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12/25/2003
Christmas 2003
Dear Missionaries,
The Season of Wonder and Peace and Goodwill is all about us once more. It permeates everything that we do right now. It should be the motivation of all that we do every day as we learn to care for one another and bear one another?s burdens in this wonderful world which the Lord created for us.
Let us review what we have learned and shared with others when we were working together in the employ of our Heavenly Father.
The message begins with the love of a Father, who devised a plan that would enable us all to dwell with Him throughout eternity and share the great blessings of His kind of life which He lived with His Eternal Companion. He gave us much more than a Plan, however, for He gave us an Implementer, an Exemplar, an Advocate, a Redeemer, a Teacher, and a Savior, among other things. Yes, Father loved us so much that after giving us the great gift of moral agency, He gave us His only Begotten Son (in the flesh), who could not only set the pattern, show the way, and redeem us by the shedding of his blood (if we were willing to humble ourselves to take upon us his burden, which he described as being light). Yes, the Son of God, loved us so much that he gave up his life to save us from death and from the hell of sin.
We know both our Father in Heaven and the Son, Jesus Christ. President Gordon B. Hinckley has said, ?My heart is mellow with a spirit of love as I look at this vast audience gathered in the Conference Center and then think of the even larger number of you scattered over the earth." He described the Church as "an immense worldwide family of those who love the Lord Jesus Christ and who also love His great prophet of this dispensation, even Joseph Smith?Though Joseph's life was taken at an early age, his testimony of the Eternal God and the risen Lord lives on with luster and eloquence.
Jesus came into this world in the most humble of circumstances, his crib being a manger in a stable. He rose to become King of Kings and beckons to us to follow. He would have our hearts soften to the needs of one another so that we can reach out and ?strengthen the feeble knees and ?lift up the hands that hang down.?
President Thomas S. Monson, at this year?s Christmas devotional described how each of us should turn the Spirit of Christmas into the Spirit of Christ, when he told the story of the Kilsilevich family and how they cared for the Kozicki family in Alberta, Canada during one Christmas season.
Margaret and her sister lived in Two Hills, Alberta, Canada ? a farming community populated largely by Ukrainian and Polish immigrants who generally had large families but who were very poor. It was the Great Depression.
Margaret's family consisted of her parents and 15 children. Because her mother was industrious and her father enterprising, their home was always warm; despite their humble circumstances, they were never hungry.
Alberta winters were cold, long and hard and the Kisilevich girls noticed the poverty of their neighbors, the Kozicki family.
"Margaret and Nellie decided to invite the Kozicki family, by way of the children, for Christmas dinner. They also decided not to tell anyone in their family of the invitation.
"Christmas morning dawned, and everyone in Margaret's family was busy with the preparations for the midday feast. . . . Margaret and Nellie were in charge of getting the fresh vegetables ready, and their mother asked them why they were peeling so many potatoes, carrots and beets. But they just kept peeling.
"Their father was the first to notice a team of horses and a sleigh packed with 13 people coming down their lane. . . . He asked his wife, 'Why are the Kozicki's coming here?' Her response to him was, 'I don't know.' "
Margaret's father helped Mr. Kozicki stable the horses. Mrs. Kozicki embraced Margaret's mother and thanked her for the Christmas invitation.
"It was a glorious feast, made better by the sharing of it. After everyone had eaten, they sang Christmas carols together, and then the adults settled down for another chat."
Margaret and Nellie took the children into the bedroom and pulled out boxes filled with hand-me-downs they had been given by their mother's merchant friends. "It was heavenly chaos, with an instant fashion show and everyone picking whatever clothes and footwear he or she wanted. . . . Early in the afternoon, before it got too cold and dark with the setting sun, Margaret's family bid farewell to their friends, who left well-fed, well-clothed and well-shod."
President Monson said Margaret and Nellie didn't tell anyone about their invitation, until Margaret Kisilevich Wright's 77th Christmas when she shared the story with her family in 1998.
It is when we forget ourselves in the service of others that we find the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of Christmas. President James E. Faust reminds us, ?In all the busyness of the holidays, each of us should spend time in solitude reflecting upon the supernal gifts provided to us by the Savior's life and ministry. He was born for everyone. His death benefited everyone. He atoned for the sins of all mankind and, through His resurrection, liberated all mankind from death?The challenge is not only for us to know about the Savior, but really come to know Him."
So, in this wonderful year, let us dwell upon the lessons we learned and shared in Scotland and show that we, too, ?really know? The Father and the Son.
We miss all of you and your wonderful influence upon our lives. We pray for your safety and well being in these troubled times. It is our Christmas and New Year?s wish for you, that your lives will be blessed with myriad opportunities to continue to bless the lives of others and hence find joy in serving the living God.
Lovingly,
Pres. and Sister Clyde
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