Mortensen, Annalise

Merry Christmas!!! It feels like forever since I've been able to write an email so I don't know where to begin. Today has been so fun! We had a zone activty and made gingerbread houses!! Ours was so good. It was a beach house with a surfer guy and somehow we didn't get in the top 3?! Lmk. We went to a members house for breakfast and dinner which was awesome. Then I got to talk with family! They sent me the cutest gifts to open. I seriously have the greatest family in the world!! Yesterday, we wrote a ton of Christmas letters to our friends. There are so many amazing parts to missionary work, but writing those letters made me realize how much I love to testify of Jesus Christ and how far that testimony has come since being here. It was one of those overwhelming moments of joy where you take a step back and get a small glimpse of seeing the beginning from the end as Heavenly Father does. We did lots of letter drop offs and went to the San Clemente pier to go caroling with the...

Happy birthday to my brother Johnny! He's feeling 22. He probably doesn't read these emails so someone tell him for me. We had an awesome week! The hightlight would have to be our lesson with Vicki and Greg. In case you've forgotten, their daughter Bailey was baptized in March when she was a senior. She's at BYU but just came home for Christmas break. Her parents have been coming to church for probably two years now but haven't been baptized. Anways Bailey signed up to have us over for dinner lol and it was SO FUN! I love their family. We chatted it up then had a lesson on the restoration. We found out they've never read the Book of Mormon so that was our invite! I don't know why but the vibes were just so good. We talked all about BYU, her classes, (she's also a dancer), then had the most spirit filled lesson. It's also exciting because we've been trying to teach Vicki and Greg since I got here 3 months ago and we're finally gaining momentum...

Hiiiiiiii everyone. We had an awesome week! So many Christmas adventures. Every night was something new so let’s get right into it. Wards in San Clemente are so fun! If I were to live somewhere in my mission, I would choose San Clemente because of how awesome the members are. Our area covers a ward there, so on Tuesday we had the cutest Christmas party with all the moms!! They went so all out with the decorations and cute outfits you'd think they were drill moms. Wednesday was a Christmas pj party for the Capo relief society! We also helped our friend Julie wrap Christmas gifts earlier in the day. She had so many questions about what we do as missionaries. She almost fell over when we said we couldn't watch movies or hang out with friends. She definitely thinks we're a cult now. There was a tree lighting event in Aliso Viejo that we helped out with for a few hours on Thursday! We ran a booth for writing letters to Santa and got to talk with lots of people! Friday night was ...

Merry Christmas!!! Our Thanksgiving was pretty chill. I wouldn't say it was my favorite day ever but the members took us in so much and the food was yummy! We had one dinner with some members in Liberty Park which was sooo cute. It reminded me of our Thanksgiving at home. Our second dinner was with our WML in Capo, his wife, and my bestie Brother Oronoz. That one was yummy too! We got to call home for an hour afterwards and let's just say I was a little puddle. Thanksgiving morning we got to run the Giving Machine in Dana Point! Not a lot of people came, but it was a good time nonetheless. They have a huge turkey trot in Dana so it was fun to see everyone in their Turkey fits and hear the music. We met a lot of cool people this week! Our new bestie Emily is a senior at San Juan and she'll be baptized. Cricket is doing well too! We're planning a fun Christmas baptism and I'm so excited.  All the last transfer missionaries give a departing spiritual thought on our Sun...