The Christmas season is upon us and the excitement comes to
a peak in many homes throughout the world.
We have learned that in Portugal it is traditional to stay up late on
Christmas Eve, eat a very late meal which usually includes Bacalau (Codfish),
and then at midnight they open their presents.
I wonder how they get their children to go to bed after so much
excitement. I like our tradition of
having the children go to bed early so Santa can make his appearance. We are invited to the Stake President’s home
on Christmas Eve, so we will get to experience some of their traditions first-hand. We are not planning on staying up until
midnight, however. He is connected to a
very large family and there should be quite a group of people there.
Our friends, Elder and Sister Johnson, have invited us for a
brunch on Christmas Day and then we plan to spend some time talking with our
family on Skype. It should be an
enjoyable day.
Yesterday we had a community Christmas program just down the
street from our apartment. It lasted
three hours and our church group was one of the last to perform. They were by far the best of the show, and it
was very sad because by the time they performed much of the audience had gone home.
It was a nice event, but poorly
organized.
We had a day of cleaning at the office on Tuesday. Families
of the Church employees were invited to come and help. Elder Henry and I cleaned out lots of binders
and storage boxes full of old records.
Elder also cleaned up the supplies closet while I worked on my talk for
today. For lunch that day, we all ate
pizza together. I took some cookies.
Elder Henry worked many hours last week conducting an area
audit for PEF performance and he still has more to do on it this week. I
worked on finishing up my contacts, trying to make sure no one was
forgotten. This will be a short work
week with Christmas and a meeting with Elder Texeira (our Area President) on
Thursday, as he is visiting our mission.
We received news from our friends Claudir and Marilene in
Brazil that their son, Davi, was born
early yesterday morning. We are so
excited for them and know they will be wonderful parents. They had decided not to have children—but
their thinking changed after they joined the Church. He was just made branch president earlier
this month.
I, Elder Henry, will add this paragraph since Sister Henry
wouldn’t say what a beautiful talk she gave today. Both of us were asked to talk today. Sister Henry talked about “Giving gifts from
the Heart.” It was very well prepared
and excellently delivered. She
emphasized the importance of giving gifts that show your love for the
person. She gave some good examples of
things you can do that do not cost very much or nothing at all, except love and
effort. Her Portuguese was excellent and
the talk was really well received. She
had also made some of her crocheted snow flakes, tied them with a red ribbon
and handed them out to all of the Relief Society women after church ended. They were really well received also. We also handed out some chocolate balls to
everyone.
I spoke about how to “Rediscover the Spirit of Christmas,”
and used citations from President Monson’s First Presidency Christmas message
for the last two years. He has some
wonderful thoughts in both of these messages.
The two talks worked well together.
I used Sister Henry’s gifts as an illustration of how we can use the
traditions of Christmas to teach the true meaning of Christmas. My main point was that it is not bad
to participate in the traditions of Christmas, but it is better to
develop family traditions which teach the true meaning of our Christmas
celebrations.
We wish all our friends and family a wonderful
Christmas. May you feel God’s love and
know of His importance in your life.
Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.
How grateful we are to know of His birth, His life, His Atonement for
our sins, His Resurrection, His teachings, and His great love for each of us. We send our love to each of you!
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| Local Nativity --Many are very simple here. |
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| Our Christmas Decor |
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