December 30

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas back home. I had a great Christmas here in Arizona. It was definitely different than what I'm used to, but I still really enjoyed it. We got to spend some time with the members. We got to skype our families. And we got to watch "It's A Wonderful Life." All in all, a really great day.

I know I had a busy and kinda crazy week, but I don't actually remember all of what happened, so I'm not sure how long this email will be or how much sense it will make.

Last Monday we got to go to the Mesa Temple Lights. This time with a member and her nephew who is not a member. It was a lot of fun. And the first time for Sister Chase, I think she really enjoyed it.

Tuesday was Christmas eve. We had our normal weekly meeting with our district, and that was pretty fun. We also got our zone t-shirts that we ordered a few weeks ago. I forgot to take a picture of it to send home today, but I'll send one next week. We went to chick fil a for lunch with some of our zone, that was also fun. And then we went to visit Linda for a bit. And then we had dinner with the Eriksons, a great family in one of the wards. That was so much fun. We had a great dinner and then read Luke 2 and did a little puppet show with it. Haha. And they gave us a little gift when we left.

And then Wednesday was Christmas! I really enjoyed it. We woke up at 6:30, as usual and opened up presents! We all had fun watching each other open up gifts and seeing what everyone got. Then we had studies. But after that it was basically another P-day. I took a nap for a few hours and then we had lunch with the Stewarts. It was really good food, and they gave us both a cute gift. Then we got to go skype our families! That was awesome. We went to the Oakes, another amazing family in the ward. It was weird to see everyone again after 6 months, but also really great. It was fun to talk for awhile and just see how everyone was doing. After we finished skyping, the Oakes gave a cute gift too. And then we went to our zone activity where we watched movies.

Thursday and Friday were mostly normal boringish days, especially compared to the few days before. But we did hear some super amazing news on Friday at our planning meeting. So on January 11, we are going to have a tri-mission conference with Mesa, Scottsdale, and Gilbert missions. And the reason for the conference is that Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, one of the 12 apostles of our church, is going to speak to us! I was so freaking excited when I heard that. He's such an amazing and inspirational speaker and I have always wanted to hear him speak in person. And now I'll have the chance! I don't think we'll have time to all shake his hand, but it'll still be amazing. I'm so excited to get to hear him speak and to see what he has to say to us!

And then Saturday and Sunday were pretty normal days again. Nothing too exciting happening, just normal missionary work.

Overall though, I had a pretty great week. And I'm excited for this week too. Bethany's baptism is on Saturday, and that'll be amazing. And I just have a feeling this will be a week full of miracles.

I hope you all have a great week as well. Have a wonderful New Year and have lots of fun. I love and miss you all!

Love always,

Baylee