Beautiful Savior

Merry Christmas!

 

This week was good. Aside from the fact that no one was home all week. That was a bit of a bummer. Everybody was just super busy with parties and shopping etc.

 

Christmas was good. We went caroling on Christmas Eve and Christmas. There were a few people who told us we came by right when they were thinking about us or needed a visit. The feeling of making someone's day better is nice.

 

Church was good on Sunday too. It was just one hour and three wards combined. It's funny how three wards made about 1 1/2 on Christmas. We hope there were a lot of people out of town, but I'm not sure if that was the case -_-. We sang a musical number with the Spanish choir from our ward. We were greatly relieved when the English ward choir that went before us didn't sound too fantastic. Let's just say that if Mexican's singing voices were as strong as their testimonies their choirs would sound a lot better.

 

It was nice calling home. That's always a surreal experience. You get so used to not talking to anyone that it's weird to do it for once. It's like going in a weird time machine back to your old life. Still, it was really nice talking with everybody at home. I found out this year that Christmas isn't the same without your family. It's also not the same without cold weather.

Other than that we mostly just spent Christmas in the apartment eating tamales (Mexican Christmas specialty, also super fattening) and watching Church movies. Also cleaning. I never thought I'd voluntarily clean my house on Christmas Eve. Look at what the mission's done to me.

 

It was really fun to spend Christmas with my friends here in the apartment. I'm gonna miss this apartment when we get broken up by transfers. We all get along really well and are really good friends. The other great thing about this Christmas was how much I've been able to focus on the Savior and His sacrifice as what we really celebrate. I like how it says in John that Christ brought light into the world. It repeats that in D&C 88 and talks about how all light comes from Christ, both physical and spiritual, because He not only created the sun and the moon, but also brought all of us light with His life. Last year in the MTC Elder Nelson told us D&C 88 was a Christmas revelation to Joseph Smith, so I decided to read it again this year.

 

It all reminds me of the hymn beautiful Savior. "Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer, and brings to all the world His love." Hopefully in this next year we'll all be able to walk in that light a little more through the wonderful gifts of faith, repentance, and the Atonement.

 

Thanks to all of you who made my Christmas special. Thanks to everyone who sent me packages or letters. One of the best presents I got was just a letter. I think this year I've seen that it's more the people around you who make Christmas special than necessarily the stuff you get.

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Elder Grasley

 

P.S. Went to my first Mexican barber shop today. A little shaky on hair vocabulary. But man, they can sure cut hair.