What really helped me feel the blessing of Christmas day was when our lunch in a member's home became a melting pot of many people. We had started out inviting a few of our investigators to come and have a Christmas meal with our members, but everything seemed to have fallen through. Somehow, at the last minute, our investigators and some of their family decided to come and join us. Already at the member's home, we had two wonderful recent converts there. Our Christmas lunch ended up to be a total of nineteen people: the member family, the recent convert family, and two sets of investigator families! We were all gathered together in one home, spread across three tables. It was amazing! I truly felt that Christmas spirit as we gathered together as family and friends. And to top it off, I got my first mission ornament while there (Santa riding an alligator) to remind me of this festive Christmas meal!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Christmas Memory
I am grateful to have a great Christmas memory. I've always been one to just see a holiday as any other day, especially as a missionary as we continue to do the usual work. We had the morning study, an appointment scheduled for the afternoon, tracting planned for the day, and meals with members and part-members. Not being surrounded by the commercial aspect of Christmas, there really wasn't anything to differentiate Christmas from any other day. I don't want to say Christmas isn't important, but it is to be a day to celebrate Christ's birth and life and what that means for us personally. When we work every day to invite people to come unto Christ, we are already celebrating His name every day.
‘Make no small plans: They have no magic to stir man’s souls.’ This is the vision I have for the South. I believe that one day the South will baptize more people into the church than all other English speaking missions in the world together. There are great hosts of marvelous Baptists, and members of the church of Christ, Methodists and Catholics who are honorable people, and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love him. As they see their church veering off to the right or to the left of these basic teachings, they will begin to search for the truth. And as pivotal teachers come into the church and have influence, we will see the time when we baptize hundreds and thousands, tens of thousands. In your day you will see a million members of the church in the South. There will be Temples plural in the Southern States. What a great call you have to serve with these marvelous people. ~Spencer W Kimball (1974)
