First off, some notes from President Doll:
Christmas Phone Calls: You’re all allowed to make calls on that day using your mission cell phone as long as you adhere to the Missionary Handbook: You may call your parents and the call should not be longer than 40 minutes. (Maren's Note: also, as minutes are free after 7PM, we are encouraged to wait until after that.) No calls to friends, girl/boyfriends, or other family unless you have permission from the mission president. No international calls should be made from the mission cell phones. However, you may receive an international call if your parents are outside of the U.S. You may call on either December 25th or December 26th. We’ll be checking the phone logs to be sure calls are made according to these guidelines.
Christmas Activities: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are wonderful times to share the joy of Christ and His gospel. Look for innovative ways to share the joy of Christmas – singing on doorsteps, shoveling snow, sharing “Joy to the World,” visiting the aged and the lonely or a nursing home, baptize someone. Missionaries may accept invitations to a member’s home for a meal, but you should not spend more than two hours at the home.
Right now, It's looking like I'll only have a little over a half hour to talk to everyone, since I don't really know of any members willing to let us use their phone. Do you want me to call Christmas or Christmas Eve?
My presents will probably be coming late, and it's going to be smaller this year. I'm doing a little Indian gifting, as many of them are things I picked up from members and investigators, or things I've had for a while that I think would find more use at home. Mommy and daddy get to share what will probably be the oddest thing you'd get from a missionary, but I think you'll like it.
I re-read some of my Christmas e-mails from last year, and I think I can see the growth that Father was pointing to. On the other hand, I'm not sure If I have matured, or if I just got better at hiding the fact that I'm still a silly little girl.
Christmas zone conference was fun. By sheer luck, I was the first to receive my Christmas stuff (the box DID make it). Since you wrapped all my stuff last year, I assumed it would be wrapped again, but My companion suggested I be more careful. In fact, since we had the English sisters at the apartment, we did this thing where we took turns opening each other’s boxes to see if the contents were wrapped.
One sister in our zone, Sister Falikakala, got seven boxes. She had a hard time getting everything home.
I really don't have much else to say. I'm looking forward to calling of Christmas.
Love, Maren.
