Family,

I got your package. Thank you!!!!

And pretty much I already ate the majority of the chocolate. And the chocolate chips arrived in some sort of chocolate ball, like A chocolate chip. Or maybe chunk would be a better word. :) I am going to break it up and eat it. Yum. I am so excited about the music!!! Hermana Grahn and I are going to check it out today (did I tell you she is a piano performance major?) (Sami is a singer & I sent her some church & Christmas music in Spanish as well as some other pieces. Not only is Hermana Grahn an almost neighbor of ours - Seattle & Victoria BC - but they share a love of music) I appreciate you telling me about the wrapped stuff because I was too scared to open any of it but now when I get home I can have a party!!!! Oh, and all the stickers are great. I already used some of the Christmas ones and the Princess stickers will be great when I teach the law of chastity and all about modesty. :) Jk, the kids here are going to love me because they love stickers. It will be a love by association, nothing more. Yay for Christmas! I am still working on sending your package which I probably should do next Monday (we have a zone activity then...PAINTBALLING!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!! I am SO excited.) And I am saving the scone mix for Christmas morning because it is a Friday and that´s when we have our weekly planning session so we are in the house until Lunch. PERFECT.

I am curious and excited to get my other package because I have no idea what it is and I´m not going to pull a muscle in my brain thinking about it.

¡Happy Birthday Lynnsie y Alysa! (2 of her nieces - Lynnsie turned 16 Dec 6, Alysa turned 3 Dec 8)

And Alejandra got baptized this Sunday! (The first of her contacts who has been baptised since she got to Chile). Yay! It was a really cool experience and we are teaching her husband, Enzo. He told us yesterday about how he wanted to learn more because of the change he has seen in Alejandra. He even tried to tempt her with cigarettes and alcohol the day before her baptism which I DO NOT appreciate but she wouldn´t have any of it and he was really impressed with that. At least that´s what I think he said. There are still people that I have trouble understanding.... hehe... I´ll try to send pictures today if I have time. We are in Linares for an activity with the other Hermanas in this part of the mission (about 11 of us). All of the Hermanas outside of Concepcion minus the 4 that are in Constitucion because it is so far or something like that. We are going to eat tacos. I don´t know if you can understand how excited I am to eat a taco. The food here is delicious but none of it is a taco.

The news about Thom Carbajal is so exciting!!!!!! (The Carbajals are friends from church - Sister Carbajal was Sami's YW pres - she & her husband have been married for 17 1/2 years - and he just recently decided to take the missionary discussions & is being baptised on Dec 12 - the family is looking forward to going to the Temple next year.) It´s really nice to hear about families in the gospel. That´s really the best because the gospel is for the family, nobody wants to make it to the celestial kingdom by themselves. Which is good because they probably can´t. :) We try to find families to teach that can accept the gospel together. The gospel never is an easy change and it´s so much better to have people you love supporting you every step of the way.

We had interviews with Presidente Chavez Thursday. They were really great, he really has got to be one of the best mission presidents there is. Here is another tidbit that I´m not sure if I heard right. I almost hope not. Hermana Chavez told us that there are 400,000 less-active members in Chile. At least I think she said that. I would believe it because there are somewhere around 600 or 700 in San Carlos. It´s so sad to have so many people who felt it was true and then decided not to follow that feeling. We work a lot with less-active members here.

I don´t have a lot of time left so I´m not sure if I will send the pictures but I should send some next week if not today. I´ll talk with the other Hermanas about the Christmas call so we can figure that out and everthing. I love you all and I hope you are all happy and Christmasy and all. Don´t sweat it about the tree. We don´t have one up either. :) But I´m going to try to make one today if I have time.

Love you all!

Hermana Smith