Oh it was the best day ever. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Getting to skype was the best christmas present I could have ever asked for! Oh you all just look so good and are so happy and that just made me so happy! :) I have always said, and say it all the time to Heavenly Father, that I could handle ANTHING on my mission as long as you all are happy, safe, and healthy back home. So it brought so much comfort seeing that you all were so great! and OH MY HEAVENS I could have talked to you all for 5 hours - more like forever - the time FLEW BY! I ended up going over a little bit too... sorry. I know I need to be obedient espeically with ky going to be a missionary I should set an example. So i'll be better next time BUt OH MY GOOD HEAVENS. I just love you all! Mothers day here we come!!! :) And it was so fun to see tyse!! So fun to see all of you but I havent talked to that boy in MONTHS! Oh just give him the biggest hug for me! Love him! and all of you SO much!!!
>
> But thank you as well for such a wonderful christmas. I felt SO BLESSED opening all of the presents you sent! Thank you! I definitely hung up the decorations - mom the sister stockings are the cutest things!!! and tell tyse we loved the ornaments :) , blasted the christmas music, had the sleeping potion and then have been wearing the leggings and all the other warm gear is perfect for this weather! Thank you so much! I really just was so happy and feel so blessed! I took the picture too of everything laid out for you mom so Ill send that after! But it was such a good day! We were spoiled by the ward as well! But oh i just love you all! THank you so much for making christmas so special. It was hard being away from you but the best feeling close to you through opening all of the fun things! Im praying my package gets to you soon! let me know when it does!
>
> I feel like all of the week leading up to christmas is just a blur becuase I got to see you! It has definitely been the highlight of everything! But Christmas eve was really fun! We spent the morning making cookies and brownies and then ran around like crazy people delivering them to our investigators and members and then formers and Recent converts! It was so fun! It was doing that that I really felt the christmas spirit! It was so fun to just have the oportunity to just serve this christmas. Christmas away from home is definitely different - but it was so neat to just have this christmas to be focused on serving and helping others! It was different but so special. After that we went to a christmas eve party at the bishops! We took our portugese friend too! He was alone for christmas so we were excited to get to take him with us so he could be with people as well as meet the ward! It was super great and he is doing so well! his name is Jose and on Wednesday we had the most powerful restoration lesson with him that I have had so far on my mission! the spirit was SO STRONG as we testified of Joseph Smith and at the end we committed him to be baptised. It was the sweetest becuase in his broken english he just kept asking why he couldn't do it right away - he wanted to do it that very day. But we told him it took time and we felt like he could be ready by Jan 16th. So then he went through and counted the days and hours until that day! So he is doing so well! he came to church yesterday and we will continue to meet with him and help him stay strong up to his baptism. he does smoke though pretty heavily so pray for him when we teach the WOW this week...
>
> But CRAZY STORY! The end of this week has been pretty crazy. After I finished skyping you I ran down and found sister stephenson with Joy and Martyn. She told me that she wasn't feeling really well. On christmas eve we had gone to the doctor because she had an infection behind her ear and they had given her some antibiotics that they said might make her a little queezy so we both just figured that was all that it was. BUT oh we were in for a treat! :) Joy made us some more food - the whole eating so much food is such a problem - so I painfully ate a little bit there while Sister STephenson ran upstairs and threw up in the bathroom. She came down in a panic saying she oculdn't breath and was just freaking out! She couldn't catch her breath and was screaming at the pain she was having in her stomach. Then she started throwing up again but this time it was only the bile since she had thrown up all of her dinner from before... all I can say is Thank heavens we were at joys! I would have been a mess but joy just stepped in and knew what to do! So the night went on and things ended up getting worse so around 4 am an ambulance came to check her out. We are thinking it was just a reaction caused by the meds she was taking? Im still not exactly sure what all happened but so we have been sleeping over and joys the past couple of nights while sister stephenson has been recovering. It was a crazy christmas night - really hard for sister steve- but it was fun to get to stay over at joys for me! :) She seems to be doing better today so we will probably just take it easy and hopefully be able to go out and work tomorrow! Fingers crossed. I have really learned that work is the best way to help you stay focused and be happy on your mission. SO hopefully tomorrow is a better day! :) But yeah! How crazy is that!? So its been a great week of christmas celebrations and then hanging out at joys!!
>
> But I hope you all have the most wonderful week! Can you believe that this week it will be 2016? WHere the heck has the time gone?? I feel like every year time just seems to go faster! I have been thinking over how great this last year has been. With everything from finishing my first year at BYU, to deciding to serve a mission, to getting my call and then leaving and then all of the crazy adventures since! I have had so many experiences this year that have brought me closer to my saviour and really helped me see who he is and know of the reality of his love and awareness of what he did for ME! It is such a great time of the year to be able to reflect but then also make new goals of how we can improve! I am SUPER excited to make some awesome goals to help me become even better this next year! i will get to spend 2016 as a missionary and i plan on making it the greatest by really becoming better and who my heavenly father needs me to be! And i hope all of you do it too! KY! this next year you will be amissionary too! Its just all so exciting!
> But i am just so grateful for my saviour who makes it possible for the oportunity to look back and learn and then become better! i am so grateful we have this chance to CHANGE! TO be the people that he needs us to be. Becuase of him and his sacrifice there is always that oporunity to learn from the past! I am grateful for him and his love and patience with me as i am SO FULL of shortcomings but so grateful to know that he is okay with that - that he will make them strengths for me and is always there to help me just to be better! :)
>
> BUT i hope you all have the most wonderful week! And have the chance to look back so that we can be better in the future! We can all do it and then just become even better as a family! I truly love you all so much! IT was the greatest thing in the world to see you! I am just so grateful for you love and support and know how HARD it is to be away from you. I miss you all a lot but know that what I am doing is so important and that we will all be back together again soon!
>
> HAVE THE BEST WEEK!! And I will talk to you so soon!
> NEXT TUESDAY though! Becuase of transfers! :) OH you all are just the best! ITs always the hardest to end these emails and was espeically hard to end skype... but its just cause youre the best! I love you so much! THanks for being the most wonderful family!
>
> Sister GWilliam
>