MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Good Morning And Merry Christmas!

I am sure that you are all just busy getting ready for Christmas this week. Thank you for the emails and pictures! It made my day to see all of the pictures and the house looks amazing as always!! I received my packages on the 18th :D Thank you Thank you Thank you!! It has been a serious struggle to save them for Christmas.

Mom, I am sorry that you have been sick all week!! It is never fun to be sick around the holidays but I am so happy that you are feeling better and back to celebrating the holidays!! You are doing all of the amazing things that you always do. ........ The fireplace looks very empty with only two stockings.

Dad, You seem busy as always! Thanks for the pictures and for all of the hellos! You will have to pass on a hi back from me. I am glad that you have had the singles filling your house again. I hope that you didn't hang mistle toe all over the house again so that everywhere you walk you have to kiss someone. (Editor's note: Of course we hung mistletoe all over the house--part of Teresa's more kissing campaign) I told my companion about that and she just laughed. Thanks for the letter that you sent to the YSA's it was really good to read.

Brynn! I can't tell you how proud I am of you!! ......... I can't wait for you to go do baptisms and to hear all about it on Friday!! I want to hear every detail! Also I think that your gingerbread house looks a million times better this year!! Although the woman looks a little sketch from a missionary'point of view--- hahaha! I love it! Tell Ben hi and Merry Christmas

Chase and Ashley, You are both hopefully done with finals and just relaxing/ working for the holidays! I can't believe that school is either over or very very close to being over!! I am sure that it will be a relief when all of your finals are done. How are the two of you going to celebrate? Are you going to start any new traditions for the two of you? Chase I still want to hear about your night with the missionaries? Did you have any cool lessons?

So we found out transfer info on Saturday night and I will be staying in my same area with Sister Movchanyuk. We are going on for round 3 which is unheard of for sisters. .............. (Editor's note: Let's just say Brooke is learning from a challenge and experiencing the ups and downs of having a 24/7 missionary companion). But anyway we have had a lot of success in this area together and so we will try and keep it up so that we can continue to help this ward prepare for the temple opening.

We have our baptism on Saturday and I can't wait. Lena came to church yesterday and was participating in all of the lessons and she signed up to bring something to the Christmas lunch next Sunday. She is so cool! We were talking to our MCL and she just walked up to him and asked him if he would baptize her without really saying anything else. We also got to hear Svetlana testify about Joseph Smith on Sunday and she prayed at the end of Relief Society. It is so awesome to see the people that we meet continue to progress and to become part of this family.

We also had an older woman come to church. Her name is Natalia and we have been teaching her for a while with little progress. When she came yesterday and said that she feels like she has found a new family. She lives alone and is very lonely so it was great to have to sister at the ward exchanging numbers with her and inviting her to come and do things with them! I love our ward so much.

So for Christmas we are giving up most of our p-day again to have lunch together and then probably have a lesson or something in the evening after our PHONE CALL!! yay! We are also having a "large transfer meeting" on Christmas Eve, President wanted to have a Mission conference but you have to have a general authority here to do that. He is bringing all of the missionaries into the area to have a large meeting to make a push for these last two weeks of the year so that we can reach our goal. We still have a long ways to go but with a few miracles I can see it happening! Well I want to send some pictures of all of the snow here. It hasn't stopped snowing almost all week. Today has been the first sunny day in a long time but it is still -17ish. Man it is dang cold! I have 3 pairs of socks on, usually 2 skirts (only one today), 2 pairs of gloves and about 2 shirts, a sweater and my downcomforter coat! We do what we need to inorder to stay warm. I also sent this weeks letter from our mission president. I thought it was a really neat story that you could share with your ward or just read. It helped me to remember that we are all really searching for the same love of Christ in our lives.

Well I love you all and look forward to talking to you on Friday.

Love, Cecmpa Larsen