Feliz Navidad mis queridos amigos y familiares!!!

Elder Lewis wishes you all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Chile! 

Even though its about 90 degrees here and I'm sweating like an old street dog, I'm enjoying the Holiday cheer and the free food. 

Hopefully all you guys have enjoyed the Holidays and the time together. 

This week has been a rather eventful one, with lots to share, so, lets get into IT!

We started off the week with a long awaited, long wanted visit to the new Chile Concepcion Temple! 

We got to go do a session there in the morning with all of the missionaries from the inside part of the mission and President and Sister Catala. 

It was a very spiritual and warming experience, and I got to be with my MTC pals Elder Barney and Elder Gumm.

It was an experience that I'd been waiting for ever since I got here in Chile, and it's been a huge dream come true. 

Obviously, we were closing in on Christmas this week, so we had a TON of activities in Concepcion with lots of singing, handing out cards, and lots of spreading of Good Cheer. We built some Light the World card towers in some free time.

One of the neighbor wards was doing a live manger and we had the opportunity to be a part of it!!! 

With our missionary tags as well, as always. 

This week we celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ, but we also celebrated the birth of our beloved pal Elder Gumm! We planned a little fiesta for our bud, and we got him a Colombian cake, set up some balloons, and made up some completos to share. 

We surprised him when they got home at night, at it was a really fun time. Living with 6 is a good time, even though we only have 1 functioning bathroom. 

Yesterday, we had the Christmas Conference! All the missionaries from the inside got together and we got to hear from President Swenson, the temple president, President and Sister Catala, and we got to do some competitions!!! 

And of course, the ZONE of LEGENDS WON!!!! 

LETS GO CONCEPCION!!!

We got lucky, and the whole MTC district was there, so we of course got some photos together. And also with my twin Elder Evans. We did not plan to match either. HA! 

All in all, this was one of the better weeks of my mission. I found that, as a missionary, there are 2 options for Christmas time, you can get down about not being with the family, about having to work, and about now getting gifts, or you can look at it how Christ would look at it. A time to share love, joy, and hope with the people that don't have easy access to those feelings. 

We represent Christ, and we need to share as He shared, love as He loved, and feel as He felt. I tried to choose the latter option, and it ended up turning out like a pretty great Christmas. I hope you all have had a great Christmas, and I wish you all a happy and safe New Year. I love you all, and I invite you all to try to spread the true joy of Christmas, by loving Christ and living as He did. 
See you all next week, after MY SKYPE CALL!!!!

-Elder Grant Lewis