Christmas

Letter dated December 31, 2008

This has been one of the greatest Christmases of my life! On Christmas Eve we had a surprise visit from Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! It was absolutely amazing!!! :) He talked a lot about the symbolism of Christmas. Afterwards we were all able to go and shake his hand- it was awesome! The Spirit that was there was absolutely incredible.
Afterwards our District went back to our classroom, read about the birth of Jesus Christ and shared Christmas memories and opened one present each. Yeah, we're pretty cool, we set up a Christmas scene in our class with two small shrubby trees & ornaments, put out all of our presents, and hung up socks on the wall- I hung up one of my knee-high nylons! It was great!
On Christmas morning the four of us in our District came down to the class in our pajamas, stole some couches from out in the halls, and had our own little Christmas celebration! It was the best! I absolutely love my District and am so thankful for the unity and love that we all have for each other!

Later on in the morning we were able to have the opportunity to hear from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland! You can imagine I was completely overwhelmed having been able to have the chance to hear from two amazing apostles in just two days! It was absolutely incredible!!! I'll have to send some of the notes that I took from their talks. They were powerful and absolutely amazing! Christmas was absolutely incredible having the both of them come and I feel so honored and privileged to know that the general authorities care about us missionaries that much to spend Christmas eve and Christmas with us!

The rest of the day we had more devotionals, a scripture marking workshop, played Christmas songs with chimes (which was really cool), and watched Mr Kruger's Christmas and had popcorn. people from all around utah county donated money to the MTC to buy us missionaries Christmas presents which was extremely nice of them- we all got a cd, a cool scripture marking pen, a pearl necklace (the elders got ties), and candy. people amaze me with their generosity!

It was so nice to be so focused this year on the gospel and our savior. After all, he is the reason we have Christmas. :) I love missionary work and the chance that I have to be here. This truly was a Christmas I will never forget!!