Merry Christmas!

For P-day after laundry and housekeeping chores were done, we decided we had better get serious about Christmas.  With 10 children (Yes, the spouses are our children too!), 18 grandchildren, and 1 adorable great-grandchild we had a lot to accomplish in one day.  We would tell you what we decided to do for Christmas this year, but then the children read our blog and that would spoil the surprise now wouldn’t it?  Sorry kiddles, you will just have to wait.  We will tell you we had an enjoyable day doing whatever it was that we did.  We spent the evening wrapping for our family and then putting together treats to take to the Branch members of Bandon.

President Young gave all the missionaries in the Oregon Eugene Mission the challenge to take a Christmas message to our Wards and Branches that begins with the scripture found in  

Matthew 22:42; “What think ye of Christ?”  

So we begin our message by asking; “What think you of Christ?"  Who is He and what does Jesus Christ mean to you?”  We were so blessed to hear some beautiful heartfelt testimonies of the Savior!  Isaiah, a prophet who lived some 800 years before the birth of the Savior foretold of his birth in Chapter 9, verse 6; “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”  
Our next question: "what are some titles by which our Savior is known?"  They had fun trying to think of all the names by which the Savior is known in the Scriptures; Redeemer, Son of the Living God, The Lamb of God, The Savior of the World, The Lord, The Bread of Life, The light of the World, The Good Shepherd, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, The Holy One of Israel, The Only begotten of the Father, Our Advocate with the Father…….  In John, Chapter 6 it tells how many of those that followed the Savior just couldn’t grasp his teachings and verse 66 tells us “from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”  Then Jesus turns to his apostles and asks; “Will ye also go away?” to which Peter answers him by saying; “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.  And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 

This Christmas season may we, like Peter, be glad to tell to the world that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. We join with fellow Christians around the world in proclaiming His divinity!   We have had a very spiritual week of going into the homes of the Bandon Branch to deliver our Christmas message and our small bag of Harry and David Truffles (a sweet little taste of the Rogue Valley).  Each with a tag that read; “Sweet is the peace the Gospel brings!”

Tuesday night at the E.A.T. program we found the little Bandon Community Center (The Barn) dressed in Christmas cheer with a brightly lit Christmas tree adorning the room.  We ate our dinner while listening to a husband and wife merrily singing Christmas carols to us.  The love that comes with the season was felt by all.  We were a little more cheerful, a little more friendly, and little more grateful for the bounties we were receiving.  Don’t we all wish the feelings of love and gratitude that the birth of Savior brings would last a whole lot longer!

Thursday our District Meeting was canceled because President Young is coming to our area on Sunday to do interviews with his missionaries.  But we still had to run to Coos Bay to do some last minute Christmas Santa stuff.  We especially wanted to deliver our truffles  to all our special District missionaries.  So we met up with our Zone leaders, Elder Johnson and Elder Plumb at Wendy’s where we treated them to lunch.  And they treated us to a very fun hour of much laughter.  They will distribute our little gifts at District Meeting next week.  We will not be in attendance as we are blessed to be able to come home to join our families for the holidays.

We had several Family History Consultant meetings this week also.  We are working hard to get the Family History Center up and running for our members and for the community.  Elder Wels and I are going to run the Family History Library from 9am to 1pm each and every Tuesday.  Now we just have to figure out all those computer programs!  We love www.ancestry.com!  Now to find time to learn to navigate the programs……practice, practice, practice.

Friday night was our Bandon Branch Christmas Party.  President Stockford’s non-member brother, Dave, and his wife were in town for an early Christmas visit.  Marita called last week to invite us to sit at their table so that we might help convince them that we LDS saints are actually Christians.  People… it’s The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints…..we are some of the BEST Christians.  Okay, I'll get off that soap box.  They were a lovely couple and we did have a nice visit with them.  They were from Michigan so we sweetly argued the case as to which state was the loveliest.  No competition there, it is Oregon!

The highlight of the evening, aside from the delicious food, was the fun entertainment.  The Primary children (impressed as there were just 7 of them!),  dressed as either shepherds or angels, sang some Primary Christmas carols.  Chris and Kim Powell did a funny skit about a happy mom who got a wee bit more harried as the holidays got closer… she went from all smiles to valium to bedridden.  So hilarious!  Patrick Lowe read a heartfelt Christmas poem about our military while Kathy Lecee played patriotic music.  James Ornsby read the Christmas story while the members of the branch provided the carol singing at certain spots in the story.  And then Julie Bissell, dressed in her flannel P.J.’s and a Santa hat gathered the children at her feet and read them  “The Night before Christmas” as only Julie could do it.  “…..Now Dasher, now Dancer, Now Prancer and Vixen!  On Comet, On Cupid, On Dunder……DUNDER?  Oh sweet Donner…. Your name will never be the same in that poem ever again!  I had to work so hard to swallow my laughter!  Thank you Julie for that forever Christmas memory!  It was a grand party for everyone.  A great group of Saints there!

