Light the World

- December 17, 2018

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hello from the Hollywood ward! I have to say, Christmas in Hollywood is super weird. It is definitely show business out here!

We've still been trying to work with the less actives in the ward. We've met a few more of them. Now it's just figuring out how to help them progress. We keep having all these awesome, spirit-guided lesson plans set up, and then the lessons keep falling through! It's sad, but it is cool to have the Spirit in our companionship studies so strongly still, even if we don't end up getting to share what the Lord wants these people to hear. It just means that when we get to actually meet with these people, we'll have a super great lesson ready for them!

Favorite Spiritual Thought:

This poem was on the tables at our ward Christmas party on Saturday, with a key attached to each copy. The key was meant to represent the key to the inn, and at the bottom, there was a quote from an apostle talking about how each of is an innkeeper who has to decide we have room to let Christ in:
A Prayer for December poem
Dearest God,
Please never let me
Crowd my life
Full to the brim.
So like the keeper
of Bethlehem's Inn,
I fine I have no room for Him.
Instead, let my heart's door
Be ever open,
Ready to welcome
The newborn King.
Let me offer the best I have
To Him
Who gives me everything.
-Author unknown

Favorite Spiritual Moment:
As part of Light the World, our district decided to do a special finding activity last week. We went to a busy street corner with a metro station at it in the middle of Korea Town. There, we set up an undecorated Christmas tree and a couple of tables, and started giving away free hot chocolate. While people were drinking their hot chocolate, we asked them if they could help us light our tree. We asked those who said "yes" what Christmas means to them, or what Christ means to them. We had them write it on a card and hang it on the tree with a glowstick. It was a pretty simple thing, but it was really cool to see how it all worked out. We gave away about 120 cups of hot chocolate, and more than 80 of those people helped us light our tree. We would talk to them throughout it, teaching as much as we could and helping people to understand that Christmas is all about Jesus Christ and why that's so important. We got several referrals out of it and even gave away a few copies of the Book of Mormon, and even those who were content just participating in the activity got to think about Christ a little bit this Christmas. It was so amazing to see everyone smiling, feeling the joy of Christ. We are going to try it again later this week!

Favorite miracle/Favorite funny thing:
I know it's kind of weird that these two could be combined, but I promise it will make sense. ; )

The toilet in our apartment has so many problems. It's kind of insane. It seems like every couple of nights, we are in the bathroom trying to figure out how to get it working again. It's so bad that we seriously have to work together to fix it, which just makes us laugh by itself, but the situation just gets funnier as it also gets more frustrating. ; ) Last night was one of these instances. We had come home for the night and seriously worked on this stupid toilet for about 45 minutes. It was getting late, we were tired, and were just sick of the whole thing and wanted to go to bed. We had done everything we knew how to do (which is actually a lot considering how many toilets we've had break down at home in Utah ; ). So then I just turned to Sister Howard and said, "You know, in 2 Nephi it says that 'by grace we are saved, after all we can do.'" We decided we needed to be "saved by grace." It felt kind of silly to do so, but we said a prayer with as little laughing as we could. Within two more attempts, the toilet was running again. Sister Howard looked at me, stunned, and I just dropped everything and said, "I didn't do anything. That was the Lord!" It may seem silly, but I know that God really does answer all of our prayers, even the little ones. He is always willing to help us when we need it most.

I hope everyone has a very happy and safe Christmas!

Love,

Sister Garfield