I wrote in my diary.
Is my expression natural?
If it is not natural, please tell me a natural expression!

Monday,25th December 2017
I received a Christmas present from my friend who lives in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
There was a letter that wrote about her recent situation.
I was very happy to know how she is challenging a variety of things.

See a translation

Sorry I can't read the Japanese. But from what it looks like, the sentences are almost perfect!

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"I received a Christmas present from my friend who lives in Yamaguchi Prefecture." (Perfect Sentence!)

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"There was a letter that wrote about her recent situation."
I need to break down this sentence.

#1:
Letters cannot 'write.' However, I know what you are trying to say. Sometimes, I say things like "There was a plaque that read 'Rest in Peace' on the gravestone."

So, written texts 'read' to other people, not 'write.' "The sign read 'DANGER!'"

BUT... if I said "There was a letter that read about her recent situation" it still sounds strange. This is because written text only 'reads' quotes. (See above examples)

If you say a letter 'read a recent situation' it sounds like the letter has a mouth and can talk. That is silly, right?

So, the best thing to do is to change the sentence entirely. Its better to say "There was a letter that described her recent situation."

BUT EVEN STILL: If a letter described her recent situation, it sounds like she didn't write the letter herself. It sounds like a report about her, almost like you are her employer.

It doesn't have to mean this, but its better to keep it simple and omit any verb alltogether.

"There was a letter about her recent situation." The grammar is now perfect. But the sentence still needs fixing.

#2

The new sentence doesn't flow naturally from the last sentence. You said she sent you a present, not a letter. When we think of "presents," we think of an object wrapped in a box. If it was a letter, the letter would be inside the box. "There was a letter within the box about her recent situation."

But that may change the meaning of the sentence. If the present IS the letter, then you should say "It was a letter about her recent situation."

('There was' is used when something is in a location or is right in front of you with no other context. For example: "I opened the mailbox, and there was a letter from my friend about her current situation.")

And, we tend to say 'current situation' instead of 'recent situation' if you are talking about other people's lives. So:

"It was a letter about her current situation."

So far we have this: "I received a Christmas Present from my friend who lives in Yamaguchi Prefecture. It was a letter about her current situation."

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Now the last sentence:
"I was very happy to know how she is challenging a variety of things."

This sentence is missing a word. It should be "I was very happy to know that she is challenging a variety of things." However, you didn't know the whole time. You LEARNED it from the letter. So you would say "I was very happy to learn that she is challenging a variety of things."

The clause 'she is challenging a variety of things' should be in past tense, since you said 'I WAS' and not 'I am.'

BUT you can keep it in present tense if you specify that the action is on-going. (It is a current situation = ongoing). So say it like this: "I was very happy to learn that she is now challenging a variety of things."

All together it reads:
"I received a Christmas Present from my freind who lives in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
It was a letter about her current situation.
I was very happy to learn that she is challenging a variety of things."