Mom,
Here is my spiritual experience that happened this Christmas.
On Friday we finally had an activity with the ward. After fighting with them to make something happen for Christmas we got a small group of members together to go caroling Panamanian style. We got all the missionaries and a few of the members at the chapel and then headed out to spread some Christmas cheer. To be honest it felt kind of weird to be walking in the heat with my little Spanish hymnbook to go and sing songs about the birth of Jesus when I’m so used to this time of year having snow, hot chocolate, skiing, and tea ring. I didn’t really know how it was going to turn out or if it was going to be worth our time. We were accompanied by a girl in our ward that plays the violin so at the first house she pulled it out and we sand the first noel (La primera Navidad) it was fun to watch the members eyes light up as she listened to us sing. As we left I started to feel a little bit better about the idea and my "animo" increased just a little bit. We left her house after leaving a little box of cookies and an invitation to the Christmas Dinner on Saturday night.
We left her house and kept on making our rounds to less active houses and then a few of our investigators houses as well. We caroled for about 2 hours and the whole time I kept sweating more and more which made me feel a little bit odd as you can imagine!! I found myself getting happier and happier while also starting to pay a little more attention to the words that we were singing. The spirit of Christmas finally started creeping in. The last house we went to visit was a less active lady who’s from Nicaragua. Two of her nephews were there visiting and listened in as we sang our song and the girl played her violin. As we were leaving they stopped us and started to speak in English (Nicaraguans from the north are from the Caribbean islands and all speak really interesting English, ask Kylan he would understand). One of them looked at me and said "That music really touched my heart, I’m really far away from my family right now and miss them during Christmas but that music made me feel good" I explained to him that we he had felt was the Holy Ghost and that it meant that God was aware of him and this moment and that God loves him. He got a huge smile on his face and said he wants us to go back to his house and teach him a bit more before he goes to Nicaragua.
Christmas is about family, love, and of course the Savior Jesus Christ. Not going to lie I’ll miss you all this Christmas eve night but I know there’s nowhere else I would rather be and there’s nothing else I would rather be doing. I know that God loves us and for that exact reason He sent his son to die for us. The beauty of that message is that yes Christ died for us but more importantly he was resurrected and now he LIVES for us. I love you all and pray you have a wonderful Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa Cline!
Here is my spiritual experience that happened this Christmas.
On Friday we finally had an activity with the ward. After fighting with them to make something happen for Christmas we got a small group of members together to go caroling Panamanian style. We got all the missionaries and a few of the members at the chapel and then headed out to spread some Christmas cheer. To be honest it felt kind of weird to be walking in the heat with my little Spanish hymnbook to go and sing songs about the birth of Jesus when I’m so used to this time of year having snow, hot chocolate, skiing, and tea ring. I didn’t really know how it was going to turn out or if it was going to be worth our time. We were accompanied by a girl in our ward that plays the violin so at the first house she pulled it out and we sand the first noel (La primera Navidad) it was fun to watch the members eyes light up as she listened to us sing. As we left I started to feel a little bit better about the idea and my "animo" increased just a little bit. We left her house after leaving a little box of cookies and an invitation to the Christmas Dinner on Saturday night.
We left her house and kept on making our rounds to less active houses and then a few of our investigators houses as well. We caroled for about 2 hours and the whole time I kept sweating more and more which made me feel a little bit odd as you can imagine!! I found myself getting happier and happier while also starting to pay a little more attention to the words that we were singing. The spirit of Christmas finally started creeping in. The last house we went to visit was a less active lady who’s from Nicaragua. Two of her nephews were there visiting and listened in as we sang our song and the girl played her violin. As we were leaving they stopped us and started to speak in English (Nicaraguans from the north are from the Caribbean islands and all speak really interesting English, ask Kylan he would understand). One of them looked at me and said "That music really touched my heart, I’m really far away from my family right now and miss them during Christmas but that music made me feel good" I explained to him that we he had felt was the Holy Ghost and that it meant that God was aware of him and this moment and that God loves him. He got a huge smile on his face and said he wants us to go back to his house and teach him a bit more before he goes to Nicaragua.
Christmas is about family, love, and of course the Savior Jesus Christ. Not going to lie I’ll miss you all this Christmas eve night but I know there’s nowhere else I would rather be and there’s nothing else I would rather be doing. I know that God loves us and for that exact reason He sent his son to die for us. The beauty of that message is that yes Christ died for us but more importantly he was resurrected and now he LIVES for us. I love you all and pray you have a wonderful Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa Cline!
No comments:
Post a Comment