I Just Met A Man Who Believes Jesus Was Buddist

PEOPLE Are Awesome!!!!!

I just received the most happiness that's ever come in box form--packages from Atkinsons AND my Darcey fam. on the SAME DAY! OK, the calendar was definitely the highlight of the Darcey package (followed closely by ADORABLE purple sweater--never worn by anyone else, what a novelty!--wait, just realized that Mom probably got it from goodwill= so YES it was worn by someone else before. Haaa, my life comes full circle...).

Back to the calendar! I can't decide if my favorite aspect of it was the adorable hand-made-d-ness/yarn connectors and taped together pages, or the HILARIOUS pictures of my goofy family in Disneyland or the depressing factor that while joyfully sharing all those cute pictures with my companion, she looked at me and, with HK typical ...Chinese clarity,
asked, "Hey, in all these pictures you look so cute, skinny and young. What happened?" HAAAAAAAA. So... true... and depressing.... But whatever. It's the trauma of 50 years of service crammed into (what am I on now...) 10 months, that's what happened!!! And I'd never go back.

AND no worries, because I now am equipped with an arsenal of vitamins that I'm sure could take the hide off a horse or put it back on again or whatever they're supposed to do. Good thing I lost my gag reflex years ago trying Mom's cooking mistakes (just KIDDING JUST KIDDING IT'S A JOKE!) but seriously, why don't I have a gag reflex? I have a good feeling it'd sometimes come in handy here in HK, but then again maybe it's a blessing. It ALL just goes down, bones and hair and fat and gristle and all MMmmmmMMMM is Cami excited for chicken feet yet?

Speaking of Camikins, as usual, she put together the best package this side of the Atlantic (um...Pacific...?) ocean---forcing I mean encouraging everyone to write letters and sending just the right amount of useless junk I mean adorable hilarity such as TAMMY THE T-REX bwahahahaaaa. So, first of all, I

should have recorded the shrieks of joy that emitted as Tammy hatched from his Christmas wrappings-shell. HE'S SO CUTE! And is now Tin Gai's new best friend. But, the very next morning (made in china...) as I was taking off his tag, tragedy struck. That's right, his arm fell off. Yes, Tammy the T-rex was taken out. BUT no worries! I quickly performed surgery, and now, as you can see in this picture, he is bravely wearing the cast of battle... or whatever. My English is um.

I will tell you about all my other Christmas (birthday...) goodies contained in my packages later! When I open them! (we seriously are so rushed as missionaries. It's so good--so busy, so not wasting time!--but does lead to things like I still haven't really gone through the packages! tee hee).

Thanks to the Tuia's and another sweet lady from BA who sent me beautiful Christmas messages! You are so good to write me--and especially to tell me a little about my family in the ward!! It's the best Christmas gift ever to missionaries.

I'm also immensely grateful for Sister B and Cindy T's emails! They make me smile! I so want more time to be able to write back to them, but meanwhile, they should know that I love them so much. And Sister B's gonna be a grandma!

Yeah, I'm having a "baby"---my next companion will be a new missionary, fresh from Provo Utah, right off the plane. Plain. (that was for Sister F, who wrote "plaine" on her Christmas present to me of plain caramel popcorn. So depressing; our English is ... yeah.) Anyway, baby! I'm a little terrified. But mostly, surprisingly, OK with it-- despite the fact that I feel like with a new missionary my area has to be perfect and my Chinese needs to be perfect and my
planning needs to improve quickly and etc etc etc.

In the end, as I think back to my training experience, the only thing that REALLY matters is that I teach her to be absolutely diligent and exactly obedient--everything else will come as she goes. No worries!

I wanted to share my "sharing" on planning that I gave yesterday at leadership training meeting (1/2 of the mission was there, I swear--it was a big deal. And really intense--I feel like my talks end up a lot like MOm's. Talking a mile a minute and calling everyone especially me to repentance and everyone taking about 30 minutes afterward of
silence... yeah, it was crazy.) I had planned on a couple humor breaks to kinda give everyone a break from the intensity what are those called in movies... humorous relief? Anyway, they didn't work out. You coulda heard a pin drop...

If I could share one thing from it that applies to EVERYONE, it's this: Reconnect the purpose in your
life with the PLANS for your life. If you rely on revelation as part of the planning, you can have a part in making God's great plan of redemption a reality in the lives of others. Otherwise, your plans--however detailed and clear they may be--end up meaningless.

Isn't it funny how often our life goals and dreams seem to have nothing to do with our daily activities? If we can reconnect these things--our plans and our purpose--a little bit more through daily revelation, review and repentance, we will recognize the beauty of living each day unto itself. God wants us to find joy in the journey, and we can do
that through remembering the WHY of each step. This is my (American) New Year's wish for all!

Love you, thank you so much for your faith and your confidence---

Sister Darcey