Alicia! 12-24-12 Smyrna, TN

Hello my amazing family!

I really love you all! Just thought you ought to know that ;) Before I forget, my teachers from the MTC wanted to receive the forwarded emails from you so if you could add them to the list that would be wonderful! Please, please, please make sure that you send it to Sister Latu! She has done so much to help me out here. Everyday something from the MTC influences what I do, what I say and builds my courage. So she needs to know I sure love her and I appreciate her so much. 

Thanks for depositing that money. I will definitely be needing to use it for some warmer clothing pretty quick here. Also with the numbers of missionaries we are getting in the mission (around 100 sisters) in the next few months, they are going to be switching us to either full-time bike missionaries or part-time car missionaries. I will have the car at least until the next transfer. I am not 100% sure how purchasing a bike is going to go so I will let you know as I find out. 

I did get your package :) I haven't opened it yet- I'll be doing that tomorrow. And I am glad you got my package! It was last minute and really was my companion's idea. I don't know much about the area yet so I wouldn't have had any idea what to send that is special. What I sent you though is a Nashville specialty. Apparently you can't buy them anywhere but Tennessee. 

Christmas is tomorrow!!! I am really looking forward to seeing all of your lovely faces tomorrow. We have to Skype or call from a member's home so we will be going to Sister Thatcher's aunt and uncle's home. I don't know if I already told you, but we are serving in the area where her less-active family lives and we have special permission to visit them. They recently moved here even- so it shows that the Lord has a hand in her placement in this area. What is more, we are actually seeing progress with them! Pretty neat :) Anyways, she is going to take the first go with her family so I will be calling/Skyping at about 12:30pm Tennessee time. 11:30am your time? I am excited!

I am happy the family is all together! That is so great :) And you have snow! This Christmas is going to be very, very different for me. First off, no snow. And we are really going to be all over the place. We are supposed to spend some time having Christmas dinner and lunch, but the rest of the day we are supposed to share a Christmas message with as many members and investigators that we can. It should be really neat. We have chosen to share the message of "Coming Unto Christ". We are going to read portions of Luke 2 where the shepherds hear about the Savior then make haste to go to Him. Then we are going to read 3 Nephi 9:14-22 when Christ is inviting everyone to come to Him and how they can. It's awesome! You should all look at it.  

This week was really different for us. We had a district meeting and a zone conference that took up most of two of our days. We went to a baptism on Saturday for the Smyrna elders. That was awesome! Where else but Nashville area do you get interlude music of guitar-country-style hymns? It was beautiful. This area is seeing a LOT of success! AND..... drum roll please.................................... WE SET A BAPTISMAL DATE!!!! With the J family of 5!!!! Four of the five are over 8 years old so on January 1st, to bring in the New Year, we are going to be celebrating with four baptisms!!! Then, in one year from then, we are going to be celebrating by going to the temple for a sealing!!! They have been so prepared- and we are SO excited! I didn't have as much part in the process, but I get to be here for the last few lessons and the baptism. What's even better is the support we are seeing from the ward. They are just taking them all in under their wing. This is a family that is going to make it. It is such a blessing to see. 

We spent a lot of time this week really building the trust of ward members. With this baptism, I know we are going to be seeing a lot more member involvement and a lot more referrals. We are looking for more families to work with and we found potentially about 4 more in the last week. Plus we are making strides with working with less-actives and part-member families. We want to get as many families to the temple as we can. Oh! And we have a mother, C, of a member, the S family, who we are going to be setting a baptismal date with this week :) So we will have 5 baptisms in the next couple of weeks!

It is amazing how the Lord blesses our efforts. I don't know if I will ever truly feel confident in my abilities- especially when it comes to talking to everyone and knocking on doors. It makes me so nervous and sick sometimes, but every time we make the effort (despite our fear), we find success in the words we speak and sometimes in finding new investigators. The reward comes after the trial of our faith. Missionary work is crazy. I know that I couldn't do this on my own. I am grateful to have such strong support from a loving family and the strength of the Lord in my calling. It's really crazy hard... and yet there are so many missionaries! It just shows how much it is worth it. Besides, when did the Lord ever do anything that was easy? "I will go and do as the Lord commands for I know that the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the thing which the Lord hath commanded." What a beautiful promise. I know that the Lord does support us. He loves us. He is standing with you all, my amazing family. I love you very much. I pray for you. I wish you the happiest of Christmases!

Love, 

Sister Alicia Johnson

PS~ Please tell all of the grandparents thanks for their wonderful Christmas gifts and love!

PPS~ Tell Grandma Janet I love her dearly and am so grateful for her Christmas message. I love you!

PPPS~ Thanks for always writing me Dad. I love you!

PPPPS~ I can't wait to talk to you all tomorrow!