Christmas Greetings from the missionaries of the Pennsylvania Harrisburg Mission.  We have just completed our Christmas zone conferences and have been with your wonderful missionary.  During our zone conferences we worked on missionary skills, taught one another gospel principles, and celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ.  At the end of our day we spent some time together just enjoying one another's company.  As you can see from the enclosed picture, your missionary participated in a mission tradition of decorating a ginger bread house.  Missionaries love doing anything together and it certainly brings out their creativity.

We feel so blessed this year to have had many spiritual experiences in Pennsylvania.  Our Stake Conferences were visited by many General Authorities including: Elder Richard G. Scott, Elder F. Michael Watson, Elder Mervyn B. Arnold, Elder Neil A. Pitts, Elder Bruce C. Hafen, Elder W. Craig Zwick and Elder Clayton L. Christensen.  The members and missionaries were blessed by the messages and spririt of these devoted servants of the Lord.

In February we had a mission tour with our Area Seventy, Elder Anthony Temple.  Elder Temple taught the missionaries that cultivating a wonderful garden is not contingent on the land but on the gardener who works there.  He encouraged each missionary to labor to achieve a great harvest from the area where they were assigned.

In October our annual mission tour was presided over by Elder and Sister Zwick of the First Quorum of Seventy.  Elder and Sister Zwick are powerful missionaries and shared many principles they have learned from the experiences they have had while serving the Lord in Chile, Brazil, England, and Germany.  Elder Zwick taught that one of the most powerful ways to testify of the truthfulness of the gospel is to tell your own personal experience of gaining a testimony.

During the end of October we held our zone conferences at the Priesthood Restoration Site in Susquehanna.  We spent a wonderful morning on the banks of the river and the other sacred sites.  This is where much of the Book of Mormon was translated, fifteen revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants were received, and the Priesthood of God was restored to the earth.  Our testimonies and foundations of faith were strengthened.

The missionaries are working hard to teach and testify of Jesus Christ and the restoration of His gospel in these the latter-days.  We love your sons and daughters and consider it a privilege to serve with them in this great work.  We join them in sending you a warm Christmas greeting and the Lord's choicest blessings in 2009.

President and Sister Pugh

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