MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to start off by wishing you all a Merry Christmas! I hope you all have the best day! I know mine will be amazing, full of fun with members and talking to 5 of my favorite people! :) So it has been a pretty exciting week here in Indiana! We didn't teach too many lessons but we did see some awesome things happen!

I would say one of my favorite things that happened this week was our Christmas Mission Conference! It was so great! We spent the first couple hours of the day receiving trainings from the Mission presidency, assistants, some missionaries, and Sister Cleveland. It was a really good meeting, where all the trainings focused on developing Christlike attributes that will better help us in sharing the gift of Jesus Christ. I really enjoyed President's training on humility. Humility is probably the Christlike attribute that I have been thinking the most about throughout my mission, well that and patience. We sang Christmas songs and just enjoyed being able to feel the spirit! After that part of the conference, we had lunch and watched a slideshow of all the missionaries holding up a sign that says, "I pray when..." and we all wrote in when or what we pray for. We played some bingo and then gathered together to watch all the talent that our mission has! There were some pretty awesome and funny things in the talent show this year! A very sassy Santa came and shared some gifts with some missionaries! He said that we had all been good so to decide who won, they would draw names. I was one of the names drawn so I got a nice little package of stuff from Santa! Then they opened up the overflow and we all got our Christmas packages from our loved ones! It was such a fun day and it was so awesome to be able to have a chance to go around and catch up with my missionary friends! Especially since it was my last opportunity as a missionary to see most of them. I was able to go around and take pictures and catch up with some of the amazing missionaries and friends I have made over the last nearly 18 months! I realized again how blessed I am to be serving in this mission and I know that the people I have met here, I have met for a reason! I am going to miss these people so much! It was just a great day all around!

Another really cool thing that happened this week was the wedding, baptism combo of a couple in the branch that the Elders were teaching! Tristan and Laney are just awesome! The elders met them about a month and a half ago and they were super prepared and on Saturday they were married, then right after their marriage they were both baptized! It was such a neat experience to witness their baptism! We have seen their progression and their testimonies grow as they have come to see the blessings and truthfulness of the restored gospel! They both were just glowing yesterday in church! It was so great!

I hope you all have a great week and are able to continue to remember the reason for the season! One of the speakers in church yesterday said, "without Christ, Christmas would just be mas, and who wants to just celebrate mas?!" So as you are opening your presents and doing whatever you do on Christmas, just take a moment to remember why you are celebrating! I love you all and wish you the best of Christmases!

love,

Sister Abbie London

1. got a fun little Candyland game from the fam! It was a fun one to play! :)

2. us with Tristan and Laney after they got married! :)