Merry Christmas

Hello family!

How are you doing? It is almost CHRISTMAS!!! I seriously cannot wait to see my family..... You will never believe... it was a high of 67 degrees yesterday. It lasted about 20 minutes and now it's back in the 20's and 30's and snowing :) But I kept saying, "California came to me!" It was awesome. Also Kory, the surgery looks like it went very well :) I am glad you get to get back out so soon. Love you... you should start writing me every week again.

So, I am in Shaker Heights East now, a CITY. We share a ward with the zone leaders (one of them was just released as AP) and a set of Kirtland sisters. We have a lot of new responsibilities. It's hard to remember all the things that need to get done, but we got it. We really are on the phone a lot communicating with a lot of different people and trying to make everyone happy with scheduling. We haven't done any training yet, but that will be fun. We have started to plan a little bit for our training meeting this next week.

I also miss Hiram so much :( I was on the verge of tears the first day when I left Hiram. I felt like it was my new home ward and just felt so close to everyone. It's okay, i'll be back to visit soon. This new area is way different. Most of the members in the ward are all newly weds and in medical, law or dental school (and from Utah). And we are also on the border of Cleveland and so there are a lot of black people. Which is awesome, I love them all so much! 

We had a hot chocolate stand this week with the Elder's. It was fun and we met a lot of people. The elders probably have a new investigator from it, so that was good. It was really cold and wet, but that just meant people wanted hot chocolate and were willing to listen because they felt bad haha

We went and visited Michael one last time this last week. He said he just wanted to talk about doctrine and a member said that they would love to come.   He has seen a lot of anti... and we ended on him saying, "I hope you will still talk to me again when you get home after the lessson we just had". I told him of course we would still be friends, but I felt so sick to my stomach from the things he was saying.  I know that whatever we said was completely by the spirit. The ward member text us when we got home and said he was so impressed by our lesson and how powerful it was. I didn't see it at the moment, but we were just pretty blunt with him.

So, in my new area we have a new investigator who kinda looks like Michael actually. His name is Bob and he is getting baptized in a few weeks. I guess he just showed up to church and said he wanted to be baptized. ha ha so he was a miracle. He is amazing, so prepared.

Then we have Jason who is also really prepared, Colleen (she used to work in LA at Disney). She is way cool and prepared as well. She is also a writer like Michael and a very deep thinker as well.

We really met a lot of amazing people this week and it was kinda overwhelming to take everything in and all the changes. Everyone at sites keeps calling me the Queen and trying to measure me for my tiara. It embarrasses me. ha, but it will just take a while to adjust to everything. I don't think I have gotten there yet :) I was way too comfortable where I was before coming here. My companion is from Provo and she went to BYU studying/ playing the flute before she came out. We are very very different, but it will be good :) I will learn lots, I am sure.

Well, since it is Christmas I have been reading a little bit about the Savior and His birth. Something that President Davis said really stuck out to me. In Luke 1 it talks about how Mary really wants to tell her cousin Elizabeth that she is going to have the Savior of the world. When she talks to Elizabeth about having the Savior it says, "The babe leaped for joy and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost." I know that when we talk to others about the Savior, the same thing will happen. When we talk about the Restoration, the same exact thing will happen. It will bring joy to them, just like it did with Elizabeth and John the baptist (who she was pregnant with). 

Our Savior was the most wonderful gift that we could have received. I know that when we share with others our love for Him and what He has established here on the earth again, we will be showing our gratitude and love to him.

I love my Savior. I love the example that He was on earth, so I can have a little bit of an idea, of what it means to be Christlike. I know He atoned for our sins and because of that, we get to live for eternity in happiness. 

Let us all remember our Savior and the wonderful gift that He was to us:)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

I love you all so much and I can't wait to see you...

Sister Kelsi Denae Johnson