A Missionary Christmas

A Post-Christmas, Christmas post!

 This is the season beloved of the year.
Sing a rhyme; Christmas time soon will be here.
Tell the true story of Jesus’ birth,
When, as a baby, he came to the earth.

This is the new star, shining so bright,
Lighting the world on that first Christmas night.

This is the angel proclaiming the birth,
Singing “Hosanna!” and “Peace on the earth!”



Deck the Halls  with boughs of holly,
Fa la la la la la, la la la la.

Tis the season to by jolly,
Fa la la la la la, la la la la

Come to Bethlehem and see,
Him whose birth the angels sing
Come adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord the newborn king.

Go tell it on the mountain

Over that hill and everywhere

Go tell it on the mountain

That Jesus Christ is born

Our mission president has been very busy. He had 8 missionaries arrive just before Christmas. They needed to be orientated, assigned a companionship and sent to the city they would be serving. On top of that, there were three zone conferences to schedule: Lithuania's, Estonia's and Latvia's.  And that is how Latvia ended up with a zone conference on Christmas Day. We started the day with a gift exchange ($4 or less)  using the story of Tommy Wright...and passed gifts left or right depending on the story that was being read.

New Elder, Elder Bergeson, Pres. & Sister Boswell, Elder Massey, Elder Bland, Elder McCaffree

Sister Davis with her new "pet"....turtle.
Elder Davis got a candy bar.

We watched the Baltic Mission 2012 DVD with pictures of all the missionaries and baptisms for the year, followed by an hour of training.  Each missionary will be given their own DVD to take home. Then it was lunch time...a delicious Christmas chicken dinner at the medieval restaurant, Pie Kristapa Kunga, next to the Riga Chapel.

O come, all ye faithful,

Joyful and triumphant,

O come ye, O come ye to

zone conference.

Elder Driggs (new missionary) and Elder Schmidt

Sister Gallacher and Sister Clark

Come and be bold then,

Testify of Christ!

Elder McClellan & Sister Kerksiek

Elders Massey & Davidson

Elders Bland and Bergeson

 Elder Morgan and Sister Weaver



Sisters Lubberink & Nelson, Elders Bird & Baxter, and Sister Peterson

After our scrumptious meal, we walked back to the church for leadership training.

And had a beautiful Christ-centered program on the birth of the Savior...

...that brought the Spirit of God into our hearts.

Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King.

We ended with a testimony meeting and closed the conference so the missionaries could call home. To keep young missionaries focused on the work, they can only call home on Mother's Day and Christmas, so this is an extra special day for them. We had five missionaries come to our apartment to call or skype with their families. They each had about 40 minutes to chat and it was fun to hear their excited families asking questions. 

The number one request from every missionary's family?  Say something in Latvian!  And after one girl heard her Sister speak to her in Latvian we heard her say this, "Oh, you're just making that up."

Siblings are hard to impress!

Elder & Sister Davis consider this a memorable missionary Christmas.  We will never forget being together with these young and old missionaries who are far from home and family, dedicating their lives to bring others to Christ. We are blessed by their friendships.

And now a song for our family....



We'll be home for Christmas

You can count on us

Not this year, but we'll be there 

next year with all our stuff.

This Christmas Day will find us

Where the love light gleams

We'll be home for Christmas

If only in our dreams

And so we're offering this simple phrase
To friends from one to ninety-two
Although it's been said many times, many ways,
"Merry Christmas to you."