Christmas Week

This was a wonderful week for us.  We celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ with the rest of the world.  We realize that His actual birth was on April 6th.  Jesus Christ has done so much for all of us.   He was always looking out for others.  We owe Him everything.  He lived a perfect life, dedicating His life to all of us.  It is up to us to follow Him and keep His commandments. 

From "The Living Christ" - the testimony of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles we read:  "As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago, we offer our testimony of the reality of His matchless life and the infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice. None other has had so profound an influence upon all who have lived and will yet live upon the earth."

We had a very pleasant Christmas.  On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we were able to talk with our children via phone or video chat.  It was wonderful to talk to them.  We love our family and are always interested in what they are doing.  

Below is a photo of the Christmas tree we put in our apartment.


In the afternoon on Christmas day we spent some time at the Hammond's apartment, with most of the couples that came here the same time as us - in April of this year.  We ate dinner and played some trivia games (questions developed by the Hammonds) via the website Kahoot.it.  It was a very pleasant afternoon with these wonderful people.  Below is a picture of all of us.



The temple was open Christmas Eve but closed Christmas Day, then open the rest of the week.  It is always wonderful seeing so many people coming to the temple, and doing this great work primarily for those who have passed on.  There are some members who come to the temple every day to do this sacred work.  We are so appreciative of their great examples of charity through their service.  We have many District Temple Ordinance Workers who travel to Nauvoo to serve in the temple.  Some of them travel up to three hours to get here.  We so admire them for their faith and commitment to this great work.

We went to our assigned branch in Kewanee yesterday with two new couples - the Teeples (from the Logan, Utah area) and the Williams (from Gilbert, Arizona).  We introduced them to the Branch members.  They will be a great benefit to the members in that branch.  Each week two of us couples will be going to Kewanee.  We love serving there.  Two of its members, Sister Hall and her grandmother (Sister Turner) will be receiving their own endowments tomorrow morning in the the Nauvoo Temple.  We look forward to seeing them in the temple tomorrow.