WE LOVE THAT BEAUTIFUL TAPESTRY! It is SO SO beautiful. 

Did your Christmas package ever arrive?   It is hanging prominently in our family room. Thank you SO MUCH! Are the Chinese words on it "No success can compensate for failure in the home?" Letter Continued:  He was invited to read the Book of Mormon on the beach. He promised he would, and being a man of his word, arrived and read it in one sitting. He found it fascinating. He got home and there was a knock at the door. The missionaries asked him if he had prayed about it. He said he didn't know he was supposed to. They told him he was invited to. He said he didn't know how to pray. They told him, then they knelt down.  Right then and there. So he knelt and said,

(Read this next part in a New Zealand accent please)

"Heavenly Fathe,

Thank ewe for all eweve given us,

Is the Book of Mormon true?

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.'

He said this feeling just filled the room and drenched their souls in light and joy and warmth. The Spirit flooded our chapel as he was telling it.  I LOVE THE GOSPEL! I LOVE THE SPIRIT!

This week:

• Annie had a BOY/GIRL BIRTHDAY PARTY with about 18 12/13 year olds running wild and giggling for 4 hours straight.
• Annie turned 13 on Wednesday! We had stroganoff and Jeni and Smiity, Nate and Nic and John Turner and Abby Hunt over. It was way fun. She wanted converse and she was so excited about the hightop converse, and Grandma Jan just couldn't get over how ugly they were. They were required gym ration in the depression.  It was hilarious. She kept saying "I like your snow boots better. 
• Monday Spen and Mikey and Kaden went snowboarding
• This week all 3 cars broke down. It was AWESOME! 
• We're back at school after the holidays and it's quite a slap in the larynx.  
• Seth is getting ready for a spelling bee this week. He reminds me of you. His brain is really amazing.  
• We all went to the Temple yesterday and it was awesome. I felt the Spirit so much.  Dad went with me, and Spen and Joseph went with Darrell.  
• We are fasting for Coy to find a job and to feel peaceful in a new direction for his career. He is not enjoying computer science so much. He is jobless and majorless. Please include him in your prayers.  
• Friday Jeff said I was giggling and talking in my sleep. He asked me what I had been dreaming about and I said "Mckay was home, and all his friends were over again!"  I also dreamed of small red barns with baby goats inside. 
• I'm really enjoying a Librivox wiki of a the Great Books of the Western World that I'm listening to in the early morning while I exercise.  I am off sugar. Mckay, what I'm trying to say is that I am trying so hard to do every single thing possible SO I CAN FEEL THE SPIRIT MORE. Elder Christensen, what can I do to feel the Spirit more in my life?

I am excited try my hardest to be a disciple in mind, body and soul.  I want to give the Lord everything I am, everything I have, every second of my time, energy, life, resources, talents, everything everything everything. I want to hold absolutely nothing back.  Total and complete consecration.  Sometimes the most important things are the very simplest kindnesses in our most common or familiar relationships.  I keep praying to help the hungry in Africa, and the Spirit says, "Let's work on your eyebrows. Don't furrow the ransomed brow."  I want to plan the great contribution to the planet and the Spirit ways "Let's work on your tone when you speak to your children."  The most important work we do is within the walls of our own home, as Elder Christensen so lovingly reminded us recently.  I think it is so much about our sense of entitlement. If we can lower that to zero, and every single day, breath, everything is a gift, it is very difficult to be frustrated in the middle of so much glory and goodness.  

I've had some very sacred time in the early mornings lately, especially over the break while people slept in.  I want to give away ALL my sins to know Him.  So much to learn. So much to live! So much to love! I LOVE YOU!  

Thank you, also, for your sweet Christmas letter about the Plan of Salvation.  We love it!! We love you buddy!