Christmas symbol of an embrace

Large Plates 

Exchange miracles, Billy and Phil, and Christmas fun!

This week was cold!! For some reason Florida decided it was okay to give us Utah weather for a week. It's been pretty chilly, but on the bright side we had snow for Christmas! Well, it may have been sleet. The debate is hot here haha. I'm choosing to believe it was snow. 

This week started off with an exchange! Me and Sister Clough stayed here in the Merritt Island area and we saw tons of miracles (and a few dolphins)! We met a lot of people at just the right time to have a conversation with them that we could tell God wanted them to have. And later that night when me and Sister Rubio were back together again, we met some Hispanics that are interested in coming to church with us!! We finished off the day with dinner at ihop with Veronica, our rocket scientist friend. 

Later on in the week, we had our mission Christmas zone conference. Half the mission was there at a time! There were lots of beautiful talks and musical numbers, and we did a service project for the last couple of hours! It was really good to see everyone. It's weird serving si far from Orlando, because you don't see other missionaries as much. I'm definitely still grateful to be on the Island though!

That night, we went to the Jaussi's for dinner with our friend Phil. Brother Jaussi is originally from Montpelier Idaho, and moved to Logan later in his life! That's kind of a crazy connection we have haha. Dinner was delicious and Phil and brother Jaussi became good friends! We're really excited about Phil.  Please pray for him! We want him to start applying the things we are teaching him and feel their truthfulness!

Friday was exciting too! In the morning we had a workshop with the MTC for Sister Rubio's training, and it was about asking good questions and listening. We went to our friend Billy's house later that day and tried really hard to apply what we learned. Asking him good questions really helped him open up and come out of his shell. We were able to discover some of his needs that we had previously been unaware of, and begin to address them. We had a good lesson and left feeling pretty happy.  About an hour later, he called us. He said we had asked him a few questions that he wasn't able to answer at the moment, and he had been pondering about them and was then able to answer them.  We talked a little while about his answers and then he brought up baptism. We answered a couple of questions he had, and he responded by saying, " well, I guess we better get this thing done." We helped him understand what would be required of him if he wanted to be baptized, and he accepted the date of January 14th! Please keep him in your prayers, he needs help overcoming some of the trials he's struggling with right now. We love Billy!

Christmas eve was fun. We went to the Merritt Island Mall, which was bigger than I thought it would be because Merritt Island is so tiny. We passed out a lot of Light the World pass along cards, and made quite a few friends!! We met some more Spanish speakers there, too, which made me pretty happy:) After that we went to dinner with the Schroders and the Jaussis. I love both of those families so much! The food was super yummy and the company was great. 

Then it was Christmas! We started off by watching the Church's Christmas videos in bed because it was FREEZING. Then we headed off to Church, and that's when the snow started coming down. Church was wonderful! From there, we came home, made some yummy soup, and I opened the presents my parents sent me. Then we met up with our district to make gingerbread houses, and we finished up the night with the Shumway family at dinner. It was a busy day! Christmas on the mission is definitely odd haha. It doesn't really feel like Christmas per se, but whatever it was it was fun!

Small Plates 

The symbol of an embrace

These last few weeks, I've been studying a lot about the Atonement: what it is, what it does, and what it represents. As the Christmas season has come and gone, I've done a lot of pondering about why we celebrate.

Of course, Christmas is to celebrate Christ's birth. But beyond that, it is to celebrate His life and His mission. If He hadn't said what He said, or did what He did, there wouldn't be much of a reason to celebrate Him. 

But that's just the thing. He did what He said He would do. 

He lived. He loved. He taught. He healed. He suffered for our sins. He died. And He rose again. 

One thing I love about the Christmas season is all of the symbolism. There's a lot going on at Christmas time, but if we take a step back, we can see what the scriptures call "types and shadows" of Christ, or symbols of Him.

Christmas trees are evergreen, meaning they live all year. We are made alive in Christ, and because of Him, we can live forever in the presence of our Heavenly Father. 

Snow is white and pure, just as we can be through His Atonement. 

He is the Light and the Life of the world, who's light cannot be hid, just like all of the Christmas lights that line our homes and envelop our trees. 

Even Santa Claus dresses a bit like Him. Have you ever noticed that? The famous gift deliverer dresses in red and white, the colors we so often see depicted in paintings of the Giver of all good gifts. 

There's a big difference between Santa and Jesus Christ, though. Because Santa is only the deliverer of gifts. Christ is the deliverer and the gift itself. No wrapped present under the tree compares to the matchless gift our Heavenly Father gave us: that of His Only Begotten Son. 

I could go on and on about the dozens of different symbols that surround us this season. But, today I felt impressed to share a little insight, a new symbol, I discovered in some of my studies this week. 

The symbol is that of an embrace. 

We see it everywhere in the scriptures. "I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love," "Jesus [stands] with open arms to receive you," and so forth. 

This week I learned from a book I've been reading that, "the prime reason the Savior personally acts as the gatekeeper of the Celestial Kingdom is not to exclude people, but to personally welcome and embrace those who have made it back home."

Can you picture that? He's waiting there. For you. Anxious to give you a big hug and say "welcome home."

The Christmas season tends to be a time for a lot of forgiving and forgetting, returning and rejoicing. It's a time where we see people we haven't in years, or maybe we just spend a little extra time with our friends next door. 

Whatever the dynamic of your Christmas celebration, it's likely to bring with it a hug or two. 

I hope from this day forward you remember the beautiful symbol that is an embrace. I hope that when you see someone and greet them with a hug, you remember that your Savior has a hug waiting for you. And that He has a hug waiting for everyone else too. We are all His, and He is ours. Maybe, just maybe, He sends us people to give us that embrace He is ever so anxious to give us, until it is finally His turn. And maybe that means He is sending you to give that embrace to someone else. 

Because a hug communicates so much more than words can, sometimes. A hug is an, "I'm here, it's going to be okay" in times of trouble. Or a, "welcome home," after a long departure. A "I forgive you," after who knows how long of withholding that forgiveness. More than anything, I suppose it's just an "I love you," in a variety of ways. 

I hope that this holiday season, and every one after, is full of hugs and full of reminders of how much your Savior loves you, because he surely does love you.