Our Missionary Apartment Christmas Tree
(With gifts from 12 Days of Christmas from my family & packages from friends)
Angel's Baptism Picture
Hello Everyone and Merry Christmas!
All is Merry and bright here in the Utah Provo mission! And Christmas will be no exception, I am finding more and more that being a missionary allows you to say Merry Christmas (or Feliz Navidad) to anyone without any trace of being weirded out. But yes, the snow is falling again, lots of fun Christmas activities happened this week, and we are filling up the days as best we can in this calm before the storm, because come January not only will everyone be back, but the new semester will bring in a whole wave of new people to teach. Exciting! This week also held my three month mark, which is scary because it's going by way too fast.
As for this week though, p-day we played laser tag and that was way fun. We had two zone conferences, one where we had Elder Arnold of the 70 come and teach us, and the other was a Christmas Party, where we walked up and had a talent show, I played piano while the other elders dressed up and reenacted the Nativity. Suffice it to say Elder Kim was our zebra-blanket wearing donkey and Elder Rivera was Mary (or María), and you get a good idea of how that went. We also watched the movie "Up" during the zone conference, and with all the elders pointing out the funny things it made an already good movie great. Indeed, I got to see a lot of my district this week, not only from the joint meetings or talent show practices, but also from baptismal interviews and helping fill fonts and set up for many baptisms: the UVU Asian missionaries had four baptisms this Saturday alone. This is a busy and exciting mission district to be in for sure!
And my companion and I are not too behind the mark either! Diana Fernandez from Colombia is the only one in her apartment during the holidays, while the others are in Florida (for Oscar Corredor's wedding!) He plans to be sealed in the temple in 10 months, a year after his baptism), so besides for her hectic work schedule we will be able to meet with her one on one (or two I guess) much more this next week or so. We committed her to baptism if she receives an answer since her last lesson, and hope to set a concrete date next time. Toree Coleman is still doing well and we are teaching her the new member discussions (one of which is tonight and about the temple, which is way exciting!) In fact, her father is also participating in them, which means things are getting better and better.
In other news, we have been combing through our three North Provo family stakes and finding the Spanish speakers. Most of the Spanish speakers there are already members, which is good as we are building relationships with them through service and visits. As of yesterday, we have also received two more family stakes, bringing our grand total up to 27 stakes covered! This includes President McCune's stake, which is fun. This also means we'll have more families and bishops and leadership to meet, which will be much easier when tithing settlement is complete.
But beyond that, this week was rather chill, but it has given me some good time for reflection and solid blocks of study time, in which I have been continuing to read the gospels and become more acquainted with Christ's life and words. Throughout the whole thing I am continually struck with really how perfect and farsighted he was and how he truly was the Son of God. This time of Christmas takes the life of Christ and looks at it at the very kick off, the day of his birth, and with it comes a sort of irresistible hopefulness, like the star that shone above the manger, pushing the night out and making day night and day that seem as one day. I think that's not only miraculous, but symbolical and foretelling of Christ in many different ways. As was so well said in the Carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem, "so God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven". Every string of garland, every ornament, every twinkling light reminds us that it's Christmas time, and that reminds us of Christ. And as I have said before and will say again, I love being a Missionary. It's especially great during Christmas, as I get to fill the shoes of the valiant missionaries who years before visited my home on Christmas. It's great to see it from the other end, and I sure love it!
Well, Merry Christmas to all!
As only perfect music is allowed in heaven, let us take the Angel's Chorus as perfect too:
Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth Peace, Good Will to Men!
-Elder Martin
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