Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Twas the morning before Christmas and all through the mission, all Elders and Sister missionaries were driving to Tucson. I know it doesn’t rhyme, but it was the best I could do. More than 300 of us gathered at the Tucson mission headquarters for a conference. It started at 10:00AM sharp. We heard testimonies from Elder and Sister Larsen, and Elder and Sister Raehl. They are the two counselors in the mission presidency. It was very inspiring as Sister Larsen shared a story about planning and preparing a trip to Italy, only to get off the airplane and find that she was in Norway. She compared her life to this story as she was recently diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer. She said she was not planning on the trip to Norway, but was making the best of it. It was a very touching and inspiring testimony. Sister Raehl told us about how she and her husband were baptized 45 years ago on Christmas Eve. 

Feeding 300 missionaries

Following these inspiring testimonies, we all went into the cultural hall and were feed a wonderful breakfast. 

Senior Missionaries of the Arizona Tucson Mission

Following the breakfast, we all went outside and they lined everyone up by height, then directed everyone into a group and took a group picture of all 300 plus of us. Senior missionaries got the prime seats in the front as always. They are so good to senior missionaries. Following the photo session, we returned to the church for a 300 missionary white elephant exchange. 

Almost 300 young missionaries exchanging White Elephant Gifts

Senior Missionaries monitoring the gift exchange

That was interesting. They then did a version of the 12 days of Christmas with the 11 zones plus senior missionaries. It was called, “In the first month of my mission, the president gave to me” and so on. Each group had to come up with what the president gave them on their day. Some examples were, “A Spanish dictionary, three phones a ringing, 5 broken bikes” and so on. We then returned to the chapel for a devotional which was presented entirely by the missionaries, except some final comments by the President. I was wonderful as many of the missionaries shared their musical talents and others shared some miracles they had experience. It was a very spiritual meeting. 

Our Dear President and his Wife

At the end, President Killpack told us that he had a present for all of us. The present was that Elder Holland is coming to Phoenix on January 11 and he is going to speak to missionaries in the 5 Phoenix area missions. They have also invited the Tucson missionaries to come up. We will be busing up to Phoenix for this meeting. The missionaries were understandably excited.

Missionaries receiving gifts from home

At the end of the conference, the missionaries picked up their mail and gifts from home. Sadly, some of the missionaries did not receive any gifts from home. The mission home anticipated this and some of us had the opportunity to play Santa for some of these wonderful young missionaries.

Wrapping Gifts for missionaries

Following the conference, we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning with Lori’s family before returning home to Sierra Vista. As you can imagine, we had a wonderful Christmas.

Grandchildren enjoying Christmas

It is interesting how we constantly experience missionary moments. I was in a restaurant the other day and one of the hostesses threw up her hands and said, “I am a member of the church. Can you tell me where I should be going to church?” On Christmas Eve, I was in Walmart looking for a Christmas card, an elderly lady said, “Oh I see you are with the Latter Day Saints.” She went on to tell me about her neighbor who was a member and what wonderful people they were. We talked for about 10-15 minutes. She was a sweet 86 year old lady. She said that her neighbors had invited her to one of their Wednesday night meetings (missionary discussion) and how impressed she was with those young men. I got her name and the name of her neighbor. As it turns out, she lives in Dusty and Lori’s ward and the neighbor used to be the ward mission leader. She really loves those neighbors. We really can touch lives just by being visible and friendly.

The soldiers will be returning January 2. We have really missed them but hope that they all had a wonderful holiday break. They surely needed it. We are anxious to have them return.

Our love and thoughts are with each of you as we begin a new year. May you each have a joyous and prosperous Happy New Year!