Week 43: Christmas Is Coming!!

Grüsech mitenand!!

We had an exciting week with Christmas zone conference on Wednesday! We got to wear our dirndls (Elders got to wear lederhosen), had a special Christmas program, a talent show (I girded up my loins for my talent), and a white elephant gift exchange. It was so fun!!

Last p-day was pretty simple, but it was a good one! We went to the Christmas market in Biel, and I bought a LOT of food. I got some raclette, cannoli, a very large crepe, and finally I tried some heiße marroni. For some context, heiße marroni is just roasted chestnuts, but they sell a lot of it here around Christmas time. I wanted to see what all the buzz was about, so I bought some. It tasted pretty good; the texture was just way different than I expected (I don't know how to describe it other than weirdly fleshy lol) I probably wouldn't buy it again, but I'm glad I can say I tried it.

Christmas zone conference was so good! President and Sister Naatjes both had some amazing talks. They talked about the light of Jesus Christ, and shared a story from Elder Holland. As his dad was close to passing away on Christmas Eve, he kept asking himself why this would have to happen on Christmas. As he was wandering around the hospital, he heard a baby's cry. He wrote:

"'Jeff, my boy,' my Father in Heaven seemed to say with that baby’s cry, 'I expected a little more from you. If you can’t remember why all of this matters, then your approach to Christmas is no more virtuous than the overcommercialization everyone laments these days. You need to shape up just a little, to put your theology where your Christmas carols are. You can’t separate Bethlehem from Gethsemane or the hasty flight into Egypt from the slow journey to the summit of Calvary. It’s of one piece. It is a single plan. It considers ‘the fall and rising again of many in Israel,’ but always in that order. Christmas is joyful not because it is a season or decade or lifetime without pain and privation, but precisely because life does hold those moments for us. And that baby, my son, my own beloved and Only Begotten Son in the flesh, born ‘away in a manger, [with] no crib for his bed,’ makes all the difference in the world, all the difference in time and eternity, all the difference everywhere, worlds without number, a lot farther than your eye can see.'"

I know that 2000 years ago our Savior was born to cast out all fear, sorrow, and doubt. He was born, lived a life dedicated to others, died, and lives again. 

Frohe Weihnachten!!

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Gladwell

1. Christmas Zone Conference

2. My loins girded up