gooood gravy! happy christmas errrrybody! what an absolutely insanely fantastic world we live in. this has been a crazy christmas for me. i truly enjoyed it and loved every single minute. alas, it didnt truly feel like christmas at all. that is probably due to the fact that i was not with my beloved family on sunday. i am SO glad that i was able to `email chat´ with you all though. that was the highlight of my day. thank you all for the many many beautiful letters and gifts! i am so blessed! we had a sweet christmas breakfast party in the communal area of our living quarters. we had quite a riotous yet reverent feast of jule kake, herbal tea, bananas, apples and SWEET POTATOES. my german serving sister friends brought nutella, and meat and cheese, in true german fashion. we had most of scandanavia and european sisters joining us. twas a delight indeed! i do love a good party! anywaysss, we had a relaxing morning, then enjoyed a music and the spoken word broadcast and a MTC wide sacrament meeting whereinwhich elder bendar spoke to us. it was such a super fantastic talk. he spoke over, forsaking the natural man and turning out in compassion and love when most of us would turn in. he shared many stories of how Christ ALWAYS chose to help and love others instead of thinking about himself. it was a beautiful beautiful talk and i absolutely loved it. oh, by the way, yesterday i was called to the front desk at 21hr00... upon arrival i found out i had a mysterious package from a one costco.com. i opened said package and to my sheer delight and surprise, i found inside the GREATEST OFFICIAL 2012 STOUT FAMILY CALENDER! it was epic. ohhhh snap! i love it SOOOO much! how brilliant! everyone wanted to look through it and loved seeing all the awesome pictures. thank you sooooooo much! i shall send the duplicate home. ohhh snap it was such a joy! thank you thank you thank you! and OF COURSE i loved the tabula rasa gift! ahh! maps! sticky note maps! classssssic perfect gift. thank you all. i truly am so unbelievable grateful for all i have received from you all. twas an amazing day and i only wish i could do the same for you! christmas 2013 is going to be sweeeet! THANK YOU ALLLLLLL!!!!!! well, your christmas happenin´s sounded absolutely fantastic! what a brilliant brilliant way to spend christmas! well played. the pass around gift poem was offfff the hook. haha i loved it so much! i told my district about it and they LOVED that you used `the haps` in it. so funny. one day they will understand the cool hip slang and how it can bless ones life! maybe. well, life is great. i leave this blessed country in but four short days. there is much to do. i am excited. and i am of course, nervous about the language... alas, that is not the point. i am grateful that love and service is a language universally spoken. if people don´t understand my crazy grammatically incorrect dutch, they will at least feel of my love for them. do you all realize how fantastic you are? i hope so. i hope that i properly convey how wonderful i think you all are. and how utterly lost and ridiculous i would be without your love and support. i am forever grateful for the amazing blessings i have been given in the way of my family. i am pretty sure not everyone is this blessed. i don´t know. i am SO blessed to be best friends with my parents and each sibling. i love you all more than anything in this WORLD. ahhhh!!!!!!! my soul delights when i think of you all. thank you thank you thank you. the next email you recieve will be from the blessed lands of the Nether. i am excited. holler! LOVE YOU ALLL!!!!!!!!!!!!

zuster katelyn marie stout