Like many, December is my favorite time of the year. The holidays are at the core of why, but it may be as much about breaking the normal patterns of life as well. Thanks to COVID most of my days tend to blend together. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve all give each of us a change from the norm.
Toward the end of summer I participated in a virtual missionary reunion. One of the elders who arrived in the mission at the same time I did, and who served for several months in one of the same cities I did, lives not that far from here. He reached out and we have been in contact again. My best memory of Elder Hoffman happened while we were both serving in the city of Algeciras, Spain. It was Christmas time. For the day before and the day of, we were not supposed to be out tracting (knocking on doors in a neighborhood to see if anyone was interested in our message). Elder Hoffman’s parents sent him some extra money and told him to do something good with it. There were four of us in the city (two companionships). He decided to use the money to purchase some nice fruit baskets. The four of us waited until after nightfall on Christmas Eve. We made up a list of families we knew would really benefit from the gift. Then we had fun stealthily putting the basket on each door step, knocking on the door, then running away laughing to some place where we could see them, but they couldn’t see us. I remember the look of surprise and joy as each door answerer picked up the present, then looked around to try to spy who might have done such a thing.
Algeciras was a very small unit. It was much like the branch where I grew up in Berwick, PA. They met in a rented apartment modified for meetings. The numbers were few. To give you an idea, when I first arrived, my senior companion was from Madrid and was serving as the Branch President. He was a young (20-ish-year-old) missionary like me. Can you imagine? When he transferred to another city a member brother was called to replace him as the branch leader. This brother had only been a member of the church about nine months at the time he was called to the position. It was up to us young missionaries to help the branch leadership with advice. We didn’t really know anything about how to carry out that sort of calling, but we could each share a bit of what we had seen of local leaders as we grew up in the church.
I’ve always appreciated the Christmas I spent in Spain. The next year I was actually supposed to transfer home in early January at the end of my missionary service. Instead of that, our group all got to go home about a week before Christmas. I’ve since had other holiday seasons away. One year while serving in the US Navy I spent Christmas day in 90°F weather in the Philippines. On that Christmas day I went SCUBA diving on Grande Island with several other sailors I knew including several SEALs. It was a bit surreal.
I hope we each can find ourselves closer to the Savior as we remember and celebrate His birth. As miraculous as His birth was, it is important of course because of his mission to atone for the sins of all of us, and bring about the resurrection as well. I am thankful for my testimony of the truth of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that He lives and leads the church through a prophet of God.
Toward the end of summer I participated in a virtual missionary reunion. One of the elders who arrived in the mission at the same time I did, and who served for several months in one of the same cities I did, lives not that far from here. He reached out and we have been in contact again. My best memory of Elder Hoffman happened while we were both serving in the city of Algeciras, Spain. It was Christmas time. For the day before and the day of, we were not supposed to be out tracting (knocking on doors in a neighborhood to see if anyone was interested in our message). Elder Hoffman’s parents sent him some extra money and told him to do something good with it. There were four of us in the city (two companionships). He decided to use the money to purchase some nice fruit baskets. The four of us waited until after nightfall on Christmas Eve. We made up a list of families we knew would really benefit from the gift. Then we had fun stealthily putting the basket on each door step, knocking on the door, then running away laughing to some place where we could see them, but they couldn’t see us. I remember the look of surprise and joy as each door answerer picked up the present, then looked around to try to spy who might have done such a thing.
Algeciras was a very small unit. It was much like the branch where I grew up in Berwick, PA. They met in a rented apartment modified for meetings. The numbers were few. To give you an idea, when I first arrived, my senior companion was from Madrid and was serving as the Branch President. He was a young (20-ish-year-old) missionary like me. Can you imagine? When he transferred to another city a member brother was called to replace him as the branch leader. This brother had only been a member of the church about nine months at the time he was called to the position. It was up to us young missionaries to help the branch leadership with advice. We didn’t really know anything about how to carry out that sort of calling, but we could each share a bit of what we had seen of local leaders as we grew up in the church.
I’ve always appreciated the Christmas I spent in Spain. The next year I was actually supposed to transfer home in early January at the end of my missionary service. Instead of that, our group all got to go home about a week before Christmas. I’ve since had other holiday seasons away. One year while serving in the US Navy I spent Christmas day in 90°F weather in the Philippines. On that Christmas day I went SCUBA diving on Grande Island with several other sailors I knew including several SEALs. It was a bit surreal.
I hope we each can find ourselves closer to the Savior as we remember and celebrate His birth. As miraculous as His birth was, it is important of course because of his mission to atone for the sins of all of us, and bring about the resurrection as well. I am thankful for my testimony of the truth of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that He lives and leads the church through a prophet of God.
RSS Feed