Sat 12/22/07 2:16 AM

Dear Family,
Merry Christmas to all of you. What a blessing to be on a mission at Christmas time. We have special feelings for the Savior as we serve. Roylene reminded me of the special Christmas Eve years ago as we brought our new baby Aaron home from the hospital after his birth on the 21 of December. Happy Birthday Aaron. I also love that Jospeh Smith's birthday is on the 23 December. And the fact that Roylenes is on the 13 December. Roylene has invited the missionaries in Ljubljana and members to come to our home after church and just enjoy each other and the Holiday spirit. Of course she is feeding all of them. We have a 19 year old member Martina that is staying with us for three days so she can participate too. She lives out and does not have the money to come to church each week so this is special for her and us. She has had a very hard life with an alcoholic father and a mentally unstable mother. We finished our holiday Zone Conference tour and arrived back home on the 10 December. We then receive one of the Elders who was waiting for a visa to Slovenia on the 13 December. So that is how we celebrated Roylenes birthday. We went to church in Zadar for the weekend of the 15 and 16 December. We had to drive through snow storms both going and returning home. On the 17 December the Ljubljana Branch held a Christmas Concert. They filled the rental church chapel to capacity. It was done very well. Elvi was incharge of putting it together. He was baptized earlier this year. We received another Elder on the 18 December and sent a Sister home on the 20th. I have started interviews again. I had a miraculous experience in one of the interviews on the 20 December. As the Elder was saying the opening prayer the spirit told me that his family was having financial troubles. So at the end of the interiew I said to him: " The spirit told me during your prayer that there are concerns with your family at home" He started to cry and shared with me that they had financial troubles and his fathers businesses both failed. I then handed him 100 Euros and told him the spirit told me to give it to him on behalf of his father. It really was a special experience that comes because of having the mantle and keys given by a member of the twelve apostles before we came on the mission. I feel so blessed to have these experiences. Then yesterday in another interview I was impressed to call an Elder to be a third Assistant to the President. It suprised me because he only has one month left on his mission. Then I found myself giving him a major role in following up and organizing some lectures on " What Do Mormons Believe ". The inspiration has been coming a little at a time for this. We are going to target Young Single Adults and hold lectures to find the elect. All of this started when I was prompted to reread President Monson's dedicatory prayer for the preaching of the gospel here. He gave that prayer in Zagreb October 1985. The prayer asks: "Grant that they may be approached in great numbers." The spirit is telling me that this is a way that we can do this. We just need to learn how to do it. I have told the Assistants to seek direction from God on this and then lets start. Just like Nephi in trying to get the brass plates it may take multiple efforts to suceed. I am excited to see what the Lord has instore with this. I also had this past week an incident where two Elders will be sent home this transfer instead of the next one. It is amazing to see how the spirit gets things done as they need to be inspite of my weaknesses. I am so thankful for all of your prayers. I ask that you specifically pray for the investigators with baptismal dates. We are witnessing the hand of the adversary as the last four investigators baptisms did not happen. I was told in a meeting that I attended in Vienna Austria that he ( ole Scratch ) was steping it up. Well we are seeing that. The only thing is faith is more powerful than he is, so please use your faith to help us have more success. Thank you for all of the emails and know that we love all of you.
Love Dad (Doug)