Christmas Letter

Hello all my sweet family and friends!!!

 

Merry Christmas!!! I hope you all have a great Christmas and a great holiday week!!! Thank you so much for all your e-mail and your Christmas surprises. I am so grateful for all of you.

 

In light of Christmas, the theme of this e-mail is gifts, gifts I have received throughout my life and especially this week!

 

• The gift of my Savior Jesus Christ (and YOUR Savior Jesus Christ). I was really sad this weekend and focusing on myself way too much. As I was being dumb and moping about my woes in life, I had the thought that I already have the greatest gift I could ever want or ask for. I have a way to return to live with my Heavenly Father forever, in never ending happiness, and that is through Jesus Christ. I got so happy when the Spirit told me this, and I know it's true. I am so grateful for my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. There is no gift that could ever, nor will ever trump this. He wants to heal us. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to have peace. All we have to do is accept this gift! How incredible!!! Just thinking and writing about it makes me happy! I can't even express how I feel about my Savior and Heavenly Father in words!! They are perfect and are truly my everything!!
• The gift of you all!! I love you all so much, and I am so grateful for the gift of every single one of you!!! I am so blessed to have you all in my life!
• The gift of Herndon. It truly is a beautiful place! I love it here and it is just so cozy and nice! I am so blessed to be here and I am so excited to spend Christmas here. The people are so great and the ward is amazing. They welcomed me right in and love me so much. I already love all of them so much!!
• Don't hate me for saying this, but the gift of warm weather. It is crazy that it has been in the 60's and 70's here, but I won't complain!
• The gift of Sister Gordon. She is from Arizona and Delaware and she came out when Sister McBride came out. She is so hard working and we accomplish so much in one day. Heavenly Father is blessing us so much here. I feel like this area is about to explode with the gospel. I am so excited for this transfer! She doesn't like to talk about feelings like my other companions did, but I get to talk to Heavenly Father about my feelings instead which is even better!
• The gift of talking to all of you in 2 days!!! How crazy!! I am honestly slightly nervous but more excited than nervous. Just don't expect me to say anything witty or funny. Remember that for the last 6 months, I have really only thought, talked about, dreamed about (that is not an exaggeration) the gospel. I might be an awkward person now but I don't really know! I am so so excited though! The plan is to talk at 1:00 pm my time!!!
• The gift of not having bed bugs! Apparently, there used to be a bed bug problem in my apartment, so my bed has a nice plastic cover on it that crunches whenever I move. I didn't sleep the first night, because I was so worried about waking my companion up with all the crunching. All is well now though, and I don't have a ton of bed bug bites. They might be living in my bed frame but they aren't getting to me. Wahoo!!!
• The gift of three fantastic new investigators! Bettina (in her 60's, from Australia, sweet and onry/grouchy older woman but so nice, I love her so much!!), iLana (from Latvia, really skinny and tall, in her 40's, calls me "fluff" in a sweet endearing way, so nice) and Tanya (in her late 30's, from U.S.A, doesn't seem to like me much but she is great!).
• The gift of having two amazing ward Christmas parties this year! Herndon had a Christmas breakfast on Saturday morning and it was so great! Tons of people came and we had waffles and ham!!! It was so much fun!!
• The gift of the Lord helping me grow to become like Him! This transition hasn't honestly been emotionally and spiritually difficult in a lot of ways, but the Lord is teaching me so much through this. I needed this challenge and I am grateful for it.
• The gift of Christmas in 2 days. This should have been a lot earlier in the list, but I am so excited for this. We are seeing almost all of our investigators and a lot of members. They are taking such good care of us and we should be really busy!!! I am excited and feeling very blessed!
• The gift of having a Trader Joe's across the street from our apt!!!
• The gift of this gospel!! This also should have been much sooner! I am so so grateful for this. It is my anchor and I just love it with all my heart!!!

I love you all dearly and I hope you always know this!!! Merry Merry Christmas!!!!!

 

Love always,

 

Sister Chelsea Marie Akin