that I've given here in the Netherlands... in Dutch. Surprisingly, it didn't go terribly and I think the members might have been able to understand me when I told them my name! Haha no it really did go well and it's not surprising at all because I asked God for help as I prepared it and gave it and you know if the members couldn't understand me than I hope that they at least felt the Spirit that was there.

I love being a missionary and serving my Heavenly Father and my Lord Jesus Christ. I love my family. They're awesome and I know for sure that family is the best thing that ever has or will happen to me. I love you all and I hope you have a great week and a merry Christmas!

Fijne Kerst!

Elder Wright

Pulling a light post out of the ground (missionary work)

 Elder Knaupp throwing down on some Dutch kids (blurry white shape)