Merry Christmas from Lenox Iowa!

Dear Elder Morain Fan Club,

Merry Christmas from Lenox Iowa! I hope all of you are having a magnificent Christmas at home with their families. So I am now in Lenox Iowa and it is the smallest town I have ever set foot in haha. It has been a absolute crazy past few days getting transfered here. After I last emailed you on Wednesday I said goodbye to all my friends I have made in Ames. It was sad saying goodbye and I miss them already. I didn't even get to start packing till about 12:30 Thursday morning! I stopped packing at about 3:30 in the morning and then had to get up at 5 am to finish packing! I was way tired haha. We got to the transfer point and drove in the transfer bus to Des Moines! I got to see so many missionaries that I hadn't seen in forever! It was a lot of fun hanging out with them for the whole day. The weather got so bad that we had freezing rain on thursday night! The roads were to slick to drive on so I got to stay the night in Des Moines! I love that city, it was cool to see the capital building and drive through downtown. Friday morning we woke up and got together for breakfast with some other missionaries. Then we drove from Des Moines to Osceola! There I met my companion Elder Thomas and we drove to Creston from there. We might be moving to Creston actually, today we are going to look at apartments we can move into so will see what happens. I met some members and saw people creston then we went to Lenox! I dropped my stuff off in our house(yes we live in a house!) Our house is right next door to the church which has been converted from a house to a church.
Lenox is a branch and yesterday was my 1st sunday there! We had cordination at 8:30 and then PEC at 9. Our sacrament starts at 10am. Before church I was talking to some members and a crazy coincidence happened. I talked to this guy who just got back from BYU provo the night before. I asked him where he lived at and he said Glenwood apartments. I asked him if he knew Andrew and Jacob Clark, and he said ya they were my roommates winter semester! Then it all clicked and I said dude I stayed the night in your apartment last february! He then said he recognized me from somewhere and know we know where from. I remember talking to him and telling him I was going to the Iowa Des Moines Mission. He told me if I ever serve in Lenox to look up his family! And it just so happened that the only sunday he is in town is my first sunday in lenox. Then his family invited me to spend christmas day at there house! So now I get to spend christmas with my friend from home haha.
I love the members in the Lenox Branch! I got to meet almost everyone already and they all seem like really cool people. We had a great sacrament meeting, where we passed the sacrament and I said the opening prayer. Then the 1st counselor in the branch presidency asked me to give a talk in sacrament next week! I have a feeling I am going to be very involved in the branch here. After church we had a branch potluck and had some good food! Then the Branch President took us to go caroling to some less active members in our branch. We got to teach our investigator John VanPatten who has a baptismal date set for January 10th!!!!!!! I am so excited that he is getting baptized, he is only 9 years old, think of the long life he has ahead of him as a strong member of this church. I am so grateful I have this opportunity to be a full time missionary here in the Lenox area.
I'd love to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas! I am excited to call home on Christmas and talk to my family! The day after christmas is our Christmas Zone Conference where I get to see missionaries from 4 Zones! Until next week,
Keep It Real
LO
VE Elder Morain