Saturday we spent most of the day delivering our Harry and David Truffle Christmas treats to branch members and then at 2 p.m. we gathered at the Church to help with the annual distribution of Christmas goodie bags.  We had 7 bags to deliver and in doing so we made new friends.  It was the first time we got in to see Ted and Norma Malin and we had a delightful visit with them.  He is almost totally deaf and she is from England with the most adorable accent.  They live on 2 really well manicured acres.  Can’t wait to see their place in the spring when things are in bloom.  Luckily, we got a warm invitation to come back to visit them.

In the evening we picked up Tom and Liz Olive and headed down to the Port Orford Branch for their Christmas Party. It was yet another lovely pot luck meal.  This is truly the mandatory “put on a couple pounds” season of the year!  Our Christmas entertainment was having the book; “How the Grinch stole Christmas” read to us by Ginger Snaps (her legal name) all while passing secretly wrapped Christmas ornaments around our circle of chairs.  Every time we heard the name of Grinch we would pass our ornament to the right.  At the end of the story you got to unwrap and keep the ornament you held.  As we have no Christmas tree in our little trailer we found a good home for the ornaments we received.  Thank you Port Orford Saints, you are a delightful group!

Sunday was amazing on several levels!  It was High Council Sunday and our High Council speaker was a Brother Young from Charleston.  His companion speaker was our very own James Ornsby.  James is a single gentleman of 69 years.  We have been working with him, not because he is inactive for he is the most dedicated member of our branch, but because he has had several brain injuries and does not have a full grasp on the “iron rod”.   We have some tender feelings for James and it was so heartwarming to listen to his talk and his testimony of the Savior and his sincere gratitude for the things we have taught him.  He made me cry.  James said you can always depend on the Savior!  Thank you James.  James was a great introduction to Brother Young’s talk about the sweet peace that comes from knowing the Savior.   He reminded us about the story of the Savior calming the angry storm on the Sea of Galilee.  He told us about the author of the song:  “ Master, the Tempest is raging”.  The first verse is a reminder of that story of long ago:

 Peace Be Still by Arnold Friberg

Master, the tempest is raging! The billows are tossing high!
The sky is o’er-shadowed with blackness.  No shelter or help is nigh.
Carest thou now not that we perish?  How canst thou lie asleep
When each moment so madly is threat-‘ning A grave in the angry deep.

Chorus:
The winds and the waves shall obey thy will:  Peace be still.
Whether the wrath of the storm tossed sea or demons or men or whatever it be,
No waters can swallow the ship where lies The Master of ocean and earth and skies.
They all shall sweetly obey thy will: Peace be still; peace be still
They all shall sweetly obey thy will: Peace, peace be still.

The second verse was written out of the author’s own deep despair:

Master, with anguish of spirit I bow in my grief today.
The depths of my sad heart are troubled. Oh waken and save, I pray!
Torrents of sin and of anguish, Sweep o’er my sinking soul,
And I perish! I perish! Dear Master.  Oh, hasten and take control!

The third verse is what the Savior did for her and 

could do for us if we put our faith and trust in Him:

Master, the terror is over.  The elements sweetly rest.
Earth’s sun in the calm lake is mirrored, And heaven’s within my breast!
Linger, O blessed Redeemer!  Leave me alone no more.
And with joy I shall make the blest harbor and rest on the blissful shore!

Brother Young then shared with us a well -known hymn written by two sisters.  One poetically wrote the words of her heart and then she asked her musically gifted sister to write music to go with her words.  This amazing song was written over the telephone as they lived miles from each other!

Where can I turn for peace? Where is my solace?
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger or malice,
I draw myself apart, searching my soul?
Where when my aching grows, where when I languish,
Where in my need to know, Where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand? He only One!
He answers privately, reaches my reaching,
In my  Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace He finds for my beseeching.
Constant He is and kind, Love without end.

Dear friends and family, may the joy of this Christmas season and the Peace and comfort we find in the Savior be with you now and in the coming year.  We send our love to each and every one of you.  And, we give thanks for Savior’s trust in us as His missionaries here in the beautiful city of Bandon By the Sea. 

( Elder Johnson & Elder Plumbs Christmas card to us)

Merry Christmas to all!