Dear Mom and Dad,
I got the third Christmas package!!!! Thank you so so much! I'm not sure if I remembered to say this the last few weeks but I also got things from the Gustafson's and Uncle Randolph!
Well I'll be speaking with you in a few hours! If it's ok with you I'd like to Skype tomorrow night at about 8:30 PM my time. Is that ok? I think that should be Christmas morning for you all! And I would love to see those new "gadgets"! Please, please check your Skype with someone else before because last time there was a problem with your end and I couldn't see you all! This will be my first time actually seeing you since I entered the MTC. It's been a long time!
We've been busy again this week. As you know with the announcement with the change in missionary age, there are some big changes coming for missions! It's fun because I'm getting an interesting perspective! Right now one of the biggest things we're dealing with is apartments. Our major focus right now is evaluating the apartments and seeing which ones can hold 4 missionaries. With the exception of a few areas, we're preparing to split every area in half and put two more missionaries in each apartment in order to accomodate the increase in missionaries. Many apartments aren't big enough to fit 4, so we're having to help the missionaries find new ones and get the contracts signed. Elder Delos Santos is probably on his last transfer as an office elder, so I'm having to learn how to do everything this transfer so I can train his replacement! On top of that, our wonderful office couple Elder and Sister Packer are going home in April, and will only have two weeks to train their replacement couple, so I've been learning a lot from Elder Packer about the finances of the mission and how things work so I can help the new Financial Secretary. I'm learning some accounting skills and some other things, and am loving it! I never would have thought I would have learned those things on a mission!
I'd like to share a few thoughts on Christmas from a missionary's perspective. This past week I've been reflecting on Christmas and what it truly means to me. For so many of us, Christmas is remembered by decorations, fancy meals, presents, family get-togethers, and many more things. I've thought a lot about that Elder Holland quote that Dad sent to me:
“”One impression which has persisted with me is that this is a story of intense poverty. I wonder if Luke did not have some special meaning when he wrote not “there was no room in the inn” but specifically that “there was no room for them in the inn”. We cannot be certain, but it is my guess that money could buy influence in those days as well as in our own. I think if Joseph and Mary had been people of importance or wealth, they would have found lodging even at that busy time of year."
For so many of us when we think of a baby lying in a manger, I think of a glorious scene, one in which is so beautiful and serene. Elder Holland brings up a point that I had never considered, was there just no room for them in the inn? The Savior was born into the most humble conditions we can imagine. There was no grand fanfare, there was no big celebration in all of Israel that the long promised Messiah had finally been born. Yet it was to the humble and the meek that it was made known unto to. To shepherds, and to the humble and watchful wise men. So many of the Jews had been "watching" and waiting for the Christ. Ever since Adam he had been prophesied, every prophet until that time had born witness of him, and yet, his birth passed largely unnoticed. He was born to a young humble couple in a stable of animals. As I thought of this, a couple of things stuck out to me.
What is the central message of Christmas? For me as I've thought of this, one of them is hope. Many children have been born on December 25th, many born in poverty, in wealth, and yet the Savior sticks out above all of them. The beauty of his birth was the Hope for the future. He was the promised Messiah, the Redeemer of the world. He was to atone for the sins of the world, and prepare the war for all of God's children to attain eternal life. Many of those I have taught on my mission are humble and live in poverty. Yet the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the light in the darkness, despite all the poverty and despair around them, Christ, whose birth brought forth a new bright star, is the light in the darkness. Despite their dire and desperate circumstances, it all seems swallowed up in a hope in Christ. We don't view the Savior's birth as sad because of the present circumstances around him, but rather triumphantly because of the everlasting hope which he brought and personified.
Something I've been guilty of most of my life is "missing" Christmas. With all the fun activities, it's not hard to. Elder Holland's article in the past Ensign really stuck out to me:
"On Christmas morning we kept our morning study schedule and opened the two or three packages that had caught up with us following our transfer. Then we went out to knock on doors. We knocked in the morning, we knocked at midday, we knocked in the afternoon, and we knocked at night. We didn'’t get in any of them. For such an uneventful Christmas —clearly the least festive of any I ever had before or since, it says something that those special days in December of 1960 remain in my heart (after more than 50 years!) as one of the sweetest Christmases I have ever had. I think that is because for the first time in my life, I found myself understanding Christmas rather than just enjoying it. I think for the first time in any truly significant way, I was getting the message of Christ'’s birth and life— , His message and His mission, and His sacrifice for others. I should have made that connection at an earlier age, but I hadn'’t —at least not strongly enough. But that Christmas in England— as a cold, wet, somewhat overwhelmed 19-year-old— I “got it.” I can truly say that because of my mission, Christmas, like so many other aspects of the gospel, has meant more to me every year since that experience."
As we have our parties and get-togethers and presents and other fun things, let's remember what Christmas is truly about. It's about Him. It's not about you or me, but Him. True Christmases are found in the stables, in the quiet and secluded chambers of our hearts. This Christmas, let's celebrate Him, His Atoning sacrifice and his example. Let's take some quiet time and ponder this Christmas, about what Christ has done for us, and give him the best gift and only thing I'm sure he would want as a Christmas present. May we follow Mary's wonderful example as it says in Luke:
"But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart."
Love,
Elder Yost